Vittore Crivelli

The Vinci Collection, Palazzo Vinci, Fermo, The Marches, 1858;
Joseph Spiridon Collection, Paris;
His sale, Berlin, Paul Cassirer and Hugo Helbing, May 1929, lot 16 (as Carlo Crivelli);
Possibly Prof. Julian Singer, Prague;
Anonymous Sale, Cologne, Lempertz, October - November 1957, lot 76 (as in the style of Carlo Crivelli);
Anonymous Sale, Cologne, Lempertz, 17 May 2008, lot 1121 (as Anonymous North Italian School).

The Travel Notebooks of Sir Charles Eastlake, Susanna Avery-Quash, ed., Huddersfield 2011; vol. I, NG 22/19, p. 444;
F. Drey, Carlo Crivelli und seine Schule, Munich 1927, p.158 (as in the Spiridon Collection);
S. Di Provvido, La Pittura di Vittore Crivelli, L'Aquilla 1972, p. 124, reproduced plate 30;
S. Legoux, "Vittore Crivelli's Altarpieces from the Vinci Collection" in The Burlington Magazine, Febraury 1975, pp. 98-102, reproduced plate 45;
S. Papetti, Vittore Crivelli e la pittura del suo tempo nel Fermano, Milan 1997, p. 221-222, cat. no. 31, reproduced.

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This work on panel has been restored. The varnish is quite thick and glossy, but the paint layer is stable, and the restorations are certainly adequate. The reverse of the panel has two horizontal reinforcements, one at the top and one on the bottom, and there are signs of a third reinforcement in the center that has been lost. Under ultraviolet light, very few retouches are visible. There is a group of retouches running vertically beneath the book in the lower left, and another group of retouches in the upper center sky. Elsewhere, restorations are faintly visible in the sky on the left, but restorations within the remainder of the picture are not easily identifiable. A good deal of the painting seems to be very healthy. There is thinness and discoloration in the sky, and possibly some loss on the left edge and along the bottom edge. It is very hard to positively identify other restorations within the figure and the lion. While it is possible that there are a few spots here and there, the condition of the picture seems very good in general. The work should improve if cleaned, despite requiring attention in the sky and left side.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Published by Stefano Papetti in 1997 (see literature), this Saint Jerome in the Desert was noted by Sir Charles Eastlake in 1858 in Villa Vinci, in the town of Fermo, the Marches, where Vittore Crivelli himself had settled in 1489.¹  The St. Jerome was among some seventeen panels by the artist forming the dismantled altarpiece (now lost) for the church of San Francesco, Monte Santo.  The panel had then erroneously been thought to form part of the altarpiece belonging to the Vinci family though Eastlake, affirming the attribution, identified the St. Jerome as in fact being an independent object.  The very linear draftsmanship and angularity of figure drawing here shows Vittore’s style to be much indebted to that of his brother, Carlo.  Papetti compares this work to the Stories of the Baptist polyptych in the church of Sant’Elpidio, Mare though believes Saint Jerome anticipated the altarpiece, being much more refined in execution.²

1.   See S. Legoux under Literature p. 101.
2.  See Pappetti under Literature, p. 221.