Guglielmo Veneziano

Anonymous sale, New York, Sotheby's, 28 January 1999, lot 213, where acquired by the present owner.

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 triptych is in very good and original condition. Although the hinges to the outside panel are slightly loose, the frames and the painted panels themselves are very healthy. The works are slightly dirty, but cleaning is not necessarily encouraged. The gilding behind Christ in the central panel and behind the Saints in the larger sections of the wings may have been slightly augmented, but the painted areas of all of the panels are very healthy. There are a few restorations which have discolored, and the varnish is quite thickly applied, but there is a comfortable and attractive feeling to these panels, which certainly could be presented as is. However, the discolored retouches in the red gown of the standing figure on the left are very noticeable and could be adjusted.
"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."

This charming and still complete triptych, encased by an elaborately carved engaged frame, was painted by the Venetian artist Guglielmo Veneziano who was active in the second half of the14th century.  Little is recorded about Guglielmo's life, though two signed works by him are known: a polyptych in the abbey of San Martino in Piove di Sacco, Padua, and a triptych in the Museo Diocesano in Recanati in the Marches, which is dated 1382.¹ The physiognomies of the figures in the Recanati panels share with the present work their wide-open eyes and pointed noses, while the rock formation at the foot of the Cross finds parallels with the landscape which surrounds the Recanati figure of Saint John the Baptist. Another polyptych by the artist is in the Duomo of Salò in Lombardy, and represents a Madonna Enthroned with Saints.

Other works have been ascribed to the artist but their current whereabouts are unknown. The Fototeca of the Fondazione Zeri lists a Saint Francis (part of a dismembered polyptych) formerly in the Longari collection in Milan, and Luigi Lanzi reported seeing in Venice a signed crucifix, dated 1368.² That Guglielmo's works should be so spread around Italy suggests the artist led a peripatetic life; this may explain why Pallucchini described his style as not entirely rooted in the Venetian tradition, but displaying certain Bolognese influences.³



1. See R. Pallucchini, La Pittura veneziana del Trecento, 1964, p. 190, reproduced figs. 571 and 575.
2. See L. Lanzi, Storia pittorica, Bassano 1795.
3. See Pallucchini, op. cit., p. 189.