Leonardo di Bernardino del Signoraccio, called Leonardo di Bernardino da Pistoia

Private collection, Genoa, 1878;

On the London auction market in the 1890s;

With Tomás Harris, London;

Otto Froehlich, Vienna;

Acquired by a private collector in Spain in 1927 for 425,000 pesetas;

By descent until sold by his great nephew, ‘The Property of a Gentleman’, London, Sotheby’s, 4 July 2012, lot 4;

Whence acquired by the present owner.

V. Capponi, Biografia Pistoiese, Pistoia 1878, p. 421;

G. Nerucci, in Bollettino storico pistoiese, I, 1899, p. 160;

G. D. Gronau, "Una tavola di scuola pistoiese", in Rivista d'Arte, year XI, no. 2, April - June 1929, pp. 214-219, reproduced fig. 1;

C. D'Afflito, F. Falletti, A. Muzzi, L'Età di Savonarola: Fra' Paolino e la Pittura a Pistoia nel primo '500, exhibition catalogue, Pistoia, Palazzo Comunale, 24 April - 31 July 1996, pp. 141 and 143.

Painted almost five hundred years ago, this beautiful depiction of The Annunciation is the only known signed work by Leonardo di Bernardino del Signoraccio and the very keystone on which the artist's oeuvre can be constructed. Following the painting's emergence in 2012, it has been cleaned to reveal an unusually well preserved Renaissance altarpiece that demonstrates the artist's considerable talent and striking chromatic range.

Leonardo was brother to the better known painter Fra' Paolino da Pistoia. Only a handful of other works have been assigned to him, each on the basis of stylistic similarities to the present signed altarpiece, which until recently was known to scholars only through old photographs. The principal paintings attributed to Leonardo include: a Saint Irene that was apparently sold at Christie's in London in 1899;¹ a Sacra Conversazione in the Chiesa di Santa Maria Assunta in Lizzano in the province of Pistoia that is now attributed to Leonardo but whose attribution has oscillated between Fra' Paolino and Bernardino del Signoraccio (Paolino and Leonardo's father);² and a damaged fresco in the Chiesa di Santa Maria a Ripalta, Pistoia.³  None of these works, however, matches the present painting in its careful geometric design nor in its overall quality.

Like his brother Fra’ Paolino, Leonardo's style is rooted in that of his father and, ultimately, in that of the great Fra' Bartolommeo, whose influence here is pronounced. The conception and iconography derive from Fra Bartolommeo's own Annunciation of 1497 painted for the cathedral in Volterra.⁴ The Archangel Gabriel in particular is clearly conceived with Fra Bartolommeo's figure in mind, though here he kneels slightly more upright, while the motif of the figure of God directly above, making the sign of a blessing and releasing the dove, also derives from Fra' Bartolommeo's painting. The setting of the Volterra painting, however, which is a well-to-do domestic interior, as well as the pose of the Madonna, are entirely different. The billowing folds around the angel's waist in the present work, and the choice of violet for their colour over a blue mantle, finds a close echo in Fra Paolino's version of the subject in the Collezione della Cassa di Risparmio di Pistoia e Pescia, though the latter seems stylistically later in date, more mannerist in conception and execution, and thus further removed from Fra' Bartolommeo's treatment than the present work.⁵ A closer comparison with Fra Paolino's work can be made with the Holy Family with an angel and Saint Agnes in the Museo di San Marco in Florence which is dated 1525 (and is of very similar dimensions).⁶

The Volterra altarpiece was to have a wide influence for several decades after its execution. It spawned another large altarpiece, painted circa 1520, that is in part inspired by it but which also seems to draw on Leonardo di Bernardino's own treatment; it is currently attributed to Giovanni Antonio Sogliani and shows the Madonna in a broadly similar pose to Leonardo's Madonna here, though the setting is very different, recalling instead that of Fra Bartolommeo and thus far removed from the Renaissance chapel here represented.⁷  The chapel setting imbues the scene with a more reflective and devotional air, aided in no small part by the classical simplicity and symmetry of the double arch and fluted Ionic column, all rendered in gold leaf.

The style of the signature here, both in the idea of setting it into the architecture and in its calligraphy, is also inspired by Leonardo’s father, Bernardino, who favoured the use of combined lettering and superscript. This, the architectural detailing, and execution of the figures recall Bernardino's Sacra Conversazione in the Chiesa di San Vitale in Pistoia which may only slightly pre-date the present work by Leonardo.⁸

Leonardo was the fourth son of Bernardino and three years younger than his famous brother Fra' Paolino. He was baptised on 13th December 1491. In the Priorista Franchi he is named Lorenzo but in his baptismal certificate he is correctly named Leonardo.⁹ No further biographical details are known and, other than the baptismal certificate, the present work is the only surviving document from his lifetime.

 

1.  According to Gronau, under Literature, p. 5, footnote 1.

2.  See D'Afflito, Falletti, Muzzi, under Literature, p. 141, cat. no. 13, reproduced p. 142.

3.  Ibid., p. 143, cat. no. 14, reproduced.

4.  See S. Padovani, Fra' Bartolomeo e la scuola di San Marco, exhibition catalogue, Florence 1996, pp. 57-60, cat. no. 6, reproduced.

5.  D'Afflito et al., op. cit., p. 198, no. 40, reproduced p. 196.

6.  Padovani, op. cit., pp. 258-9, cat. no. 85, reproduced p. 260.

7.  Ibid., pp. 266-8, no. 89, reproduced.

8.  D'Afflito et al., op. cit., pp. 138-140, cat. no. 11, reproduced. Falletti dates it circa 1510.

9.  Priorista Franchi, ms, 20, c. 339 v.