Pietro di Domenico

Conte Giulio Sterbini, Rome, by 1905 and until at least 1909;
Possibly Sangiorgi, Rome;
George and Florence Blumenthal, New York, by 1911;
By whom bequeathed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, (inv. no. 41.190.22).

A. Venturi, "La quadreria Sterbini in Roma", in L'arte, no. 8, 1905, p. 432 (as attributed to Neroccio de' Landi);
A. Venturi, La galleria Sterbini in Roma, Rome 1906, pp. 78, 83, cat. no. 19, reproduced fig. 29, (as attributed to Neroccio, dating to circa 1475);
F. Sapori, "Una Madonna di Neroccio Landi di Bartolommeo alla Galleria Sterbini in Roma", in Rassegna d'arte senese, 5, no. 3, 1909, pp. 84–86 (as a late work by Neroccio);
F. M. Perkins, "Alcuni dipinti senesi," in Rassegna d'arte senese, 7, nos. 1–2, 1911, pp. 18 - 19, reproduced pp. 18 and 19 (as attributed to Pietro di Domenico);
S. Rubinstein-Bloch, "Paintings - Early Schools", in Catalogue of the Collection of George and Florence Blumenthal, vol. 1, Paris 1926, reproduced plate XXXIII (here and henceforth as Pietro di Domenico);
P. Misciattelli, "La donna senese del Rinascimento", in La Diana, 2, no. 4, 1927, reproduced p. 233;
B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance, Oxford 1932, p. 456;
F.M. Perkins in Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler, 27, Leipzig 1933, p. 18;
B. Berenson, I Pitturi italiani del rinascimento. Milan 1936, p. 392;
R. van Marle, The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting, vol. 16, The Hague 1937, pp. 312 - 13, pp. 459 - 60, cat. no. 3;
B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Central Italian and North Italian Schools, London 1968, vol. I, p. 343;
B. B. Fredericksen and F. Zeri, Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections, Cambridge, Mass. 1972, pp. 165, 347, 608;
F. Zeri with E. E. Gardner, Italian Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sienese and Central Italian Schools, New York 1980, pp. 64 - 65, reproduced plate 73;
p. 142, 
K. Christiansen et al., Painting in Renaissance Siena: 1420 - 1500, exhibition catalogue, New York 1988, p. 345;
K. Baetjer, European Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 1980, vol. I, p. 142, reproduced vol. II, p. 72;
K. Baetjer, European Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 1995, p. 65, reproduced;
M. S. Frinta, Punched Decoration on Late Medieval Panel and Miniature Painting, part 1, Prague 1998, p. 473.

The following condition report has been provided by Karen Thomas of Thomas Art Conservation LLC., 336 West 37th Street, Suite 830, New York, NY 10018, 212-564-4024, info@thomasartconservation.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This picture includes a combination of well-preserved areas and passages that have suffered. Wear in the flesh passages is most pronounced in the darker areas of modeling, but even so, the face of the Madonna and face and hair of the child Jesus retain details and subtle coloring. Some shadows and contours are strengthened with retouching while the face of the angel in the upper left corner and Mary's blue mantle are heavily restored. The green portions of Mary's garments have held up well. Although the gilding is worn, revealing the reddish bole below, the intricate punchwork in the Madonna's garment still offers a strong impression of woven fabric. The vertically-grained wood panel has been thinned and a secondary support with perimeter strainer and cross-grain battens has been attached to the reverse. A series of cracks following the vertically-oriented wood grain are open and visible in the back, but not evident from the front.
"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 beautiful and intricately decorated Madonna and Child with Angels is one of the earliest known works by Pietro di Domenico.  The artist's corpus is grouped around two signed paintings, a Nativity with Saints Martin and Galganus in the Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena, and a Madonna and Child with Saints Jerome and John the Baptist, in the City Art Gallery, York (inv. no. YORAG:730).  Details of Pietro di Domenico’s life and training are unclear and interpreting his artistic development is far from straight forward.  Born in Siena in 1457, there is some confusion as to the date of his death, with suggestions ranging between 1501 to as late as 1533.  One Pietro di Domenico dipintore, who entered the Confraternità di San Girolamo in 1497, was listed as having died in 1501, and is perhaps most plausibly identifiable as the artist.¹  The inclusion of Saint Jerome, the confraternity’s eponymous figure, in so many of Pietro di Domenico’s works would appear to substantiate his identification as the painter in the confraternity record.²  In addition, Pietro Orioli, with whom the artist is so closely related and whose influence is evident in his early works, was a much respected and committed member of the same confraternity.³

Pietro di Domenico likely received his initial training in the shop of Benvenuto di Giovanni.  The works of Francesco di Giorgio and Matteo di Giovanni, however, also very much inspired the young painter.  As an early work, this beautiful Madonna and Child bears the hallmark of all three influencing artists.⁴  The face of the Madonna, for example, is reminiscent of that in Francesco di Giorgio’s Madonna and Child with two Saints in the Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena (inv. no. 293), yet the choice of figures and technique remain, very close to the young artist’s master, Benvenuto.⁵

 

1.  S. Padovani and B. Santi, Buonconvento: Museo d’arte sacra della Val d’Arbia, Genoa 1981, p. 40. 
2.  K. Christiansen et al., under Literature.
3.  Ibid.
4.  Ibid.
5.  Ibid.