Master of 1416

William H. Bucklee collection, Baltimore, by 1928;
'A retired American diplomat', Bardwell Road, Oxford, before 1953;
Purchased at a house auction at the above address on 9 October 1953 by Roger Warner, Burford, Oxforshire;
His sale, London, Christie's South Kensington, 20 January 2009, lot 402.

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 depiction of a pair of saints is in excellent condition, with appealingly intact details such as the fine brushwork in Saint Anthony Abbot's hair and beard, the shell gold rays emitting from Saint Francis' stigmata, and the embellishments on the niches. Minimal retouching addresses minor localized rubbing and losses. The blue backgrounds, which appear to have darkened over time, a common phenomenon, display a distinct age-related craquelure with some wear along the edges of the cracks. In the gilded and punched haloes, wear in the gold reveals the red bole below. The varnish is even but slightly cloudy. The decorative, painted intarsia motifs on the verso have suffered some mechanical damage including large losses of paint and gesso. The wood support displays a convex lateral warp.
"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."

The Saints Francis of Assisi and Anthony Abbot, now framed as one object, would originally have been two separate wings of a tabernacle.  The beautiful tromp-l’œil decoration, preserved on the reverse, imitating marble intarsia, implies the wings were intended to be viewed from both sides.  In 1928, William Buckley of Maryland, then owner of the panels, brought them to the Frick Art Reference Library, where they were inspected firsthand by Richard Offner.  Offner listed the paintings as “School of Lorenzo di Niccolò” and Federico Zeri in turn filed the Frick’s photograph in his own archive under “Anonymous Florentine School, 14^th century”.¹  At the time of the 2009 sale (see Provenance), however, the panels were sold with an attribution to the Master of 1416 proposed by Everett Fahy.² 

This anonymous master takes his name from an altarpiece, signed 1416, depicting the Madonna and Child with Saints John the Baptist, Anthony Abbot, Julian and Peter, now in the Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence (inv. no. 1890.4635).  The Master of 1416 undoubtedly worked closely with Lorenzo di Niccolò and Sonia Chiodo proposes that he might be identified as Lorenzo’s nephew, Bartolomeo di Piero.³  In his 2007 article, Stefan Weppelmann added to Chiodo’s hypothesis, believing the master to be, in fact, a collaboration of two separate hands.  Weppelmann suggests Lorenzo’s son Piero di Lorenzo may have worked alongside his older cousin Bartolomeo after his father’s death and that works by the Master of 1416 are the product of the workshop they shared.⁴

 

1.  Frick Art Reference Library, photo inv. no. 19139; Federico Zeri Archive Fototeca, entry no. 3380.
2.  Catalogue note, London, Christie's South Kensington, 20 January 2009, lot 402.
3.  S. Weppelmann, “Lorenzo di Niccolo e la Bottega del Maestro del 1416”, in D. Parenti ed., Intorno a Lorenzo Monaco: Nuovi Studi sulla pittura tardogotica, Livorno 2007, p. 111.
4.  Ibid., p. 110-111.