Spinello di Luca Spinelli, called Spinello Aretino

With L.M. Bianti, Via delle Ruote, Florence, by 1920;

Cinelli collection, Palazzo Antellesi, Florence, by 1963;

Anonymous sale, London, Christie’s, 8 December 1972, lot 74 (as Luca Spinello);

Acquired at the above by the father of the present owner;

Thence by inheritance.

R. Van Marle, The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting, The Hague 1924, vol. III, p. 585;

B. Berenson, Italian Schools of the Renaissance. Florentine School, London 1963, p. 163 (as Orcagna);

A.R. Calderoni Massetti, ‘Spinello Aretino Giovane’, in Raccolta pisana di saggi e studi, XXXV, Florence 1973, p. 12, reproduced fig. 14;

M. Boskovits, Pittura fiorentina alla vigilia del rinascimento 1370–1400, Florence 1975, p. 436, reproduced fig. 520;

G. Freuler, in Master Paintings 1400–1850, Colnaghi exhibition catalogue, London 1991–92, pp. 10–11, reproduced fig. 1;

Arte Sacra Antica, Agnew’s exhibition catalogue, London 1994;

A. González-Palacios, in Sumptuosa tabula picta: pittori a Lucca tra gotico e Rinascimento, exhibition catalogue, Lucca 1998, p. 18;

C. Terzaghi, ‘Sei tavole toscane del Quattrocento’, in Ma l’arte è un viaggio, exhibition catalogue, Milan 2001, p. 86;

S. Weppelmann, Spinello Aretino und die toscanische Malerie des 14 Jahrhunderts, Florence 2003, pp. 262, 264–65, cat. no. 63b, reproduced;

S. Weppelmann, in Lorenzo Monaco: a bridge from Giotto’s heritage to the Renaissance, exhibition catalogue, Florence 2006, pp. 142–43, under cat. no. 14, fig. 2;

S. Weppelmann, in A history of taste: collecting French and Italian old master painting for America, exhibition catalogue, Robilant + Voena, New York 2010, p. 22, reproduced fig. 2;

S. Weppelmann, Spinello Aretino e la pittura del Trecento in Toscana, Florence 2011, pp. 273–75, cat. no. 63b, reproduced.

The following condition report is provided by Sarah Walden who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's: Spinello Aretino. The Adoration of the Magi. This little predella is on a thick poplar panel, which has remained remarkably stable. There has been a certain amount of worm erosion in the past and occasional superficial cracks, but the fact that the painting seems to have stayed within its home territory and with minimal intervention over many centuries appears to have preserved it in an exceptionally intact condition. There is one old slanting crack in the upper part of the painting between the central figures, running down to a narrow horizontal line crossing the panel. This appears to have been a wrinkle in the gesso, possibly from damp, which might also account for other minor superficial cracks. Very early fracturing faintly apparent in the Madonna's azurite robe below this horizontal line might also have been caused by damp. Elsewhere however the delicate tempera brushwork is extraordinarily untouched and pure, both in the lovely drapery of all the Magi and of St Joseph's robe and the Madonna's inner pink drapery. Her Azurite robe has as so often blackened. The flesh painting including the face and hands of the Child has remained finely intact also. The landscape seems to have retained even further layers of old varnish. The base edge has had a few old losses and some heavy fairly old retouching, while a perhaps slightly more recent small knock at the left edge has lost a few flakes. The minute detail throughout, such as the along the base of the throne and in the beautifully intact shell gold decoration bordering the robes of the magi and in their offerings, remains perfectly undisturbed, while the gold leaf in the sky has slightly suffered at one time, as have the halo's quite marginally. This report was not done under laboratory conditions.
"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."

In his extensive catalogue of the works of Spinello, Stefan Weppelmann (see Literature) proposes that this intimate predella was painted during the artist's Pisan period in around 1395.¹ It may originally have formed part of a triptych, of which the central panel was probably the Madonna and Child enthroned with Saints John the Baptist, Anthony Abbot, Margherita, Lucy and two angels, from the Kress Collection, in the Bucknell Univeristy Art Museum, Pennsylvania.² The other two sections of the predella are almost certainly the Nativity in a private collection in Genoa and the Lamentation, sold London, Christie's, 5 July 2011, lot 57, for £600,000.³

Spinello was born in Arezzo and soon dominated the artistic scene of his native town. By the end of the Trecento he was amongst the most important artists active in Tuscany, receiving major commissions in Florence, Siena and Pisa. His work shows the lasting influence of the Orcagna brothers, evidenced here by the size of the figures in relation to their surroundings, but to this style he added an emotional lyricism in the narrative elements that stood out amongst his peers. In the present work that is particularly discernible in the conversation and gesticulation of the kings at left, in the fatherly concern of Joseph to the right, and in the tender kiss of the Saviour's feet by the kneeling king. The landscape also participates in the emotional setting as the disposition of the figures, which creates a neat V-shape, is echoed in the dip in the mountain range in the distance. The aforementioned companion Lamentation displays similar emotional details in the gestures of the figures. 

1. Weppelmann 2011, p. 273.

2. Weppelmann 2011, pp. 270–71, cat. no. 61, reproduced.

3. Weppelmann 2011, pp. 273–75, cat. nos 63 (a) and (c), reproduced.