Sold Without Reserve | MATTEO DI PACINO | CHRIST AS MAN OF SORROWS (VIR DOLORUM) WITH INSTRUMENTS OF THE PASSION

Private collection, Italy;

With Moretti Fine Art, London, by 2007;

With Jean-François Heim, Paris, by 2010;

With Moretti Fine Art, London;

From whom acquired, December 2012. 

S. Chiodo, A Corpus of Florentine Painting: Painters in Florence after the 'Black Death.' The Master of the Misericordia and Matteo di Pacino, section IV, volume IX, Miklos Boskovits, ed., Florence 2011, pp. 480-481, reproduced plate LXXIX.

This small panel was painted in the early-1370s by the Florentine artist Matteo di Pacino, formerly known as the Master of the Rinuccini Chapel, whose distinct artistic personality arose from the influences of Bernardo Daddi and the Cione brothers [1].  The horizontal format of the composition and the matching wood grain suggest this panel once formed part of a predella for a polyptych. Another fragment of this predella includes a Saint James the Major; the two works share similar dimensions, shape, and decorative punch work found in the band around the tondo [2].  

1. For a recent detailed discussion of the life of Matteo di Pacino, see Chiodo, op. cit., pp. 335-399.

2. Tempera and gold ground on panel, 16 by 20 cm, formerly in a private collection and last appearing at auction in Milan on 1-9 March 1967, lot 242. See ibid., pp. 482-483, reproduced plate LXXIX.