Master Paintings Part II
Master Paintings Part II
Property from a Distinguished Private Collection
The Master of the Ashmolean Predella
Madonna and Child Enthroned Between Two Angels and Saint Nicholas, Catherine of Alexandria, John the Baptist and Lawrence
Lot Closed
January 30, 04:08 PM GMT
Estimate
150,000 - 200,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Property from a Distinguished Private Collection
The Master of the Ashmolean Predella
Active in Florence circa 1360 - 1390
Madonna and Child Enthroned Between Two Angels and Saint Nicholas, Catherine of Alexandria, John the Baptist and Lawrence
tempera on panel
panel: 15 3/8 by 10 5/8 in.; 39 by 27 cm.
framed: 17 by 12 1/2 in.; 43.2 by 31.8 cm.
Private collection, Italy, by 1979;
Private collection;
With Moretti Fine Art, Florence;
From whom acquired, 2011.
The author of this tender Madonna and Child scene is so named after a predella depicting the Birth of the Virgin in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.1 Datable to circa 1385-1390, it can be considered a late work of this Florentine painter, comparable with a similarly rendered panel in the Chigi-Saraceni collection, Siena.
Though little is known of this elusive artist’s life, he trained in Orcagna's workshop in the 1360s and continued his work there following his master’s death in 1368, when the workshop passed to Orcagna's younger brother, Jacopo di Cione.2 He is known to have assisted Orcagna from 1367-1368 with the Saint Matthew triptych, today in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence,3 and he has also been identified as the collaborator in Jacopo’s elaborate, large scale Crucifixion altarpiece of 1369-1370, today in the National Gallery in London.4 With the influence of his two teachers as his foundation, this master developed his own individualized style that is most clearly visible later in his career.
1. Tempera on panel, gold ground, 37.4 by 65.2, inv. no. A47. See The Ashmolean Museum: Complete Illustrated Catalogue of Paintings, Oxford 2004, p. 141, reproduced.
2. L. Kanter, Painting and Illumination in Early Renaissance Florence, 1300-1450, exhibition catalogue, New York 1994, p. 193.
3. Tempera on panel, 257 by 264 cm., inv. 1890, no. 3163. See Gli Uffizi: Catalogo Generale, Florence 1979, p. 396, cat. no. P1120, reproduced.
4. Tempera on panel, 154 by 138.5 cm., inv. no. NG1468. See C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 1995, p. 118, reproduced.