Giovanni Mazone

Miklós Boskovits was the first to propose an attribution to the Genoese painter Giovanni Mazone for this charming panel, noting the typically Ligurian composition which includes a pair of smaller angels placed on either side of the Madonna's throne. Mazone repeated this motif on a few occasions, the earliest of which was for his polyptych of Santa Maria delle Vigne, Genoa, from circa 1470. It is likely that the present panel originally formed the central piece of a much larger polyptych. Figures of various saints would have surrounded the panel, which was most probably cut down along the bottom edge at some point, having originally shown the Madonna full-length.  

This painting is an important example from Mazone's late career, when he began to shift out of his earlier gothic tendencies and take on a more Renaissance style. Benati dates it to 1485-95, comparing it to the late Crucifixion and Saints formerly in the church of San Giuliano d'Albaro and now in the Pinacoteca di Palazzo Bianco in Genoa.¹

^1. See D. Benati, op. cit., p. 182-3, reproduced fig. 2 p. 183.