Master Paintings
Master Paintings
Property from a Distinguished Private Collection
Master of the San Niccolò Altarpiece
The Crucifixion and Adoration of the Magi, with the Annunciation above
Auction Closed
May 20, 03:42 PM GMT
Estimate
100,000 - 150,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Property from a Distinguished Private Collection
Master of the San Niccolò Altarpiece
Active in Florence circa 1360-1390
The Crucifixion and Adoration of the Magi, with the Annunciation above
tempera on panel
panel: 25 by 12 ⅜ in.; 63.5 by 31.6 cm.
framed: 27 by 13 ½ in; 68.6 by 34.3 cm.
Probably Fernand Nathan;
Thence probably by descent to his son, until 1994;
Private collector, by 1994;
By whom anonymously sold, Paris, Artcurial, 7 November 2012, lot 3 (as by Francesco di Michele);
Where acquired by the present collector.
This Florentine master’s eponymous work is a triptych painted for the sacristy in San Niccolò d'Oltrarno in Florence. Richard Offner was the first to compile a list of this artist’s works in his 1933 Burlington article in which he reviewed a group of works presented in Saint Mark's convent in Florence. Offner places this rare master firmly in the ambient of Orcagna, the great inheritor of the Giottesque tradition in Florence, noting that he was "gifted beyond the rule of his contemporaries" (see Literature).
It has been suggested that these wings would have originally been matched with a Madonna and Child with Saints by the artist at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco (inv. 50.24.1) which has traditionally carried an attribution to Niccolò di Tommaso.
We are grateful to Christopher Daly and Maximillian Hernandez for their assistance in the cataloguing of this lot.