Mariano d'Antonio di Francesco di Nutolo

With Galerie Abels, Cologne, 1949;

Whence acquired by the present owner.

F. Todini, La Pittura Umbra, Milan 1989, vol. I, p. 207 and vol. II, p. 339, reproduced fig. 762 (as Mariano di Antonio).

Born in Perugia around 1410, Mariano di Antonio was the son Antonio di Nutolo, and is documented as a painter in the city in 1433.¹ He trained under the painter Pellegrino di Giovanni (c. 1397–1437), inheriting his workshop upon the latter’s death in 1437. A small corpus of works has been ascribed to the artist by Filippo Todini (see Literature), notably a series of six panels from a polyptych (Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria, Perugia); four depicting miracles of Saint Antony of Padua, probably from the predella, and two depicting the figures of Saint John the Baptist and Bernardino of Siena, probably from the outer wings.² These are the only securely documented works by the artist, first associated by Umberto Gnoli with a document dated 7 January 1455 relaying the payment by Giovanni di Petruccio Montesperelli (1390–1464) to the artist for a Maestà he had commissioned for his family chapel in the church San Francesco al Prato, Perugia.³

This panel may have once formed part of a predella, a series of subsidiary panels consisting of narrative scenes situated at the bottom of an altarpiece. A comparable work by the artist in a private collection, Turin.⁴

¹ A.M. Sartore in Un pittore e la sua città. Benedetto Bonfigli e Perugia, V. Garibaldi (ed.), Milan 1996, pp. 23 and 207.

² Todini 1989, vol. I, p. 207 and vol. II, p. 339, reproduced fig. 760; http://catalogo.fondazionezeri.unibo.it/scheda/opera/20217/Mariano%20di%20Antonio%2C%20San%20Giovanni%20Battista%2C%20Storpi%20e%20lebbrosi%20davanti%20alla%20tomba%20di%20sant%27Antonio%20da%20Padova%2C%20Sant%27Antonio%20da%20Padova%20salva%20una%20barca%20dal%20naufragio%2C%20Sant%27Antonio%20da%20Padova%20resuscita%20un%20bambino%2C%20Miracolo%20di%20sant%27Antonio%20da%20Padova%2C%20San%20Bernardino%20da%20Siena

³ U. Gnoli, Pittori e miniatori nell’Umbria, Spoleto 1923, p. 190.

⁴ Todini 1989, vol. I, p. 207 and vol. II, p. 339, reproduced fig. 761; http://catalogo.fondazionezeri.unibo.it/scheda/opera/20230/Mariano%20di%20Antonio%2C%20Crocifissione%20di%20Cristo