An Italo-Cretan triptych icon, Crete, circa 1500

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November 26, 02:00 PM GMT

Estimate

25,000 - 35,000 GBP

Bid

19,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

the central panel with a Pietà, the left hand panel painted with St Bridget of Sweden kneeling by the Crucifixion, the right hand panel with St Catherine of Alexandria holding a palm frond and the wheel on which she was put to death, the obverse left hand panel with St Margaret of Antioch, also holding a palm frond, and with the dragon from which she was safely delivered after it had devoured her at her feet, the obverse right hand panel with a Bishop Saint standing full-length wearing his mitre and holding a staff, identified as St Augustine, all painted with a dominance of red and green against a thick and richly gilded ground, with inscriptions identifying all the Saints, with the exception of the central Pietà, in Latin, apparently unmarked

closed 21.4 by 14.7cm; 8 1/2 by 5 7/8 in.

open 21.4 by 41.8cm; 8 1/2 by 16 1/2 in.

The Loverdos Collection of Icons

Compare with a Triptych attributed to Andreas Pavias or Andreas Ritsos in the Museum in Ravenna, also with a central Pietà; see here.

The Pietà at the centre of the offered triptych was derived from Venetian painting – see Giovanni Bellini’s Pietà of 1505, in the Accademia Museum in Venice, and many versions of it are known in Cretan painting. See, for example, the Royal Academy of Arts Exhibition Catalogue, From Byzantium to El Greco, London, 1980, number 45. The western Saints and Latin inscriptions in the offered icon point to a Venetian patron; although Cretan painters at this time were opening a new market for themselves in Venice, it is unusual to find such a combination of exclusively Western Saints, which must surely be the family Saints of the person who commissioned the icon to be painted.

We are grateful to Ivan Samarine for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.