Florentine School, 16th century

Private collector, Europe;

By whom anonymously sold ("The Property of a European Private Collector"), London, Sotheby's, 23 September 2020, lot 3;

Where acquired by the present collector.

Executed by an artist working in Florence during the second half of the sixteenth century, this panel draws on the mannerist figural types pioneered by painters such as Pontormo and Rosso Fiorentino and then adopted (and adapted) by Giovanni Battista Naldini and Francesco Morandini, known as il Poppi. The billowing drapery and pastel palette recall the work of Niccolò Betti. Particular resonances may be discerned with his two altarpieces in Montepulciano, near Siena: Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints John the Baptist and Mark (Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie) and Adoration of the Shepherds (Church of Sant'Agnese).