Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi, called Sandro Botticelli

Oratorio of San Giuliano, in the Convent of San Giuliano, which was later bought and rebuilt by the Calasanzian order, via Faenza, Florence, by the early 19^th century; 

Placed in the chapel of a convalescent home for the sick bretheren of the Calasanzian Order or Scuole Pie of Florence, Comezzano, near Vaggio, Figline Valdarno, Province of Florence;  

By inheritance with the property to the Graziani family, remaining in situ until about 1900;

Giovanni Magherini Graziani (1852–1924), Poggitazzi, Terranove Bracciolini, near Arezzo, and via Pinti, Florence;

By whom sold, in November 1903, to the dealer Elia Volpi, Florence;

From whom bought by Harriet Sarah Jones Loyd, Lady Wantage (1837–1920), in May 1904;

Thence by descent at Lockinge House, Wantage, and after 1944 at Betterton House, near Wantage, Berkshire.

F. Fantozzi, Nuova Guida, ovvero descrizione storico-artistico-critica della città e contorni di Firenze, Florence 1842 and 1847, pp. 497–98, under 234 (as ‘un'effigie di Nostra Donna al primo Altare a destra, d'Ignoto ma valente pittore’); 

The Arundel Club, London 1904, no. 3, reproduced (as Botticelli); 

A.G. Temple, A Catalogue of Pictures, Forming the Collection of Lord and Lady Wantage, London 1905, pp. 15–16, no. 18a, reproduced (as Botticelli);

Lady Manners, ‘Lady Wantage's Collection’, in The Connoisseur, vol. 27, 1910, p. 162, reproduced p. 159 (as ‘Madonna dei Pilastrini d’oro’; ‘which came from the chapel of a religious confraternity in the hill country of Arezzo’);

B. Berenson, ‘Un Botticelli dimenticato’, in Dedalo, V, June 1924, pp. 28–41, reproduced p. 36, with a reconstruction of the Sant'Ambrogio altarpiece in which the heads of the Virgin and Child from the present panel are superimposed onto the corresponding figures that had been overpainted by a later hand, p. 40 (as workshop of Botticelli);

Y. Yashiro, Sandro Botticelli, London and Boston 1925, vol. I, pp. 19 and 233, under ‘Contemporary Copies and Versions’, ‘I. From Botticelli's Known Originals’ (as ‘a very careful copy of [the Sant'Ambrogio altarpiece], with such variations of the throne and of the Madonna's eyes as were necessary for a single figure picture’);

A. Venturi, Botticelli, Rome 1925, p. 118 (as ‘imitation of the central part of the Virgin and Child with six saints’ [‘the Sant'Ambrogio altarpiece’, now at the Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence]); 

B. Berenson, ‘A Neglected Altarpiece by Botticelli’, in Three Essays in Method, Oxford 1927, pp. 80–83 and 84, reproduced figs 87 and 91, a reconstruction with heads of the Virgin and Child from the present panel superimposed onto the Sant'Ambrogio altarpiece (as workshop of Botticelli); 

A.T. Loyd, Guide to the Pictures at Lockinge House, Wantage 1928, p. 6, no. 18a, as hanging in the Entrance Hall (as Botticelli school);

R. van Marle, The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting, vol. XII, The Hague 1931, p. 271 (under ‘The School of Botticelli’, ‘a charming picture, very finely executed’);

Lord Balniel and K. Clark (eds), A Commemorative Catalogue of the Exhibition of Italian Art..., London 1931, no. 237 (no. 121) (as studio of Botticelli);

Pictures from Lockinge House, Wantage, Oxford 1934, no. 12 (as workshop of Botticelli); 

C. Gamba, Botticelli, Milan 1936, pp. 104 and 226, reproduced fig. 25 (as a workshop replica of the altarpiece; ‘a beautiful Madonna’);

W. and E. Paatz, Die Kirchen von Florenz: ein kunstgeschichtliches Handbuch, Frankfurt 1941, vol. II, pp. 356 and 358 n. 15 (as lost);

Catalogue of Paintings and Tapestries from Lockinge House, Wantage, Birmingham 1945, no. 4 (as studio of Botticelli);

T. Cox, ‘The Wantage Collection from Lockinge House’, in The Connoisseur, vol. 117, June 1946, p. 75 (as studio of Botticelli);

B. Berenson, ‘Un Botticelli dimenticato’, in Metodo e attribuzioni, Florence 1947, pp. 139–42 and 144, reproduced figs 86 and 90, a reconstruction, as above (as workshop of Botticelli, copied from Botticelli's Sant'Ambrogio altarpiece); 

R. Salvini, Tutta la pittura del Botticelli, Milan 1958, vol. I, p. 68, reproduced pl. 129 (as ‘very beautiful; probably executed under the supervision of the master’; incorrectly listed as sold in 1947, location unknown); 

B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance, Florentine School, London 1963, vol. I, p. 36 (as studio version);

L. Parris (ed.), The Loyd Collection of Paintings and Drawings at Betterton House, Lockinge near Wantage, Berkshire, London 1967, p. 3, no. 3, reproduced (as school of Bottcelli);

R. Lightbown, Sandro Botticelli, Complete Catalogue, London 1978, vol. II, p. 27, under no. B13, and pp. 115–16, no. C2, reproduced (under ‘Workshop and school pictures’; with incorrect dimensions);

G. Mandel, L'opera completa del Botticelli, Milan 1978, p. 88, no. 28, reproduced (as workshop of Botticelli, under the direct supervision of the master; incorrectly listed as formerly at Lockinge House);

R. De Angelis, Botticelli, Milan and New York 1980, p. 24, no. 24, reproduced (as workshop of Botticelli); 

H. Horne, Alessandro Filipepi commonly called Sandro Botticelli, Painter of Florence. Appendix III: Catalogue of the works of Sandro Botticelli, and of his disciples and imitators, together with notices of those erroneously attributed to him in the public and private collections of Europe and America, C. Caneva (ed.), Florence 1987, p. 11, no. 30 (as school of Botticelli; by an immediate follower of Botticelli, probably in his 'bottega' from the cartoon for the altarpiece now in Florence); 

N. Pons, Botticelli catalogo completo, Milan 1989, p. 58, no. 23, reproduced (listed under autograph works; as whereabouts unknown);

F. Russell (ed.), The Loyd Collection of Paintings, Drawings and Sculptures, privately printed, 1991, pp. vi and 2, no. 3, reproduced pl. 1 (as workshop of Botticelli);

D. Dombrowski, Die religiösen Gemälde Sandro Botticellis: Malerei als pia philosophia, Munich 2010, p. 294 n. 351 and reproduced p. 556, fig. 167 (as workshop of Botticelli, 1480s; incorrectly denoted as formerly at Lockinge House). 

London, Royal Academy, Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters..., 7 January – 16 March 1907, no. 24 (as Botticelli);

London, Royal Academy, Italian Art, 1 January – 8 March 1930, no. 121 (as studio of Botticelli); 

Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, Pictures from Lockinge House, Wantage, 1934–35, no. 12 (as workshop of Botticelli); 

Birmingham, City Museum and Art Gallery, Paintings and Tapestries from Lockinge House, Wantage, 1945, no. 4 (as studio of Botticelli).