Anonymous sale, New York, Sotheby’s, 25 January 2001, lot 52, where acquired by the present owner.
The following condition report is provided by Hamish Dewar who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's:
Structural Condition
The panel has been cradled and this has secured a number of historic splits in the panel but there are some subsequent hairline cracks which have opened and the panel therefore will require further structural treatment to ensure long term structural stability. The most prominent of these recent fracture lines run vertically down from the upper horizontal framing edge towards and into the heads of St. John and Joseph. There are also some recent fracture lines running up from the lower horizontal framing edge. A number of other repaired fracture lines are also visible.
Paint Surface
The paint surface has a reasonably even varnish layer and a number of retouchings are visible
under a strong natural light. These are predominantly along the vertical fracture lines mentioned above, where the retouchings have slightly discoloured.
Inspection under ultra-violet light shows a number of retouchings, with two apparent stages of inpainting. Many of these retouchings correspond to fracture lines and there is evidence of two thicker vertical lines of older inpainting which perhaps correspond to repaired joins in the panel and are approximately 20 cm from the right vertical framing edge, and 30 cm from the left vertical framing edge. There are a number of other retouchings which are identifiable under ultra-violet light and it may well be that there are other retouchings beneath old opaque varnish layers which are not easily identifiable.
Summary
The painting would therefore appear to be in reasonably good condition with a number of historic issues caused by the instability to the panel. Further conservation and restoration is required.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."
This moving panel from the Florentine Renaissance was painted by Davide Ghirlandaio, brother of the celebrated Domenico, in whose workshop he assisted and subsequently ran upon the latter's death in 1494. While Davide’s style finds its roots in the work of his brother and that of Sebastiano Mainardi, his brother-in-law, his hand can usually be detected by the hatched strokes of the tempera which often run diagonally from upper left to lower right, the mark of a left-handed artist, as seen in the present panel.
The background and the sky are characteristic of the artist and painted in much the same spirit as those in the Madonna and Child with Infant Saint John the Baptist in the National Gallery, London, which was formerly given to Mainardi.1 The London panel also shares with the present work a decorative aspect which is typical of the Ghirlandaio idiom: the beautifully rendered carpet which covers the parapet in the National Gallery picture finds echoes here in the pattern of the red tunic around Christ’s waist.
A slightly smaller variant (panel, 85 by 70.5 cm.) was sold in these Rooms, 5 July 1995, lot 68. The main differences in the designs lie in the disposition of the nails, lower right, and in the background, particularly the left side. The panel sold in 1995 omits the top section of the sky found in the present work.
1. Inv. no. 2502; see M. Hirst and J. Dunkerton (eds), The Young Michelangelo, exhibition catalogue, London 1994, reproduced p. 87, plate 61 and a detail of the landscape on the frontispiece p. 2.
