雅各布·迪·喬尼

De Larderell collection, Livorno;
With Galleria Levi, Milan, by 1975.

Milan, Galleria Levi, Maestri della pittura dal '300 al '700, 1964, no. 2 (as Master of Calenzano).

M. Cinotti, Maestri della pittura dal ‘300 al ‘700, Galleria Levi, Milan 1964, pp. 13-15, cat. no. 2 (as Master of Calenzano);
R. Offner, Corpus of Florentine Painting. A Legacy of Attributions, H. B. J. Maginnis ed., New York 1981, p. 89 and fig. 170 (as follower of Niccolò di Tommaso);
M. Boskovits, Pittura fiorentina alla vigilia del Rinascimento, Florence 1975, pp. 206 n. 145 and 327, fig. 101 (as Jacopo di Cione);
A. Tartuferi, in Da Allegretto Nuzi a Pietro Perugino, Florence 2005, pp. 52-59 (as Jacopo di Cione).

The following condition report has been provided by Karen Thomas of Thomas Art Conservation LLC., 336 West 37th Street, Suite 830, New York, NY 10018, 212-564-4024, info@thomasartconservation.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This modestly-sized devotional panel is remarkably well-preserved, particularly in light of its age. The gold ground is in surprisingly good condition, showcasing an array of punchwork and sgraffito embellishments. The extensive details executed in mordant gilding are generally intact, with some portions showing slight wear. There appears to be some regilding on the carved engaged frame. The paint layers are in excellent condition although the blue of Mary's mantle appears to have darkened. Of special note are the paints and glazes atop gilding, which have a tendency to flake over time but in this picture are beautifully intact. Normal age-related cracks, with mild cupping in some areas, are visible across the surface. The wood panel support is planar and retains its original back with a painted porphyry decoration, which shows overall soiling.
"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."

Jacopo di Cione’s Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints and Angels is a panel of extraordinary quality and is among the earliest, and indeed most beautiful, of the artist’s surviving works.  It was Miklòs Boskovits who first restored the panel to Jacopo di Cione’s oeuvre, publishing it in 1975, and the attribution was more recently upheld by Angelo Tartuferi (see Literature) and Laurence Kanter, who dates it to the early 1370s.¹   In his 2005 catalogue entry, however, Tartuferi suggests the panel pre-dates Jacopo’s altarpiece now in the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (inv. no. NGA 1987.1843, fig. 1), which is dated 1367 in Roman numerals on the predella: MILLE.CCCLXII.  He considers the present panel to be of superior quality to the Canberra altarpiece, describing it as of “greater pictorial freshness and luminosity.”²  Tartuferi compares the painting instead to the exquisite tabernacle in the Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence (inv. no. 1890, fig. 2).  Alongside the Accademia painting, Tartuferi states the present panel “seems one of the most significant and exemplary works of the exquisite craftsmanship of the youngest of the Cioni brothers.”³

Although it was not until 1975 that the Boskovits definitively published this panel as Jacopo di Cione, it had in fact been associated with that hand from a much earlier date.  On the occasion of its exhibition in 1964 (see Exhibited), this painting was published by Mia Cinotti, citing a letter from Roberto Longhi, attributing it to the so-called Master of Calenzano (see Literature).⁴  The master was named after an Annunciation in the church of San Niccolo in Calezano near Prato, and had been published a year earlier by Bernard Berenson in 1963.⁵  Berenson identified the Master of Calenzano as Jacopo di Cione, at the very dawn of his career.  Jacopo was the younger brother of Andrea, Matteo and Nardo di Cione, and in his earliest activity was thought imitate the style of Nardo, and indeed that brother's distinctive soft contours are visible here.  Boskovits corroborated Berenson’s attribution of the Annunciation, noting the influence of the artist’s brother, Nardo, in the manner of its execution.⁶  Boskovits and Tartuferi both stress the impact of a second artist in early paintings by Jacopo, that of Giotto di Maestro Stefano, also called Giottino.  Giottino was one of the most prominent painters in Florence in the third quarter of the 14^th century and his influence on Jacopo was arguably greater than that of the elder Cione brothers. 

Both Offner and Boskovits regarded this Madonna and Child Enthroned as the central panel of a triptych, now separated from its lateral wings (see Literature).  As Tartuferi indicates, however, there is no physical evidence attesting to that hypothesis and he proposes instead that the panel was intended as an autonomous altarpiece for private devotion.⁷

We are grateful to Laurence Kanter for endorsing the attribution on the basis of firsthand inspection, and proposing a dating to the early 1370s.

 

1.  Private written communication, dated 5 November 2014, on the basis of firsthand inspection.
2.  A. Tartuferi, under Literature.
3.  Ibid.
4.  M. Cinotti, under Literature, p. 13; Roberto Longhi’s letter was dated 1 November 1946.
5.  B. Berenson, Italian pictures of the Renaissance, Florentine School, London 1963, p.103, reproduced 220. 
6.  M. Boskovits, under Literature, p. 322.
7.  A. Tartuferi, op. cit.