MASTER OF THE EPIPHANY OF FIESOLE, Florence ca. 1450-1500 - Lot 1

Lot n° 1
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Estimation :
15000 - 20000 EUR
MASTER OF THE EPIPHANY OF FIESOLE, Florence ca. 1450-1500 - Lot 1
MASTER OF THE EPIPHANY OF FIESOLE, Florence ca. 1450-1500 THE VIRGIN AND SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST ADORING THE CHILD Lime wood panel, four boards Height : 80 cm Width : 45.5 cm Old restorations Panel of devotion Arched wooden panel, gilded and sculpted wood frame in the Renaissance style H. 80,05cm ; L. 44,05cm panel only Thickness : 1,8cm CONDITION Panel : traces of open galleries of xylophagous insects Pictorial surface : wear due to the beginning of a restoration Ornamentation stamped and gilded on the halos: original PROVENANCE Alfredo Moretti Gallery, Prato, before 1999 BIBLIOGRAPHY E. Fahy, "The Este Predella panels and other works by the Master of the Fiesole Epiphany" in Nuovi Studi 9, 2001-2002, p.17-29, and p. 25 Zeri photo library n°104213 repr. Master of the Fiesole Epiphany Dominated by a broad blue sky illuminating a hilly landscape where a few buildings stand out, the adoration scene takes place in the adoration scene takes place in the foreground of this painting. The Virgin, dressed in a red dress and a blue cloak blue mantle, and the little Saint John the Baptist wearing a sheep skin mantle covered by a red mantle, are kneeling are kneeling and praying before the Child. The latter, seated in front of them, dressed in a light drape covering his nakedness nudity, stretches out his arms towards his Mother. The three figures are haloed. Our panel, completely repainted, was in the Alfredo Moretti Gallery in Prato before 1999 (see bibliography). It was probably during an attempt It is probably during an attempt to remove the overpainting that the panel appeared in its present state. E. Fahy the first (Some Early Italian Pictures in the Gambier-Parry collection "The Burlington Magazine" CIX, 1967, p.133-134) has brought to light and studied more deeply (cf. bibliography cited) the personality of the Master of the Epiphany of Fiesole, who owes his conventional name to the painting of the Adoration of the Magi with saints Paul, Francis, John the Baptist around 1490 (Fiesole, church of San Francesco; cf. Maestri e Botteghe, exhibition Florence Palazzo Strozzi Strozzi, 16 October 1992-10 January 1993, n°5.7 p. 163, repr. p.164) where the artist presents the Madonna adoring the Child in a large composition populated by saints and angels. A follower of Domenico Ghirlandaio, this master also worked in Florence under the influence of the great artists of the second half of the 15th century: Cosimo Rosselli (1439-1507) Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510) and Jacopo del Sellaio (1442-1493). He took again especially the models of the latter, including those of New York (Metropolitan Museum n°41.100.10) or Baltimore, (The Walters Art Museum n°37.754). These compositions, destined for private devotion, were very successful in Florence at that time. Many variations focused on the sacred figures of the Virgin and Child, the only adoring the Child, alone or surrounded by other saints, according to the wishes of the commissioners. The Master of Epiphany of Fiesole introduces here the young John the Baptist, but in other examples, recorded by E. Fahy (cf. op.cit), various characters appear: we will mention the one from the Gambier Parry collection (London Courtauld Institute Galleries, inv. P.1966. GP.252) where the Dominican Saint Peter the Martyr emerges, or again the one in the Fisher Gallery in Lucerne, where Saint Magdalene and two shepherds are attending the Adoration. Expert : Cabinet TURQUIN
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