Francesco di Gabriele da Viterbo, Active in Viterbo circa 1500

Gallotti collection;
Their sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 28 June 1905, lot 51 (reproduced in the catalogue);
Mr. and Mrs. W.P. Wilstach, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by whom acquired on 11 July 1907;
By whom bequeathed to the Philadelphia Museum of Art;
By whom sold, Philadelphia, Samuel T. Freeman & Co., 20-23 October 1954, lot 95, where acquired by a member of the family of the present owner;
Given to the present collector in 1961.

The W.P. Wilstach Collection, supplement 1906/8, cat. no. 399;
The W.P. Wilstach Collection, Philadelphia 1910, cat. no. 144;
Catalogue of the W.P. Wilstach Collection, Philadelphia 1922, p. 132, cat. no. 333;
I. Faldi, Pittori viterbesi di cinque secoli, Rome 1970, pp. 23, 383, reproduced fig. 338 (misreading the date as 1487 or 1497 from old photographs);
Dizionario Enciclopedico Bolaffi dei Pittori e degli Incisori Italiani dall'XI al XX secolo, ed. G. Bolaffi, vol. V, Turin 1974, p. 116 (as signed and dated 1487 or 1497, following Faldi's information).

This painting is the only securely known work of Francesco di Gabriele da Viterbo; an artist who was active in Viterbo at the turn of the 15^th Century. Faldi (see Literature, pp. 22-3) attempted to establish a genealogy for the painter, both artistic and genetic, claiming that he was the grandson of Francesco d’Antonio Zacchi, called Balletta (active by 1430-died before 1476) and the son of Gabriele di Francesco. Balletta was a rather significant artist in Viterbo and a number of elaborate (albeit archaic) panels and polyptychs by him have survived in and around the city. His son Gabriele di Francesco was perhaps less prolific but a small number of works are securely attributable to him: a pair of wings from an altarpiece representing Saints Victor and Andrew (Chiesa Collegiata di Sant’ Andrea, Vallerano) may be firmly dated to 1473 upon documentary evidence, while a fresco of the Pietà with Saints Francis and Jerome (formerly San Bernardino, Viterbo, destroyed) was signed and dated 1483.

Stylistically - of course based solely on comparison with the present panel - Francesco di Gabriele appears to have derived little inspiration from his forebears, and rather he betrays a variety of other artistic influences to which a Viterbese artist would naturally have been susceptible. In addition to local artists - the pose of the Christ Child, for example, is very close to that found in an altarpiece by Panciatico di Antonello da Calvi (Museo Civico, Viterbo; reproduced in La pittura viterbese dal XIV al XVI secoli, Viterbo 1954, plate 33) - elements of neighbouring Tuscan, Umbrian and Roman painters of the period can be found.

When the painting was in the Wilstach collection, and subsequently part of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (see Provenance and Literature below), the signature was still fully legible as "FRANCS..VS DE. GABRIELIS. DE. VITERBIO. PINXIT"; a photograph acquired by the Frick Art Reference Library on 29 July 1948 (FARL# 707-9 a) shows the signature clearly.