Antonello de Saliba

Art market, Florence (as Pietro da Messina);
Where acquired by Theodore M. Davis, Newport, April 1902;
By whom bequeathed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1915 (Inv. no. 30.95.249).

New York, Remington Rand, Christmas Exhibition, 20-30 December 1946;
New York, Lord & Taylor, 16-23 April 1947;
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Venetian Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1 May - 2 September 1974.

J. Breck, "Dipinti italiani nella raccolta del Signor Teodoro Davis," in Rassegna d'arte, no. 11, July 1911, p. 112;
B. Berenson, "Note su Pietro e Antonio da Messina," in Rassegna d'arte, 13, April 1913, pp. 58-59, reproduced opposite p. 57 (as datable circa 1487-1488);
A. Venturi, "La pittura del Quattrocento," in Storia dell'arte italiana, vol. 7, part 4, 1915, pp. 94, 96;
B. Berenson, Venetian Painting in America: The Fifteenth Century, New York 1916, pp. 41-43, reproduced fig. 21;
E. Sandberg-Vavalà, "Un dipinto Sconosciuto di Antonio da Saliba di Verona," in Bollettino d'arte, no. 6, June 1927, pp. 558, 565-566, notes 3 and 13 (as a work related to a group of paintings by Antonio and Pietro da Saliba);
W. Suida, "Einige italienische Gemälde im Landesmuseum zu Brünn," in Belvedere, no. 8, 1929, p. 255;
G. Gronau, Giovanni Bellini: Des Meisters Gemälde, Stuttgart 1930, p. 218, under cat. no. 192 (as by Antonello de Saliba after Giovanni Bellini);
S. Bottari, "Richerche intorno agli Antonelliani," in Bollettino d'arte, no. 10, 1931, pp. 309, 312-314;
B. Burroughs, "The Theodore M. Davis Bequest: The Paintings," in Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, 26, section 2, March 1931, pp. 14, 16;
B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance, Oxford 1932, p. 496;
R.L. Douglas, "Photographic Evidence," Burlington Magazine, no. 60, June 1932, p. 288;
R. van Marle, The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting: The Renaissance Painters of Central and Southern Italy, vol. 15, The Hague 1934, p. 567, note 3, andd p. 574, note 4 (as Pietro da Saliba);
B. Berenson, Pitture italiane del rinascimento, Milan 1936, p. 427;
R.L. Douglas, A Few Italian Pictures Collected by Godfrey Locker-Lampson, London circa 1937, p. 8, under cat. no. 1;
H.B. Wehle, The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Catalogue of Italian, Spanish, and Byzantine Paintings, New York 1940, pp. 176-177, reproduced;
G. Vigni and G. Carandente, Catalogo della mostra di Antonello di Messina e delle pittura del '400 in Sicilia, Venice 1953, p. 80;
B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Venetian School, London 1957, vol. I, p. 8;
F. Heinemann, Giovanni Bellini e i Belliniani, Venice 1962, vol. I, p. 11, under cat. no. 40k;
B.B. Frederickson and F. Zeri, Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections, Cambridge, Massachusetts 1972, pp. 10, 342, 607;
F. Zeri and E. Gardner, Italian Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Venetian School, New York 1973, p. 3, reproduced plate 3;
M. Lucco, Antonello da Messina: L'opera completa, exhibition catalogue, Rome 2006, p. 338.

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This work has not been recently restored. The paint layer is very dull and seems to be dirty. Under ultraviolet light, it can be seen that the retouches are minor, but they have discolored and should be re-examined. There are a few spots in the sky. There are hardly any retouches in the figures, except to some weakness in the red fabric around the child and to a few cracks, particularly in the legs of the child. It would make an enormous difference if the work were cleaned and accurately retouched, and the work would be revealed to be very well preserved.
"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."

A native of Sicily, Antonello de Saliba (also known as Antonio de Saliba) was the nephew of Antonello da Messina, whose style the young artist closely emulated.  He was active in Sicily nearly all of his life, although it seems that he likely spent some of his formative years during his apprenticeship to his cousin Jacobello d'Antonio in Venice, for many of his paintings display the clear influence of Giovanni Bellini and the Belliniani.  Such is the case with the present painting, in which the Madonna is derived from a painting by Bellini formerly in the Wittgenstein Collection.¹  Antonello would use the same model and composition again, with some minor variations in the background, in a painting of the Madonna and Child in the Musée Jacquemart Andre in Paris.  1.  See F. Heinemann, Bellini e i Belliniani, Venice 1962, vol. I, pp. 10-11, cat. no. 39, reproduced vol. II, p. 97, fig. 70