SILVESTRO DEI GHERARDUCCI | Portable triptych with The Madonna and Child flanked by Saints

With Giovanni Salocchi, Florence, by 1965; In the collection of the father of the present owner by 1965;

Thence by descent.

Frankfurt, Städel Museum, Kult Bild : das Altar und Andachtsbild von Duccio bis Perugino, 7 July - 22 October 2006, no. 62 (as Silvestro dei Gherarducci).

M. Boskovits, Pittura fiorentina alla vigilia del Rinascimento 1370–1400, Florence 1975, p. 423, central panel reproduced fig. 281 (as Silvestro dei Gherarducci); G. Freuler (M. Boskovits ed.), 'Tendencies of Gothic in Florence; Don Silverstro Dei Gheraducci', in R. Offner and K. Steinweg, A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting, Florence 1997, section IV, vol. VII, part II, p. 315 (as refuting the attribution to Silvestro dei Gherarducci and instead suggesting an artist close to Antonio Veneziano, but noting that Boskovits maintains his attribution to Gherarducci);

J. Sander, Kult Bild : das Altar und Andachtsbild von Duccio bis Perugino, exh. cat., Frankfurt 2006, p. 305, cat. no. 62, reproduced p. 249, pl. 71 (as Silvestro dei Gherarducci).

The following condition report is provided by Henry Gentle who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's. The wood support to the wings is well preserved, the central panel has a repaired vertical split with associated gold ground and paint loss. There is evidence of minor worm infestation. Minor abrasion to the gold ground on all the panels is visible revealing the bole beneath. This is mostly confined to the areas around the heads of the Saints and the Madonna, the raised section of the central arch and along the bottom edges of the panels. The paint to the figures is in good original preserved condition. The fine details to the faces and folds of the fabric and the edges of the Madonna's mantle are crisp and unchanged. Slight loss to the Saints in the wings has been strengthened. There is the remains of a discoloured varnish and its removal would enhance the tonality of the image and reveal the vibrancy and freshness of the colours.
"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."

Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci entered the monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli in 1348 and became its Prior in the 1390s before continuing to lead the scriptorium until his death. Gheraducci was the eldest of a triumvirate of painters living and working at Santa Maria degli Angeli in Florence that constituted the most important late medieval school of painters in Florence. He, along with Don Simone Camaldolese and Don Lorenzo Monaco painted devotional panels and altarpieces as well as building considerable renown as manuscript illuminators. This charming triptych is likely to have been commissioned for private use and its small size will have ensured portability for an owner to worship whilst travelling, or for ease of carrying whilst on pilgrimage. Boskovits was the first to publish it as the work of Gherarducci in 1975; it was an attribution that he maintained despite other scholars' omission of the triptych from Gheraducci's œuvre (see Freuler 1997 in Literature).

An alternative attribution to the Bolognese painter Simone dei Crocifissi (c. 1330-1399) has also been suggested. Simone, along with his nephew Jacopo di Paolo and his son-in-law Michele di Matteo da Bologna, dominated much of the market in Bologna following the death of Vitale da Bologna in 1369. It is thought that the dominance of his family, together with the distinctive political and social character of the city was probably responsible for the extreme conservatism of Bolognese art for much of the next century. The present triptych is listed on the Fondazione Zeri archive as by an anonymous Emilian artist.