Florentine School, circa 1430/40

This panel is a pair with the following lot, probably forming the upper part of the left and right wings of a triptych or a larger painting of some other configuration.   Both pictures share the same format and nearly match in size, and the punch work on the haloes of each are the same.  In additon, the reverse of each panel still retains its orginal dark red ground, painted with a black border (see fig. 1), suggesting that they are indeed part of the wings of a closing triptych. 

Interestingly, however, the paintings appear to have been seperated since at least the early part of the 20th Century and are here, purely by chance, reunited for the first time in at least fifty years.  Both have American provenance, and it is likely that there were brought to this country by the same collector, and then disposed of seperately.  Stylistically, the paintings appear to be Florentine, by an artist with an awareness of Fra Angelico and the Master of the Judgement of Paris.