Giovanni del Biondo Documented in Florence 1356 - 1399

Mr. Mathieson, Liverpool (died circa 1870), thence apparently inherited by his business associate in the firm of Langton & MacConnal, Liverpool;
John MacConnal (died 1913);
Anonymous Sale, London, Christie’s, February 22, 1924, lot 139 (as Lorenzetti);
There purchased by Durlacher, Bros., London and New York, until about 1927;
From whom purchased by Richard Ederheimer, New York;
From whom purchased by the Albright Art Gallery in 1934, Inv. Nos. 34:7.1 and 34:7.2.

L. Venturi, Pitture italiane in America, Milan, 1931, reproduced plate 66 (as by Spinello Aretino);
L. Venturi, Italian Paintings in America, New York, 1933, reproduced plate 66 (as by Spinello Aretino);
B. Berenson, Pitture italiane del Rinascimento, 1936, p. 207;
A.C. Ritchie, Catalogue of the Paintings and Sculpture in the Permanent Collection, Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, 1949, pp. 112, 198, Cat. Nos. 53, 54;
Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, Albright Art Gallery, August 16, 1950, p. 142;
R. Offner, “Ray of Light on Giovanni del Biondo’s Early Works,” Florentine Mitteilungen, Vol. VII, 1956, p. 188;
B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Florentine School, London, 1963, Vol. I, p. 84;
M. Boskovits, Giovanni da Milano, Budapest, 1966, p. 30;
R. Offner and K. Steinweg, Corpus of Florentine Painting: Giovanni del Biondo, New York, 1967, Section IV, v. IV, Pt. I, pp. IV, VII, CI, 10, 16, 93-94, pl. XXI, reproduced Nos. 1 and 2;
B.B. Fredericksen and F. Zeri, Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Private Collections, Cambridge, MA, 1972, pp. 88, 302, 566;
M. Boskovits, Pittura Fiorentina alla vigilia del Rinascimento,
Florence 1975, p. 305;
The Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, 1862, 125 Masterpieces from the Collection of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, New York 1987, pp. 8-9, reproduced p. 9.

With an artistic activity that spanned the second half of the trecento almost exactly, Giovanni del Biondo was one of a group of artists—together with Agnolo Gaddi, Niccolò di Pietro Gerini and Mariotto di Nardo—that bridged the divide between the first generation of Giotto’s followers in Florence (exemplified by Taddeo Gaddi, his probable master) and the innovators active in the early years of the 15th century.  He appears to have been a rather popular artist and was quite prolific, working until the end of his life.  Dated paintings survive from all periods of his career so that his development is perhaps easier to trace and understand than many of his contemporaries, although he adhered to many of the same prototypes throughout his life.   

These panels depicting the Archangel Gabriel and the Virgin Annunciate, are fragments from a larger panel depicting the Annunciation.  They are relatively early works by del Biondo, dating to the early to mid 1360s, thus making it one of the first treatments of the subject by the artist.  Both Offner and Boskovits (see Literature) have dated the painting to this period of del Biondo’s activity, and Offner has noted that the attenuated fingers of Gabriel’s raised hand, derived from Orcagna, is a stylistic device that he used in the figure of Saint John the Baptist in a Triptych with the Presentation of 1364 (Accademia, Florence).  The size of the panels suggests that the original composition must have been a quite large and impressive painting, as do the exquisitely executed decorative motifs in both (Offner and Steinweg, in fact, note that in its original state, this Annunciation was Giovanni del Biondo’s "most monumental and decorative treatment of this theme, which he would return to repeatedly in his later years").

The Albright-Knox panels exemplify the elegant and sumptuous style fashionable in Florence in the second half of the 14th century of which Giovanni del Biondo was one of the primary exponents.  The Virgin is shown with a serene expression, her hands crossed accepting the surprising news of her pregnancy from Gabriel.  She is seated on a dias covered in an exquisite brocade, decorated in floral and animal motifs; her dress and the border of her mantle are similarly decorated.  Gabriel is also opulently dressed.  The punchwork in the haloes of both figures is particularly elaborate, with a running pattern of a rose design (perhaps a reference to the Virgin as the 'Rose of Sharon'), again an Orcagnesque element in the composition.  The presence of the dove of the Holy Ghost, the vestiges of which are still discernable at the left edge of the Virgin Annunciate, is confirmed by the rays of light chased into the gold ground, as is the more powerful presence of God the Father by the more numerous rays coming from above.