Venetian School, third quarter of the 15th Century

"The following condition report has been provided by Henry Gentle, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The panels are poplar. Mary Magdalene has some splits in the corners caused by nails. The paint surface is predominantly stable although raised. The gold background upper left and right and lower left and right has been restored. There are also restored losses to the red cloak, blue dress and to the face and hands. The varnish is discoloured, its removal would improve the tonality. St .Lawrence is similar to Mary Magdalene with restored losses to upper left and right and lower left and right within the gold background( including part of the halo , left). Some augmentation to the griddle and the right hand. Similar varnish."
"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."

These two panels once formed part of a larger polyptych, showing The Assumption of the Virgin with Saint Thomas and other saints, the majority of which is now preserved in the Art Institute of Chicago.¹  The other panels belonging to the group show The Assumption of the Virgin with Saint Thomas receiving the Virgin's girdle and six other panels showing full-length saints: Monica, two Bishop saints, Nicholas of Tolentino, Anthony Abbot, and Giustina of Padua.²  The polyptych was presumably an commission since Saints Nicholas of Tolentino and Anthony Abbot both belong to that Order, and Saint Monica is Augustine's mother.

The paintings belonging to this polyptych were once believed to have originated in the workshop of Alvise Vivarini but are now generally considered to be by an anonymous Venetian artist working during the third quarter of the 15th century.  An attribution to Ansuino da Forlì has been tentatively proposed by Minardi.²

We are grateful to Prof. Miklós Boskovits for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.

1.  See C. Lloyd, Italian Paintings before 1600 in the Art Insitute of Chicago, Princeton 1993, pp. 274-78, reproduced pp. 276-77.
2.  The fact that Mary Magdalene and Lawrence are half-length indicates that the panels have been cut down. The tooling on all of these panels is identical and confirms that they once belonged to the same complex.
3.  See M. Minardi, in Arte Cristiana, vol. LXXXVI, 1998, pp. 95 ff.