Francesco Curradi

Private collection, Lugano;
Acquired by the present owner in September 2006.

"The following condition report has been provided by Henry Gentle, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The painting has been recently cleaned and restored, it is lined and the paint is stable and flat. There is a repaired horizontal damage through the top of the Christ child's head and a repaired vertical damage to the right of the Madonna's head. Extensive minor pin-prick paint losses, some of which have been restored, are scattered across the paint surface and are visible under ultra-violet light. In some areas the paint has been mildly abraded exposing the light grey ground beneath, restoration applied to reduce this can be detected. The colours saturate well and their tonal quality is not compromised by a discoloured varnish. Offered in a plain moulded gilt wood frame in good condition."
"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."

Curradi, son of the sculptor Taddeo Curradi, trained in Florence under Giovanni Battista Naldini and graduated from the Accademia del Disegno in 1590.  He played an important role in Florentine Seicento painting, fusing the ideology of the Counter Reformation with his own delicate decorative charm. A secure chronology for his work is, however, difficult to establish, for his mature style was established by 1620 and changed little after that. The figures of the Madonna and Child recall those in his Madonna and Child sold in these Rooms, 1 February 1967, lot 51, while both their elevated position and the overall composition recall the Feeding of the Five Thousand  in the Chiesa di San Marco in Florence¹. The simplified arrangement of the figures and their gestures, together with their rich fabrics, is typical of Curradi's mature style, which exercised considerable influence upon many Florentine painters, including Cesare Dandini, who was his pupil, Jacopo Vignali and Carlo Dolci.

We are grateful to Dottssa. Francesca Baldassari for endorsing the attribution to  Francesco Curradi on the basis of photographs. 

1. For which see G. Cantelli, Repertorio della Pittura Fiorentina del Seicento, Fiesole 1983, p. 55, pl. 190 and 197.