Lorenzo di Bicci

Grafen von Reischach collection (by family tradition for generations), in whose private chapel at Schloß Riet, Baden-Wurttemberg, it hung until the 1950s;
Private collection, Ulm (Germany), until recently. 

"The following condition report has been provided by Sarah Walden, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting is on a thick poplar panel with one central joint. This is quite evident from the back but has only slightly opened in front with a faint crack down the side of the Madonna’s face and a narrowing line running up intermittently from the base towards the hand. Near the base of the joint there has been a fairly broad patch of lost paint (about one inch by three) with one or two other smaller flaking losses nearby in the drapery, which have been retouched in tratteggio. The fine wavering line of the crack within the face itself has minutely tented raised flakes, and there are a few other slightly lifting places in the head of the Madonna. Elsewhere there seems just to be an occasional one in the lower right background. Various areas sound slightly hollow in the centre of the panel, but old worm damage has evidently been treated with a consolidant (perhaps resinous) including down the length of the joint, and although some of the wood is visibly fragile from the back there is no sign of cavities immediately behind the paint surface. A further crack in the wood behind runs half way up the picture from the base on the right, but this is scarcely evident from the front. One reason for the strength and resilience of the paint is the characteristic care in the preparation of the panel, with linen included in the underlying layers of gesso. In the upper left corner a very old wood insert (six inches by two inches) was added to support the back of the panel, which had been weakened by worm. This also remarkably was replaced without disturbing the gilded surface, which is in fact slightly smoother in that part due to the stronger support behind, although in fact the insert itself went on to be worm eaten in its turn. The gold has survived in rare virtually intact state. The brocade drapery over the throne is also beautifully preserved, apart from occasional minor scratches. The silver leaf in the Christ Child”s brocade has naturally tarnished, but His drapery is largely well preserved, with a few scattered small flaking losses in the brocade while His yellow drapery is exceptionally pure and intact. His head is also remarkably well preserved. There are a few slight indents in the surface of His forehead but throughout the fine tempera brushwork is unworn and complete, with some minor old retouching in the neck near the border of the robe. The head of the Madonna also has beautifully unworn brushwork, and a fine craquelure, with a few old retouched flakes in the neck, a small retouching on one side of her lip and also at the top of the crack on her forehead. There is a narrow line of losses along the craquelure in her fingers and on the knuckles of the hand on the right. The red drapery is unusually intact and unworn generally, with retouching just below the upper gold border and by the Child’s hand. Similarly the green lining of the Madonna’s robe has survived intact with its final copper resinate unworn. Exceptionally her blue drapery, perhaps azurite, has not discoloured. There has been some minor flaking of the upper layer and final shading in the folds and in some other areas has sometimes been worn, with occasional old strengthening in places and scattered old flake losses retouched, including a rather fractured patch on her knee to the right. Little incidental flaking losses can be seen in various places across the paint surface but these are in fact rare in this unusually pure, largely undisturbed painting. The balance of tone and colour remains unchanged, and the original touch is undistorted by harsh intervention. This report was not done under laboratory conditions."
"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."

A leading figure in Florence during the second half of the 14th century, Lorenzo di Bicci belonged to the first of three generations of successful artists: his son Bicci di Lorenzo and grandson Neri di Bicci both succeeded him in running the family workshop for a period that spanned almost a century. Lorenzo di Bicci is recorded as a member of the Arte dei Medici e Speziali from 1353 to 1386, but is not documented as a painter in Florence until 1370; the year by which he was enrolled in the Florentine painters' guild. His first documented work is a painting destined for the church of Orsanmichele, datable to shortly after 1380. Seven years later Lorenzo was employed alongside Spinello Aretino and Agnolo Gaddi to help decorate the Duomo, for which he provided drawings for four statues of apostles destined for the façade of the cathedral. Despite his success, there is a notable scarcity of documented works in Lorenzo di Bicci's oeuvre and many of his commissions appear to have come from the clergy and the lower-middle class Florentine guilds.

This impressive panel almost certainly formed the central part of a triptych and, given its size, was probably destined for a chapel. It may be compared to similar panels by Lorenzo di Bicci in which the Madonna and Child appear either alone or with saints standing alongside them: compare, for example, the Madonna and Child with Saints John the Baptist and Peter, formerly with Wildenstein, New York, which is the central panel of a triptych (the two lateral leaves of which are in the Museo Nazionale di San Matteo, Pisa);¹ and the Madonna and Child, also formerly with Wildenstein, New York.²

The Madonna and Child are seated on a ledge draped with a sumptuous cloth: the delicate sgraffito reveals that the gold ground also runs beneath the lower part of the picture, indicating that no expense was spared on this commission. The decoration on the Child's drapery also reveals that silver leaf (now oxidised) originally lay beneath and the neckline and cuff of His yellow tunic are embellished with a delicate pattern in gold. The ledge on which the Madonna and Child are seated is not dissimilar to that in the central panel of Lorenzo di Bicci's triptych in the Museo della Collegiata, Empoli.³ The overall design is reminiscent of a number of Lorenzo di Bicci's compositions in which the Madonna leans into the Christ Child, enveloping him affectionately in her arms: compare, for example, the painting in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore.⁴ This painting is an early work by the artist and although it is characteristic in type, the figures recall similar compositional motifs by Andrea Orcagna in whose workshop Lorenzo di Bicci may have trained.

We are grateful to Prof. Miklós Boskovits for proposing an attribution to Lorenzo di Bicci on the basis of photographs; an attribution independently endorsed by Dott. Andrea de Marchi and Everett Fahy, to whom we are also grateful.

1. The Madonna and Child with Saints John the Baptist and Peter, measuring 118 by 68.5 cm., was sold, London, Sotheby's, 1 November 1978, lot 3, and is published by R. Offner, in A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting. A Legacy of Attributions, ed. H.B.J. Maginnis, New York 1981, p. 41, reproduced fig. 81. The lateral leaves showing Saints Anthony Abbot, Lawrence, and Lous of Toulouse and Saints Francis, Catherine, and Michael respectively are published in idem, p. 42.
2. The Madonna and Child, measuring 122 by 74 cm., was sold, London, Sotheby's, 1 November 1978, lot 4, and is published by Offner, op. cit., p. 41, reproduced fig. 82.
3. Reproduced by R. Fremantle, Florentine Gothic Painters, From Giotto to Masaccio, London 1975, p. 411, fig. 837.
4. Reproduced by Fremantle, op. cit., p. 411, fig. 839.