Niccolò di Pietro Gerini

Private Collection, Rome, before 1920, and in Italy until at least 1925;
Private collection, France;
Alexander M. Bing, New York;
Gift of Alexander M. and Mrs. Florence Bing to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1948 (acc. no. 48.1).

Vancouver, Vancouver Art Gallery and Winnepeg, Winnepeg Art Gallery, Great masters of the Italian Renaissance, 1400-1600, October 4-December 15, 1953.

R. van Marle, The Italian School of Paintings, vol. IX, The Hague 1927, pp. 244 and 246, reproduced, fig. 158 (as Andrea di Giusto Manzini);
Los Angeles County Museum Bulletin of the Art Division, Summer 1950, vol. III, no. 2, p. 18 (as Andrea di Giusto);
Great masters of the Italian Renaissance, 1400-1600, exhibition catalogue, Vancouver 1953, p. 15;
Chinese Gold & Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, exhibition catalogue, Stockholm 1954, p. 15, cat. no. 9;
P. Wescher and E. Feinblatt, Los Angeles County Museum, Catalogue of Paintings I: Catalogue of Italian French and Spanish Paintings, XV-XVIII Century, Los Angeles 1954, p. 15, cat. no. 9, reproduced (as Andrea di Giusto Manzini); 
R. Longhi, "Review of Los Angeles County Museum, Catalogue of Paintings I: Catalogue of Italian French and Spanish Paintings, XV-XVIII Century", in Paragone-Arte, vol. I, November 1954, p. 64 (where he states that the attribution to Andrea di Giusto is untenable);
B. Fredericksen and F. Zeri, Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections, Cambridge, Massachusetts 1972, p. 591 (as Florence, 14th century);
S. Schaefer, et al., European Painting and Sculpture in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles 1987, p. 104, reproduced (as Florentine);
S. Caroselli, Italian Panel Painting of the Early Renaissance, Los Angeles 1994, pp. 16, 94-5, reproduced.

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com , an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This panel has been recently and well restored. The frame encases the entire work and although there is a vertical crack running through the center of the panel of the reverse, this crack does not manifest itself on the surface of the picture, except very slightly through the chest of the baby Jesus and through the saint with the yellow gown. The painting and frame have been recently restored and it is more than likely that a fair amount of reworking of the frame has taken place; the picture itself seems to have been more resilient. Across the bottom edge in the shadowed portion of the embroidered background there seems to be some restoration but in the figures of the saints and their clothing and also in the Madonna and child, the condition seems to be very good. Under ultraviolet light the restoration is sensitive to allow normal signs of age to be visible and again in the Madonna and Child, very little if any restoration has been applied. The gilding to the background and to the halos may have been augmented slightly but has been very nicely handled. It is more than likely that the picture itself is very well preserved and that the restoration is very sensitive. The restoration to the frame is well done and only the extreme bottom edge of the painting has received any quantity of restoration. The picture should be hung as is.
"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."

This delightful panel is entirely characteristic of the small-scale devotional panels that enjoyed huge popularity in Florence in the wake of the Black Death that paralysed Europe in 1348. Niccolò di Pietro Gerini was one of the best-known exponents of such panels, probably as much to do with the extraordinary length of his career, which spanned several generations of Florentine painting (circa 1360-1415), as anything else. Gerini probably received his initial training in the workshop of Taddeo Gaddi (c. 1320-1366) and his style seems to be a fusion of those of Gaddi and his great rival in mid-14^th century Florence, Orcagna (active 1343 – 1368). Gerini's most frequent collaborator was indeed Orcagna's brother, Jacopo di Cione (circa 1320 – circa 1398), an artist with whom his work has often been confused. While the overall design of the present work has much in keeping with other devotional panels of this type, the decorative patterning of the background seems to be unique in Gerini's oeuvre and was probably included at the particular request of the patron. Stylistically the present work may be closely compared with Gerini's Coronation of the Virgin in Montreal.¹

Although traditionally identified as the work of Gerini (according to a 1925 label on the reverse), during the middle part of the 20^th century the painting underwent several changes of attribution. In 1927 Van Marle attributed it to Andrea di Giusto, endorsed in 1954 by Wesscher, but discredited by Longhi (1954) and Fredericksen and Zeri (1972). More recently, the attribution to Gerini has been endorsed by Mr. Everett Fahy, to whom we are grateful.

1. B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Florentine School, vol. I, Greenwich 1963, p. 160, reproduced plate 368.