North Italian School, 15th Century

Count Giovanni Gozzadini (1810-1887), Bologna, Italy, and thence by inheritance to his heirs;
By whom sold, Bologna, Rambaldi, "Gozzadini Sale," 12 May 1906, lot 60 (as School of Tura);
Charles Butler (1822-1910), London, England and Warren Wood, Hatfield, Hertford, England;
With Blakeslee Galleries, New York, before 1915;
By whom sold, New York, American Art Association, "Blakeslee Galleries Sale," 21 April 1915, lot 12 (as School of Cosimo Tura; incorrectly described as on canvas and with the fly on Christ's leg painted out);
Where purchased for $375 by W.E. Benjamin;
With E. and A. Silberman Galleries, New York;
From whom acquired by Thomas S. Hyland, Greenwich, CT, 1958;
By whom sold to The J. Paul Getty Museum, 1970.

B. Fredericksen, Catalogue of the Paintings in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu 1972, p. 19, no. 22 (as Emilian School, Fifteenth Century);
A. Bacchi, "Vicende della pittura nell'età di Giovanni Il Bentivoglio," in Bentivolorum magnificentia:  Principe e cultura a Bologna nel Rinascimento, Rome 1984, pp. 301-302, reproduced fig. 7 (as a Bolognese artist 1460-1470);
D. Benati, in Le Muse e il Principe:  Arte di corte nel Rinascimento padano (A.M. Molfino and M. Natale), Modena and Milan 1991, exh. cat. Museo Poldi Pezzoli, 20 September - 1 December 1991, p. 429, reproduced fig. 455 (as a Bolognese artist, circa 1460);
D. Jaffé, Summary Catalogue of European Paintings in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles 1997, p. 63, reproduced (as Italian, Ferrarese School, 15th Century);
E. Chiappini and P. Cravedi, eds., Insetti e patrimonio artistico, Cremona 2003, reproduced p. 18;
R. Giorgi, Angeli e Demoni, Milan 2003, p. 94, reproduced (as Anonymous Ferrarese).

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 fairly recently restored, perhaps in the last 40-50 years, and should be hung as is. The original panel has been thinned considerably and conceivably the paint layer has been transferred to a new panel which has been cradled. The panel is flat and the paint layer is stable. Apart from one small spot of retouching in the upper left there are no retouches visible under ultraviolet light, Although it is more than likely that there are other retouches, for instance across the top edge and around the edges in general, the restoration work that has been done is of extremely high level and should not be disturbed. Having said this, under close examination the condition seems to be extremely good.
"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 charming and idiosyncratic depiction of the Madonna and Child is appearing here at auction for the first time in almost a century.  This work has defied easy classification and scholars are still divided in their opinions on its origins, with attributions being given at various times to artists working in Florence, Ferrara, Bologna and Lucca.  Although a satisfactory name has yet to be found for this piece, it is undeniably elegant, tender without being sentimental, and intellectual in its presentation of traditional subject matter. 

Several elements in the present work distinguish it from other, contemporary depictions of the Madonna and Child.  In addition to the distinctive gold-speckled haloes that crown the two figures, the Christ Child is given the attributes of a clear glass orb, or possibly a bubble, which he presses down into his lap, and a large, black fly, which perches on his right leg.¹  Although life-size flies were sometimes included in paintings of the mid-fifteenth through early sixteenth centuries as a means of protection against real insects and thus had no symbolic significance to the work of art itself, it would seem that paired here with the orb or soap bubble, the artist is alluding to the transience of life and Christ's coming sacrifice and death.²  It could be that the panel was intended as an altarpiece, where reflection upon mankind's redemption through Christ's death and resurrection would have been an appropriate and expected theme. 

First appearing on the market in Bologna in 1906 as part of the Gozzadini Collection sale, this Madonna and Child was given at that time to the School of Cosmè Tura.  Tura, who was court painter to the Este family of Ferrara from 1458 until the mid-1480s, had a unique, expressive style, which no doubt led early scholars to associate this quirky work with his studio.  Tura's style, however, tends to be more immediate and visceral than the elegant and quiet figures here.  Shortly after its acquisition by The Getty Museum, the work was published by Fredericksen in his 1972 catalogue of the collection as Emilian School, 15th Century.  In his entry on the painting, Fredericksen notes that Everett Fahy had recently connected the work with a Madonna Adoring the Christ Child with Saints Bernardino and Anthony in the Museo Civico, Bologna.  That picture had recently been attributed to Zanobi del Migliore, a Florentine artist who was an assistant to Fra Filippo Lippi before moving to Bologna between 1457 and 1459.  The attribution of the Getty panel to Zanobi makes sense in that he was an artist who incorporated some elements of Lippi's style --especially evident in the slender, linear gracefulness of the Madonna -- with more characteristic Emilian tendencies; however, his relative obscurity and the survival of very few known autograph works make the connection somewhat problematic.³ 

More recently, Andrea De Marchi has proposed an attribution to Baldassarre di Biagio, a Florentine artist working in Lucca in the circle of Matteo Civitali.⁴  Although the definition of this artist's oeuvre is a bit challenging, De Marchi sees a certain similarity between the present work and Baldassarre's Coronation of the Virgin with Saints Paul and Sebastian in the Chiesa dei Santi Paolino e Donato in Lucca.  Indeed, the blond, female figure in the upper left corner does resemble our Virgin and wears a similar jeweled headpiece on her forehead, and the figures' elongated, graceful hands and the linear treatment of the Virgin's robes also recall the present work.  Yet Baldassarre's altarpiece is more overtly Tuscan than the Getty panel and there is nothing to anticipate the muscular torso and almost sculptural treatment of the limbs of the infant Christ. 

Upon examining the picture first hand, both Keith Christiansen and Laurence Kanter have stopped short of attributing the work to a specific artist and have echoed Fredericksen's attribution, giving the picture to the Emilian and Bolognese Schools, respectively.  In the pose of the Christ Child, Christiansen sees a reflection of the Ferrarese painter Francesco del Cossa, while the peculiar, ovoid shapes of the figures' heads seem to echo Piero della Francesca.⁵  Further examination of the connection of the work to Cossa's circle could prove fruitful, as the Virgin seems very close to a number of his female figures, particularly the figure of Santa Caterina d'Alessandria of 1468-1469 in the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid.  Here too, however, the Christ Child appears to be without precedent, and it could be that this sophisticated image is one of -- if not the only -- work to have come down to us from this cosmopolitan artist who incorporated developments from several different artistic centers into his work. 

We are grateful to Dr. Keith Christiansen, Dr. Laurence Kanter and Dr. Andrea De Marchi for their assistance with this painting.


1.  Although this fly does not appear in the photograph of the painting in the 1915 Blakeslee Galleries Sale catalogue, it is original to the painting and must have been covered over at some point after the 1906 Rimbaldi sale, where it is evident in the photograph.
2.  J. Hall, Dictionary of Subjects & Symbols in Art, New York et. al. 1974, p. 126.
3.  The attribution of the Museo Civico panel itself is based upon little more than the appearance of the Bentivoglio family arms on its frame.  The Bentivoglios were the ruling family in Bologna and Zanobi del Migliore was known to have worked for them after his arrival in that city.  For a more full discussion of the Museo Civico panel see, F. Filippini, "Notizie di pittori fiorentini a Bologna nel Quattrocento," in Miscellanea di Storia dell'Arte in onore di Igino Benvenuto Supino, 1933, pp. 420-427, no. 198, reproduced p. 419. 
4.  For a more complete discussion of Baldassarre and his circle see, Matteo Civitali e il suo tempo, exh. cat. Lucca, Museo Nazionale di Villa Guinigi, 3 April - 11 July 2004.
5.  Keith Christiansen in written communication dated 14 September 2010.