Master of Memphis (Niccolò Cartoni?)

The stable, support is cradled to the reverse. A panel join is just visible in the paint surface, running 4 cm down from the upper margin but this is the only evidence of joins and thorough inspection of the reverse is impeded by the cradling. The paint surface is secure and in good condition under an even varnish. The skin tones are a little thin as a result of wear, particular in the faces of the adults. The blue pigments of the Virgin’s robe have degraded. Inspection under UV light reveals scattered retouchings throughout, particularly in the architecture and figures, but no major areas of repaint. Offered in ornate, circular gilt wood and plaster frame in good condition.
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It was Everett Fahy who first grouped a body of works for this Florentine master, tentatively proposing that he should be identified as Niccolò Cartoni, an artist active in the workshop of Filippino Lippi¹. Also known as the Master of Tavernelle, the artist takes his name from his Saint Francis in Glory in the Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis² (for a fuller discussion of the artist, see P. Zambrano…, pp. 385-6, and pp. 608-11 for some additions to the list proposed by Fahy, op. cit.). Filippino and the Master are thought to have collaborated several times, with the latter often completing works started by Filippino, for example the Adoration of the Golden Calf in the National Gallery, London (inv. no. 4905).

The attribution is due to Professor Andrea De Marchi on the basis of photographs.

1. See E. Fahy, Some Followers of Domenico Ghirlandajo, Harvard 1968, pp. 200-02.
2. See P. Zambrano and J. Katz Nelson, Filippino Lippi, Milan 2004, p. 610, cat. no. R32, reproduced p. 466, fig. 396.