Master of the Liverpool Madonna

Anonymous sale, Paris, Drouot Richelieu, December 15, 1992, lot 42 (as Maître de la Liverpool), reproduced opposite in color and on the catalogue cover.

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 is unrestored and in extremely good condition. There are no reinforcements on the reverse. The paint layer and the gilding are both in marvelous condition. There are a few scuffs in the upper right of the gilding, but the figures and the marble surface in the lower portion of the picture are all very well preserved. The work could easily be hung as is, or lightly cleaned.
"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."

The artist, who was active at the turn of the fifteenth century, is named after a panel of a Madonna and Child in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.  It is a subject that he found congenial, and he generally depicted the Madonna in half length and the infant Christ seated on a ledge before her.  Here he sets them against a gold ground, with a simple punched pattern of squares.  The closest comparison is to a panel in the collection of the Marchesa Marconi Graziosi, Rome.¹  The background in the Rome picture is similar, though the square-punched decoration is somewhat more elaborate, and the Christ Child, with His long, blond curls and puffy cheeks is very much the same type.  The square-punched decoration of the gold ground in the present panel is the same in a painting, possibly of a slightly earlier phase in the Master's career, in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo at Orvieto.²

In the present work the interaction between the two figures is more tender than in other paintings by the artist.  The Child leans propped against a pillow, looking up at His mother, His right hand raised to bless her, and she returns His gaze, her hands pressed together in adoration.  The motif of the Madonna in adoration appears to derive from the paintings of Antoniazzo Romano, who was an important influence on the Master of the LIverpool Madonna.  This graceful but unsentimental portrayal characterizes the small devotional panels for which the artist is known.

The attribution has been independently endorsed by Prof. Filippo Todini (on the basis of photographs) and Dott. Andrea de Marchi (after firsthand inspection). Prof. Todini considers the panel to be a late work of the artist, datable to circa 1500.

1.  See F. Todini, La Pittura Umbra, Milan 1989, vol. II, reproduced fig. 1104.
2.  Todini, op. cit., reproduced fig. 1101.