Luca di Tommé

C. De Benedictis “Il Maestro della Pietà. Iconografia e devozione” in Opera e giorni. Studi su mille anni di arte europea dedicati a Max Seidel, edited by K. Bergdolt and G. Bonsanti, Venice 2001, pp. 163-166. reproduced fig. 1 (as Master of the Pietà).

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 and incorporated frame remain intact. The paint layer is slightly dirty, but not unattractive. The painting itself shows no real restoration, except for the lower right corner, where a fairly significant portion of the standing saint was damaged. This damage may have encompassed some areas on the right side in the frame and some of the tooled background immediately to the right of the crucified figure on this side. The extreme left edge of the figure on the lower left may have also received some attention.
"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."

For further biographical information on this anonymous master, please see lot 15.  

Largely adhering to Simone Martini’s matrices, the style of the Master of the Pietà oscillated in influence between that artist and Pietro Lorenzetti and Luca di Tommé.  This painting corresponds to those works completed earlier in his career, when his figures were endowed with an emotional intensity inspired by Lippo Memmi and Simone Martini.  The panel also bears a striking affinity with the Crucifixion now in the Institute of Arts, Detroit (inv. no. 35.11-35.12), not only in the slender yet monumental figures and the pose of Saint John the Evangelist but also in the sophisticated use of space.¹  The figures in the present panel however are more advanced and refined, particularly that of the Magdalene who, rather than viewed in profile, is here wrapped around the cross and shown from over her right shoulder, demonstrating a clear understanding of perspective and compositional inventiveness.

The miniature like detail of the pelican’s nest above the cross is a touching and interesting motif: according to legend, the pelican pierced her own breast with her beak to feed her chicks with blood from her own heart.  This image of self-sacrifice was used in medieval art as a symbol of Christ’s sacrifice for humankind and a parallel for the Eucharist.  Cristina De Benedictis also notes the artist’s unusual decision to depict the two thieves despite the diminutive scale of the panel.  These iconographical choices, combined with the intensely expressive figures, attest that this panel was specifically designed for devotion within a domestic setting, to be used “come veicolo di coinvolgimento emotive e stimolo ad una intima e privata meditazione”.² 

 

1.  See C. de Benedictis under Literature, op. cit., reproduced p. 165, fig. 3.
2.  Ibid., translates: “as a vehicle for emotional involvement and a stimulus for intimate and private meditation”.