- 210
Circle of Piero di Cosimo
Description
- Circle of Piero di Cosimo
- Three episodes from the Creation
- tempera and oil on panel
- 29 by 54 3/8 in.; 73.7 by 138.3 cm.
Catalogue Note
As Dennis Geronimus indicates, the somewhat eccentrically portrayed figures and sparse landscape in this painting are reminiscent of those in the Master of Serumido’s Annunciation at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (inv. no. 14708, fig. 1).2 Like the Master of Serumido, the author of this painting was almost certainly working in the ambit of Piero di Cosimo, however we see also the influence of Filippino Lippi. Geronimus notes parallels between this Creation scene and Lippi’s dramatic fresco of Saint Philip Driving the Dragon from the Temple of Hieropolis, in the Strozzi chapel in the church of Santa Maria Novela, Florence. The striding pose of Saint Philip, in Lippi’s fresco, his arm raised to banish the dragon, is echoed here in the dynamic poses of God the Father.
We are grateful to Dennis Geronimus for his assistance in the cataloguing of this lot on the basis of photographs.
1. F. Zeri, “Eccentrici fiorentini”, in Bollettino d’Arte, IV, XLVII, 1962, pp. 216–236; Serena Padovani, “I ritratti Doni, Raffaello e il suo ‘eccentrico’ amico, il Maestro di Serumido”, in Paragone, 3, LVI, 2005, no. 61, pp. 3-26.
2. Private written communication with Dennis Geronimus, dated 14 December 2014.