Pseudo Pier Francesco Fiorentino

Mrs. H.F. Havermeyer, New York;
Her estate sale, New York, American Art Association, 10 April 1930, lot 52 (as Follower of Filippo Lippi to Ferargil);
With Ferargil, New York, no. 5441 (as School of Lippi, their label affixed to the reverse); 
Acquired in 1933 by the Brooklyn Museum using the Lydia Richardson Babbott Fund (accession no. 33.3).

B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance, Florentine School, London 1963, vol. I, p. 171 (erroneously listed as the Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist and five angels, based on Pesellino's Hainauer-Pratt Madonna, Toledo, Ohio);
B.B. Fredericksen and F. Zeri, Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections, Cambridge Mass. 1972, p. 134;
C. Strehlke, “Pseudo Pier Francesco Fiorentino,” unpublished manuscript, 1992, unpaginated, Curatorial File, Department of European Art, Brooklyn Museum (here and above as Pseudo Pier Francesco Fiorentino).

The following condition report has been provided by Karen Thomas of Thomas Art Conservation LLC., 336 West 37th Street, Suite 830, New York, NY 10018, 212-564-4024, info@thomasartconservation.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This picture is in an uneven state of preservation overall. Isolated areas of damage draw attention away from several passages that are quite well preserved. Significant wear in the Madonna's face reveals the ground below, however the preserved underdrawing allows some perception of the intended facial features. By contrast, the garments are in fairly good condition, with the white passages in particular holding up very well. Small losses are scattered throughout, most notably in the flesh passages of the Angels and Christ Child, the brightness of which is visually exacerbated by the adjacent accumulation of dirt and old varnish. Horizontal cracks with planar distortions are found across the painting, with some deep losses in the background to the left of the Madonna. The painting has been only partially cleaned — the background to the right of the figures remains covered with an accumulation of strongly discolored varnish — with only the most rudimentary retouching applied to address a few larger losses. This picture has a good deal of potential to look significantly better with careful attention. Removal of darkened varnish, dirt and old restoration, combined with a new restoration, paying special attention to bridging the still intact fragments of the Madonna's face, would draw attention away from the defects while highlighting the picture's strengths, achieving a more harmonious appearance overall.
"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."