Giovanni del Biondo

Private collection, near Florence;
Acquired by the family of the present owner by 1965.

Bregenz, Künstlerhaus Palais Thurn und Taxis, Meisterwerke der Malerei aus Privatsammlungen im Bodenseegebiet, 1 July - 30 September 1965, no. 42.

G. Wilhelm et. al., Meisterwerke der Malerei aus Privatsammlungen im Bodenseegebiet, exh. cat., Bregenz 1965, p. 43;
R. Offner and K. Steinweg, A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting, section IV, vol. V, New York 1969, pp. 29-30, reproduced pl. V;
M. Boskovits, Pittura fiorentina alla vigilia del Rinascimento, 1370–1400, Florence 1975, p. 311 (as datable to 1375–80).

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 painting appears to be in good condition overall. Minor losses in the figures' faces have been restored, while a large loss in Mary's shoulder, probably related to a now-missing large star, has been given a neutral tone. Lifting following the vertical wood grain is visible in the left side of Mary's face. Darkening of the blue pigment, a common aging defect, has developed in Mary's mantle. While much of the gilding in the background has been reinforced with new gold leaf, the rubbed gold leaf in the child's swaddling has been left alone, revealing the white ground layer. The painted patterns on the gilded edgings of the garments are restoration. The wood panel support retains its original thickness and displays a mild convex lateral warp. The frame attached along the curved apex is original, while the framing elements on the vertical (side) and horizontal (bottom) potions are not; the seam between the two is visible upon close inspection. The areas of tented paint should be set down to prevent losses from developing. In all other respects, the painting displays no need of conservation intervention and may be displayed in its current state.
"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 composition and colouring of the panel single it out as one of Giovanni del Biondo’s most beautiful works’: thus begins Offner and Steinweg’s critical analysis of this impressive panel. Del Biondo is first recorded when, in 1356, he was granted Florentine citizenship as ‘Iohannes Biondi de Casentino pictor’. It is likely he was born in Casentino, a valley in the province of Arezzo, though which the Arno runs before reaching Florence. It is thought that Del Biondo’s artistic career may have began in the workshop of the brothers Andrea and Nardo di Cione. The influence of the former seems initially the most pronounced and is visible in the severity and hieratic style of the early works of del Biondo. By the time he had established his mature style, del Biondo had moved away from these qualities and his works are better defined by a lighter palette, a less somber mood, and an increased delight in surface ornament, as visible here in the exceptionally beautiful gold cloth in which the Christ Child is enveloped. An execution date proposed by Offner of just before 1377 is based on comparison with one of del Biondo’s signed work dated to that year: The Madonna and Child in the Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena.¹ Offner remarked upon the panel’s adherence to Florentine Trecento models, making particular reference to a panel by the Master of the Dominican Effigies.² The Christ Child’s outward gaze, and the fact that He is enveloped in the Virgin’s embroidered robe both find parallels in Niccolò di Tommaso’s painting of 1362 formerly in the Stoclet collection, Brussels,³ but Offner believed Giovanni del Biondo had succeeded in giving “a new and individual solution to the composition”. His Christ Child is held in a more naturalistic way by the Madonna, His upper body emerging from her tender embrace, thus simplifying the composition for greater emotional and pictorial impact.

This intimate composition almost certainly influenced the panel of the same subject given to the workshop of del Biono in the collection of the Isaac Delgado Museum of Art in New Orleans. Although the condition of that panel is compromised, the presence of the Madonna, her long tapered fingers, the way that the Child is tightly swaddled, and the common clear influence of Ambrogio Lorenzetti in both pictures also support their common dating to the mid/late 70s. Lorenzetti’s influence is also visible in the present panel in the haphazard decorative motifs of the Virgin’s robes; a markedly Sienese trait, as well as in the proportions of the Madonna’s head, the way the Child clasps his mother’s breast, and the effective recession created in the depiction of the infant’s forehead.

1. Inv. no. 584; reproduced in R. Fremantle, Florentine Gothic Painters from Giotto to Masaccio. A guide to painting in and near Florence, 1300 to 1450, London 1975, p. 248, reproduced fig. 496.
2. See R. Offner & K. Steinweg 1969, sec. III, vol. VII, reproduced pl. XI and p. 34n.
3. Sold by Mme. Michèle Stoclet, from the collection formed by Adolphe Stoclet, London, Sotheby’s, 30 June 1965, lot 20.