Old Masters Evening Sale | 西洋古典油畫晚拍

Old Masters Evening Sale | 西洋古典油畫晚拍

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 6. FRANCESCO BOTTICINI | Saint Nicholas enthroned with Saints Hubert, Dominic, Jerome and Anthony of Padua | 弗朗契斯科・波提其尼 |《聖尼格老登位,聖胡伯、聖道明、聖傑羅姆與帕多瓦的聖安東尼在旁》.

The Property of Downside Abbey General Trust | 唐賽得教堂通用信託基金會收藏

FRANCESCO BOTTICINI | Saint Nicholas enthroned with Saints Hubert, Dominic, Jerome and Anthony of Padua | 弗朗契斯科・波提其尼 |《聖尼格老登位,聖胡伯、聖道明、聖傑羅姆與帕多瓦的聖安東尼在旁》

Auction Closed

December 4, 08:03 PM GMT

Estimate

100,000 - 150,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

The Property of Downside Abbey General Trust

唐賽得教堂通用信託基金會收藏

FRANCESCO BOTTICINI

弗朗契斯科・波提其尼

Florence 1446 - 1497

1446 - 1497年,佛羅倫薩

Saint Nicholas enthroned with Saints Hubert, Dominic, Jerome and Anthony of Padua

《聖尼格老登位,聖胡伯、聖道明、聖傑羅姆與帕多瓦的聖安東尼在旁》


tempera on panel

蛋彩畫板

122.5 x 114 cm.; 48¼ x 44⅞ in.

122.5 x 114公分;48 ¼ x 44 ⅞英寸

Dom Augustine James, The Story of Downside Abbey Church, 1961, p. 106;

Dom Charles Fitzgerald-Lombard and Dom David Foster, An Introduction and Guide to Downside Abbey, 1981, p. 8, illustrated p. 9.

This hitherto unknown panel is an early work by Botticini, one of the most successful painters in Renaissance Florence. It was first attributed to Botticini by Lord Clark in in 1948. The artist enjoyed considerable commercial success both in his production of large-scale altarpieces and smaller paintings intended for domestic setting or private devotion, particularly tondi depicting the Madonna, including the tender Madonna and Child in a landscape, sold in these Rooms, 3 July 2013, lot 18, for £410,000.


The design recalls the remarkably comparable panel of very similar dimensions, formerly in the Woodward collection, and also from the artist's early period, which shows Saint Nicholas enthroned, with Saints Catherine of Alexandria, Lucy, Margaret and Apollonia.1 In the Woodward panel the male saint is seated on a throne in much the same way as the present Saint Nicholas, with the disposition of the attendant female saints matching the positions of the corresponding male saints seen here. It seems likely that the same cartoon was used to lay out the two designs.


The same marbled parapet, with the same trees poking from behind (though placed in different positions), provides the backdrop to both paintings. The unchanged marbled parapet accompanied by the same disposition of the various saints is also found in another early work by Botticini, the Madonna and Child with Saints Mary Magdalene, John the Baptist, Anthony Abbot and Francis, in the Pieve di San Pietro in Romena, Pratovecchio.2


We are grateful to Professor Andrea De Marchi for endorsing the attribution on the basis of a digital photo.


1 Panel, 115 x 122 cm.; see L. Venturini, Francesco Botticini, Pisa 1994, p. 99, no. 1, reproduced fig. 1. 

2 Panel 172 x 158 cm.; Venturini 1994, p. 100, no. 5, reproduced fig. 5.