Master of the San Niccolò Altarpiece

The Crucifixion and Adoration of the Magi, with the Annunciation above

Auction Closed

May 20, 03:42 PM GMT

Estimate

100,000 - 150,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

Property from a Distinguished Private Collection

Master of the San Niccolò Altarpiece

Active in Florence circa 1360-1390

The Crucifixion and Adoration of the Magi, with the Annunciation above

tempera on panel

panel: 25 by 12 ⅜ in.; 63.5 by 31.6 cm.

framed: 27 by 13 ½ in; 68.6 by 34.3 cm.

Probably Gaboriaud sale, Paris, 1930;
Probably Fernand Nathan;
Thence probably by descent to his son, until 1994;
Private collector, by 1994;
By whom anonymously sold, Paris, Artcurial, 7 November 2012, lot 3 (as by Francesco di Michele);
Where acquired by the present collector.

R. Offner, "The Mostra del Tesoro di Firenze Sacra-I," in Burlington Magazine, vol. 63, no. 365, 1933, p. 84, note 60.

This Florentine master’s eponymous work is a triptych painted for the sacristy in San Niccolò d'Oltrarno in Florence. Richard Offner was the first to compile a list of this artist’s works in his 1933 Burlington article in which he reviewed a group of works presented in Saint Mark's convent in Florence. Offner places this rare master firmly in the ambient of Orcagna, the great inheritor of the Giottesque tradition in Florence, noting that he was "gifted beyond the rule of his contemporaries" (see Literature).

It has been suggested that these wings would have originally been matched with a Madonna and Child with Saints by the artist at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco (inv. 50.24.1) which has traditionally carried an attribution to Niccolò di Tommaso.

We are grateful to Christopher Daly and Maximillian Hernandez for their assistance in the cataloguing of this lot.