Circle of Master of the Castelsardo

Private collection, Uta, Cagliari;

Private collection, Tuscany;

Anonymous sale, Prato, Casa d'Aste Farsettiarte, 30 October 2009, lot 283 (as Hispano-Flemish School, 16th Century);

With Galeria Bernat;

From whom acquired by the present collector.

C.R. Post, “The Catalan School in the Early Renaissance” in A History of Spanish Painting, vol. XII, Cambridge 1958. pp. 484-486, reproduced fig. 210 (as Giovanni Muru);

F. Fois, “Martí Torner pittore dai molti nomi,” in Anuario de Estudios Medievales 13 (1983), p. 440, reproduced fig. 20 (as Workshop of the Master of Castelsardo);

L. Agus, “Le bottege pittoriche della prima metà del Cinquecento nel ‘Capo si Sopra,’” in Cronache di Archeologia 7 (2008), p. 118, reproduced p. 135, fig. 7, (as a lost work by the Master of Ardara);

M.G. Scano Naitza, “Il Maestro di Castelsardo: lo stato della ricerca,” in I retabli sardo-catalani dalla fine del XV agli inizi del XVI secolo e Il Maestro di Castelsardo, Cagliari, Alessandra Pasolini (ed.), Cagliari 2012, p. 19;

L. Agus, “Il Maestro di Castelsardo: la genesi della scuola di Stampace e i rapporti con il ponente ligure,” in Parol 24 (2013), p. 328, reproduced p. 338, fig. 18 (as Master of the Ardara);

E. Pusceddu, Joan Barceló II (già Maestro di Castelsardo): Questioni di pittura in Sardegna intorno al 1500, Ph.D. Dissertation, Barcelona 2014, vol. I, pp. 62, 166, 287; vol. II, reproduced p. 684, fig. 675 (as Anonymous, early fifteenth century);

M. Salis, "Artisti, opere, e committenti. Casi studio," in Rotte mediterranee della pittura: Artisti e committenti tra Sardegna e Catalogna nella prima età moderna, Perpignan 2015, p. 109, reproduced fig. 10 (as Workshop of the Master of the Castelsardo);

M. Salis, “Un’aggiunta al Maestro di Castelsardo: il frammento di predella con San Francesco rinuncia ai beni terreni: lettura preliminare e restauro,” in Locvs Amœnvs 14 (2016), pp. 51-52;

E. Pusceddu, “Un Re di fiori per Nerone: modelli desunti dalle stampe nelle botteghe sardo-catalane (1488-1518),” in Locvs Amœnvs 14 (2016), pp. 38, 41, reproduced fig. 25 (as Circle of the Master of Castelsardo);

A.V. Gonzalez, Masterpieces from the Gothic to the Renaissance (1350-1550), exhibition catalogue, Barcelona and Madrid 2020, pp. 76-80, cat. no. 9 (as Circle of the Master of Castelsardo).

Produced in the workshop of the Master of the Castelsardo, an anonymous artist active in Sardinia in the late fifteenth century, this painting takes direct reference from Albrecht Dürer’s woodblock print depicting the Lamentation of Christ, executed circa 1500. This is most evident in the figures of Saint John and one of the Marys at far left. Although the identity of the Master of the Castelsardo remains unknown, scholars have variously identified him as Giovanni Muru, Martì Tornèr, or Alonso de Sedano.