Lot Essay
The composition, loosely inspired by Domenico Ghirlandaio's altarpiece of 1485 for the Sassetti Chapel in Santa Trinità, Florence, was probably first used by Mainardi for his tabernacle fresco at Brozzi, near Florence. The present panel is related to a series of four other tondi executed from the same cartoon (of which the others are: Muzeum Narodowe, Warsaw, no. 131639; Ernst-Museum sale, von Kilenyi, Budapest, 26 Nov. 1917, lot 79, and subsequently in a sale at Lempertz, Cologne, 26 Nov. 1958; Museum der bildende Künste, Stuttgart, sold 1923; and the painting offered in these Rooms, 8 December 1995, lot 66).
The present painting will be published as attributed to Mainardi by Lisa Venturini in her article Il Maestro del 1506: La tarda attività di Bastiano Mainardi, which is scheduled to appear in the fifth volume of Studi di storia dell'arte, which will bear the date 1994 but will be issued in 1996.
The present painting will be published as attributed to Mainardi by Lisa Venturini in her article Il Maestro del 1506: La tarda attività di Bastiano Mainardi, which is scheduled to appear in the fifth volume of Studi di storia dell'arte, which will bear the date 1994 but will be issued in 1996.