Lot Essay
In an Italian late 17th century carved and gilded frame.
The 'Master of San Miniato' was christened in 1913 by Bernard Berenson, who assembled under his name a group of eight paintings which he identified as the work of the same Florentine hand as a sacra conversazione in the Church of S. Domenico at San Miniato (Castri,
op. cit., pp.212-4 and figs.101-7 and 131-2). Berenson's nomenclature has since gained general acceptance and the artist's oeuvre has been greatly expanded; Serenella Castri lists fifty compositions, of which several are known in many versions.
Almost all the panels attributed to the 'Master of San Miniato' are Madonnas. Castri suggests that the present painting may be the earliest of these; from the embrace of the mother and child deriving from Lippi and Donatello prototypes and the typology of the tunic-clad Infant, she proposes a date in the early 1480s, immediately after the sacra conversazione from which the master takes his name.
A particularly large number of versions are known. A variant with flanking angels and an arched top is in the Detroit Institute of Art (idem., p.215, no.5, and fig.134) and one in reverse with two seraphim and a landscape background is in the Museo Bardini at Florence (idem, p.216, no.6, and fig.110); five derivations of inferior quality are recorded (idem, pp.214-5 and see figs.135 and 136)
The 'Master of San Miniato' was christened in 1913 by Bernard Berenson, who assembled under his name a group of eight paintings which he identified as the work of the same Florentine hand as a sacra conversazione in the Church of S. Domenico at San Miniato (Castri,
op. cit., pp.212-4 and figs.101-7 and 131-2). Berenson's nomenclature has since gained general acceptance and the artist's oeuvre has been greatly expanded; Serenella Castri lists fifty compositions, of which several are known in many versions.
Almost all the panels attributed to the 'Master of San Miniato' are Madonnas. Castri suggests that the present painting may be the earliest of these; from the embrace of the mother and child deriving from Lippi and Donatello prototypes and the typology of the tunic-clad Infant, she proposes a date in the early 1480s, immediately after the sacra conversazione from which the master takes his name.
A particularly large number of versions are known. A variant with flanking angels and an arched top is in the Detroit Institute of Art (idem., p.215, no.5, and fig.134) and one in reverse with two seraphim and a landscape background is in the Museo Bardini at Florence (idem, p.216, no.6, and fig.110); five derivations of inferior quality are recorded (idem, pp.214-5 and see figs.135 and 136)