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Lot Essay
The Master of San Martino Alfieri is the provisional name given to the artist of four double-sided paintings, originally from the Castello di San Martino Alfieri, near Asti (Piedmont) and now in the Pinacoteca of that town. The first to attribute the present work to that artist, who was possibly a provincial follower of the Piedmont painter Macrino d'Alba, was Giovanni Romano (see literature), who made the suggestion that it may have come from the destroyed Certosa in Asti, where Macrino had supplied frescoes in 1496. However, the donor of this composition, the tonsured figure at the right in profile, wears a black garb of the Augustinian order, thus rendering the provenance unacceptable (see E. Villata, op. cit., 200, p. 90).
The present painting is closely related to the Assumption of the Virgin, one of the four pictures now in Asti (for illustrations of those paintings see E. Villata, ibid., pp.86-87). There the angels are almost identical, although the Virgin looks heavenwards and to the left, rather than frontally as in the present work. The model for that figure would appear to be Macrino's.
We are grateful to Mr. Everett Fahy for confirming the attribution to The Master of the San Martino Alfieri.
The present painting is closely related to the Assumption of the Virgin, one of the four pictures now in Asti (for illustrations of those paintings see E. Villata, ibid., pp.86-87). There the angels are almost identical, although the Virgin looks heavenwards and to the left, rather than frontally as in the present work. The model for that figure would appear to be Macrino's.
We are grateful to Mr. Everett Fahy for confirming the attribution to The Master of the San Martino Alfieri.