The Madonna and Child

We are grateful to Everett Fahy for his assistance in cataloguing this work. Mr. Fahy states (written communication, 1 September 2005) that it is an 'intriguing [and] unusually well preserved painting' and that the Christ Child is similar to a Christ Child in an altarpiece attributed to Alessandro Buono in the Galleria Capodimonte, Naples (see P.L. de Castris, Museo e Gallerie Nazionali di Capodimonte le collezioni borboniche e post-unitarie. Dipinti dal XIII al XVI secolo, Naples, 1999, p. 51, no. 19). The Virgin can be compared to the one in a Nativity by the Master of Ischia (ibid., p. 171, no. 155), and her facial features resemble those of several of the figures in the polyptych by Stefano Sparano (ibid, p. 229, no. 220).