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Lot Essay
We are grateful to Professor Angelo Tartuferi for confirming the present attribution to the Magdalen Master on the basis of transparencies. He dates it to circa 1280-5, and remarks on its probable Franciscan provenance (suggested by the presence of Saint Francis with his stigmata, and presumably Saint Clare, kneeling at the foot of the Cross). We are also grateful to Professor Miklós Boskovits who has also confirmed the attribution on the basis of transparenices.
The present dossal forms part of a group of similar panels and retables painted in Florence from circa 1265-90, by the Magdalen Master (first identified by O. Sirén, Toskanische Malerei im XIII Jahrhundert, Berlin 1922, pp. 264-75). The eponymous panel in the Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence, depicts the standing figure of Mary Magdalen flanked by eight small scenes from her life. Its style and execution are close to the present panel, although here the composition has been extended horizontally, and each scene is given near equal emphasis. On the left is a personification of Ecclesia, crowned and holding a cross. Slightly off-centre to the left is the Madonna and Child, depicted half-length and larger in scale than the other figures. On the right is the Crucifixion, with angels above (now damaged) and mourners below, while the tiny figures of Saints Francis and Clare kneel at the base of the Cross.
The Magdalen Master seems to have presided over a highly productive workshop active in and around Florence (Garrison lists some 25 works that can be identified as either autograph or workshop productions; see E.B. Garrison, Italian Romanesque Panel Painting, Florence 1949, p. 22). The Madonna and Child in the present work are comparable to those in a panel formerly with Jacob Hirsch, New York (ibid., no. 366, also dated 1285-90). In both works the Madonna is shown solemnly facing the front, wearing a crown and holding a flower in her right hand. The scene of the Crucifixion also finds parallels in other works by the Magdalen Master, in particular the exaggerated pose of Christ is seen on the right panel of an earlier triptych in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (ibid., no. 282), dated to circa 1265.
The present dossal forms part of a group of similar panels and retables painted in Florence from circa 1265-90, by the Magdalen Master (first identified by O. Sirén, Toskanische Malerei im XIII Jahrhundert, Berlin 1922, pp. 264-75). The eponymous panel in the Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence, depicts the standing figure of Mary Magdalen flanked by eight small scenes from her life. Its style and execution are close to the present panel, although here the composition has been extended horizontally, and each scene is given near equal emphasis. On the left is a personification of Ecclesia, crowned and holding a cross. Slightly off-centre to the left is the Madonna and Child, depicted half-length and larger in scale than the other figures. On the right is the Crucifixion, with angels above (now damaged) and mourners below, while the tiny figures of Saints Francis and Clare kneel at the base of the Cross.
The Magdalen Master seems to have presided over a highly productive workshop active in and around Florence (Garrison lists some 25 works that can be identified as either autograph or workshop productions; see E.B. Garrison, Italian Romanesque Panel Painting, Florence 1949, p. 22). The Madonna and Child in the present work are comparable to those in a panel formerly with Jacob Hirsch, New York (ibid., no. 366, also dated 1285-90). In both works the Madonna is shown solemnly facing the front, wearing a crown and holding a flower in her right hand. The scene of the Crucifixion also finds parallels in other works by the Magdalen Master, in particular the exaggerated pose of Christ is seen on the right panel of an earlier triptych in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (ibid., no. 282), dated to circa 1265.