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Lot Essay
This painting, which is characteristically signed by Giovanni Speranza, repeats a composition invented by his master, Bartolomeo Montagna, in the Galleria Estense, Modena, signed and dated 1503. The prototype does not include the figure of Saint Joseph, and is known in another autograph version, similarly signed and dated, in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
The unique relationship between the workshop of Giovanni Speranza and that of his master has been investigated by Professor Lionello Puppi on several occasions: he concluded ‘non si tratta di relazione di reciproco scambio ma di senso unico’, noting that the workshop of Speranza received compositional ideas from the workshop of Montagna, and reused them with little or no variation, possibly to supply a different sector of the market (op. cit.). This panel is one of the finest examples of this practice.
This painting was included in the celebrated exhibtion Art Treasures of the United Kingdom in Manchester in 1857, which remains the largest art exhibition ever held in the United Kingdom. With over 16,000 works on display, the exhibition attracted over 1.3 million visitors over 142 days. The main advisor was the German art historian Gustav Waagen, who had published his Treasures of Art in Great Britain only three years earlier.
We are grateful to Professor Mauro Lucco and Professor Peter Humfrey for independently confirming the attribution, respectively on the basis of photographs and after inspection of the original.
The unique relationship between the workshop of Giovanni Speranza and that of his master has been investigated by Professor Lionello Puppi on several occasions: he concluded ‘non si tratta di relazione di reciproco scambio ma di senso unico’, noting that the workshop of Speranza received compositional ideas from the workshop of Montagna, and reused them with little or no variation, possibly to supply a different sector of the market (op. cit.). This panel is one of the finest examples of this practice.
This painting was included in the celebrated exhibtion Art Treasures of the United Kingdom in Manchester in 1857, which remains the largest art exhibition ever held in the United Kingdom. With over 16,000 works on display, the exhibition attracted over 1.3 million visitors over 142 days. The main advisor was the German art historian Gustav Waagen, who had published his Treasures of Art in Great Britain only three years earlier.
We are grateful to Professor Mauro Lucco and Professor Peter Humfrey for independently confirming the attribution, respectively on the basis of photographs and after inspection of the original.