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Lot Essay
This fine devotional panel belongs to a select group of works given to the Master of the Cappella Rinuccini, possibly known as Matteo di Pacino. The identification of this master is owed to Richard Offner (Studies in Florentine Painting, New York, 1927, pp. 109-126) who first recognised his participation in the execution of the frescoes in the Cappella Rinuccini in the church of Santa Croce in Florence. The iron gate to the chapel bears the name Rinuccini and the date 1371, and inside a cycle of frescoes is dedicated to the Birth of the Virgin and to Mary Magdalene. The upper register was executed by Giovanni da Milano, who is last documented in Florence in 1366. Offner proposed that the cycle was then subsequently completed by an artist who was, unlike Giovanni, ‘formed on indigenous Florentine traditions.’ (ibid., p. 120).
In 1973, the Master of the Cappella Rinuccini was identified with the Florentine Matteo di Pacino by Luciano Bellosi (‘Due note per la pittura fiorentina del trecento’ Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institute in Florenz, 1973, XVIII, p. 189), who compared the former’s work to the signed and dated triptych by Matteo di Pacino, Coronation of the Virgin and Saints Martin and John the Baptist (formerly Rome, Stroganoff collection); another triptych by the artist, showing the Madonna and Child Enthroned, is in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (fig. 1). Matteo di Pacino was registered with the Arte dei Medici e Speziali from 1359 to 1394, and it is likely that he trained in the workshop of Andrea di Cione, called Orcagna. Together with his brothers Jacopo and Nardo, Orcagna was the dominant force in Florence in the mid-fourteenth century, and his influence can be felt in this Madonna and Child.
In 1973, the Master of the Cappella Rinuccini was identified with the Florentine Matteo di Pacino by Luciano Bellosi (‘Due note per la pittura fiorentina del trecento’ Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institute in Florenz, 1973, XVIII, p. 189), who compared the former’s work to the signed and dated triptych by Matteo di Pacino, Coronation of the Virgin and Saints Martin and John the Baptist (formerly Rome, Stroganoff collection); another triptych by the artist, showing the Madonna and Child Enthroned, is in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (fig. 1). Matteo di Pacino was registered with the Arte dei Medici e Speziali from 1359 to 1394, and it is likely that he trained in the workshop of Andrea di Cione, called Orcagna. Together with his brothers Jacopo and Nardo, Orcagna was the dominant force in Florence in the mid-fourteenth century, and his influence can be felt in this Madonna and Child.