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Lot Essay
The so-called Master of the Dominican Effigies takes his name from panel depicting Christ and the Virgin enthroned with seventeen Dominican saints and beati in the Archivio di Santa Maria Novella, Florence (R. Offner, 1984, loc. cit., pp. 292-297). Though his identity remains elusive, this anonymous artist working in the wake of Pacino di Bonaguida, and was one of the most important figures of Florentine manuscript illumination in the second quarter of the 14th century.
First identified by Osvald Sirén in 1926, who called him the Master of the Lord Lee Polyptych, the anonymous master acquired his current moniker a few years later from Richard Offner, who worked to distinguish his style from that of his contemporaries, the so-called Biadaiolo Illuminator and Master of the Cappella Medici Polyptych. In subsequent years, Bernard Berenson argued that all three anonymous artists were one and the same, and Miklós Boskovits later agreed in part, suggesting that the Biadaiolo Illuminator was in fact the Master of the Dominican Effigies in his early career. This explains the attribution ascribed to the present triptych in previous publications (loc. cit.).
The master's eponymous work in Florence can be dated to just after 1336, given the inclusion of Maurice of Hungary, who had died that year, though the artist was likely active from circa 1310. Angelo Tartuferi proposes a date of circa 1325-30 for the present painting, placing it in the artist’s early career and therefore within the group of works given in the past to the Biadaiolo Illuminator.
We are grateful to Angelo Tartuferi for endorsing the attribution on the basis of photographs and proposing a date of circa 1325-30.
First identified by Osvald Sirén in 1926, who called him the Master of the Lord Lee Polyptych, the anonymous master acquired his current moniker a few years later from Richard Offner, who worked to distinguish his style from that of his contemporaries, the so-called Biadaiolo Illuminator and Master of the Cappella Medici Polyptych. In subsequent years, Bernard Berenson argued that all three anonymous artists were one and the same, and Miklós Boskovits later agreed in part, suggesting that the Biadaiolo Illuminator was in fact the Master of the Dominican Effigies in his early career. This explains the attribution ascribed to the present triptych in previous publications (loc. cit.).
The master's eponymous work in Florence can be dated to just after 1336, given the inclusion of Maurice of Hungary, who had died that year, though the artist was likely active from circa 1310. Angelo Tartuferi proposes a date of circa 1325-30 for the present painting, placing it in the artist’s early career and therefore within the group of works given in the past to the Biadaiolo Illuminator.
We are grateful to Angelo Tartuferi for endorsing the attribution on the basis of photographs and proposing a date of circa 1325-30.