.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
This small panel is a rare example of the work of Niccolò di Buonaccorso, one of the most talented artists in late fourteenth-century Siena. After the second plague that struck the city in 1363, many workshops responded to a greater demand for pictures for private devotion, often made on an intimate scale, such as the present lot.
Niccolò di Buonaccorso is documented in Siena in 1372, and was registered in the painters’ guild, Arte dei pittori, between 1378 and 1386, though he most likely began his training at an earlier date, almost certainly in the workshop of Jacopo del Pellicciaio. His style was profoundly influenced by Lippo Memmi and the Master of the Palazzo Venezia Madonna, themselves key followers of Simone Martini. His characteristically refined manner is shown here through his use of sgraffito, delicately scratching gold leaf to create the effect of shimmering drapery. It was a technique that he mastered and one that was used to notable effect in many of his finest panels, such as the Madonna and Child with Saints (Boston, Museum of Fine Arts), Madonna and Child Enthroned (Prague, Národní Muzeum) and The Marriage of the Virgin (London, National Gallery), which is one of only two known signed works. The reverse of the London panel is decorated in an ornamental manner, with a rhomboid pattern; in similar fashion, the reverse of this lot is painted with a porphyry effect, suggesting that it may have once been part of a foldable triptych or diptych intended to be closed.
Niccolò di Buonaccorso is documented in Siena in 1372, and was registered in the painters’ guild, Arte dei pittori, between 1378 and 1386, though he most likely began his training at an earlier date, almost certainly in the workshop of Jacopo del Pellicciaio. His style was profoundly influenced by Lippo Memmi and the Master of the Palazzo Venezia Madonna, themselves key followers of Simone Martini. His characteristically refined manner is shown here through his use of sgraffito, delicately scratching gold leaf to create the effect of shimmering drapery. It was a technique that he mastered and one that was used to notable effect in many of his finest panels, such as the Madonna and Child with Saints (Boston, Museum of Fine Arts), Madonna and Child Enthroned (Prague, Národní Muzeum) and The Marriage of the Virgin (London, National Gallery), which is one of only two known signed works. The reverse of the London panel is decorated in an ornamental manner, with a rhomboid pattern; in similar fashion, the reverse of this lot is painted with a porphyry effect, suggesting that it may have once been part of a foldable triptych or diptych intended to be closed.