The Madonna and Child

In 1913 Bernard Berenson published a group of panels by a hand whom he named after two altarpieces at San Miniato al Tedesco, a town above the Arno valley between Florence and Pisa. Formed under the influence of Fra Filippo Lippi, the master later responded to the early work of Botticelli and Cosimo Rosselli. This is one of four autograph variants of what was evidently a popular composition, a fifth variant of which by a contemporary hand is recorded by Richetti (loc. cit.). The attribution of this panel was endorsed by both Berenson and Federico Zeri, as photographs in their respective archives attest: Richetti presumably knew of it only from the photograph held by the latter. Indeed, he erroneously posits that the painting may have been significantly reduced along the lower edge since all known photographs of the painting omit the parapet behind which the Madonna and Child are placed.