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Lot Essay
The present panel was first attributed to the anonymous Florentine artist known as the Master of the Johnson Assumption of the Magdalen by Everett Fahy (see Christie’s, New York, 19 May 1993, lot 31). Active in Florence at the turn of the sixteenth century, this distinct hand, working in the refined manner of Lorenzo di Credi and Filippino Lippi, was first recognized by Gigetta Dalli Regoli (G. Dalli Regoli, Lorenzo di Credi, Cremona, 1966, p. 194). Mina Bacci later described the hand as that of an anonymous painter influenced by both Florentine and Ferrarese art (op. cit., p. 123).
This panel forms part of a narrative cycle from Homer’s Odyssey, painted for a marriage chest (cassone). It most likely served as one of the end panels, complementing two elongated frontal panels now in the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, which depict The Blinding of Polyphemus and The Battle with the Laestrygonians (K. D. McKnight, loc. cit.). As early as 1924, McKnight identified the present panel (then in the collection of Stanley Mortimer) as forming part of the same ensemble, allowing for a partial reconstruction of the cassone’s original format (ibid.).
Historically, the authorship of these panels has been the subject of debate. Osvald Sirén and Maurice Brockwell proposed an attribution to Francesco Granacci, citing two drawings in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, which they believed to be preparatory for both the present panel and the Vassar paintings (loc. cit.). McKnight rejected this view, assigning all three panels to Piero di Cosimo on stylistic grounds and dismissing the Stockholm drawings as unrelated (loc. cit.). Bernard Berenson maintained the attribution to Granacci in his early lists but later questioned whether the ex-Mortimer and Vassar panels were indeed executed by the same hand (op. cit., 1963, I, p. 99).
We are grateful to Christopher Daly for endorsing the attribution on the basis of digital images, and for his assistance in cataloguing the present lot (written communication; 30 October 2025).
This panel forms part of a narrative cycle from Homer’s Odyssey, painted for a marriage chest (cassone). It most likely served as one of the end panels, complementing two elongated frontal panels now in the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, which depict The Blinding of Polyphemus and The Battle with the Laestrygonians (K. D. McKnight, loc. cit.). As early as 1924, McKnight identified the present panel (then in the collection of Stanley Mortimer) as forming part of the same ensemble, allowing for a partial reconstruction of the cassone’s original format (ibid.).
Historically, the authorship of these panels has been the subject of debate. Osvald Sirén and Maurice Brockwell proposed an attribution to Francesco Granacci, citing two drawings in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, which they believed to be preparatory for both the present panel and the Vassar paintings (loc. cit.). McKnight rejected this view, assigning all three panels to Piero di Cosimo on stylistic grounds and dismissing the Stockholm drawings as unrelated (loc. cit.). Bernard Berenson maintained the attribution to Granacci in his early lists but later questioned whether the ex-Mortimer and Vassar panels were indeed executed by the same hand (op. cit., 1963, I, p. 99).
We are grateful to Christopher Daly for endorsing the attribution on the basis of digital images, and for his assistance in cataloguing the present lot (written communication; 30 October 2025).