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Lot Essay
Giovanni Bonsi or Giovanni di Bonsi is recorded working in Florence between 1351 and 1371. His corpus was reconstructed around a polyptych that is signed and dated 1371, The Madonna and Child with Saints Onofrius, Nicholas, Bartolomeus and John the Evangelist, today in the Vatican Museums. His style reveals the influences of Maso di Banco and other pupils of Giotto, as well as of the Cione brothers.
The present painting was re-attributed to Bonsi by Federico Zeri in 1964 (F. Zeri, op. cit., p. 228), and he dated it to circa 1355. The composition is indebted to Maso and is comparable in its linear and well-balanced layout to his triptych known as the Babott Altarpiece (Brooklyn Museum, New York). The treatment of the draperies and the facial types also recall the manner of Orcagna, and Zeri points out the 'straordinaria anticipazione di accenti tardo-gotici'. However, the rendering of the emotions, in the facial expressions and in the gestures is remarkable for its diversity and intensity. Bonsi painted these mourning figures and this delicate and tender Virgin just a few years after the 1348 plague outbreak. The plague had an enormous impact on the way paintings would convey religion, in particular by introducing more pathos and more secular emotions. This triptych is a very significant example of this trend and Zeri noted how 'un brano di misure assai scarse' has the 'grandiosità di una parete affrescata'.
We are grateful to Mr. Everett Fahy (written communication, 4 August 2003) and to Prof. Miklos Boskovits for confirming the attribution to Giovanni Bonsi having examined the painting in the original.
The present painting was re-attributed to Bonsi by Federico Zeri in 1964 (F. Zeri, op. cit., p. 228), and he dated it to circa 1355. The composition is indebted to Maso and is comparable in its linear and well-balanced layout to his triptych known as the Babott Altarpiece (Brooklyn Museum, New York). The treatment of the draperies and the facial types also recall the manner of Orcagna, and Zeri points out the 'straordinaria anticipazione di accenti tardo-gotici'. However, the rendering of the emotions, in the facial expressions and in the gestures is remarkable for its diversity and intensity. Bonsi painted these mourning figures and this delicate and tender Virgin just a few years after the 1348 plague outbreak. The plague had an enormous impact on the way paintings would convey religion, in particular by introducing more pathos and more secular emotions. This triptych is a very significant example of this trend and Zeri noted how 'un brano di misure assai scarse' has the 'grandiosità di una parete affrescata'.
We are grateful to Mr. Everett Fahy (written communication, 4 August 2003) and to Prof. Miklos Boskovits for confirming the attribution to Giovanni Bonsi having examined the painting in the original.