The Madonna and Child

Details

The Master of the Sterbini Diptych (active Veneto?, 2nd quarter of 14th Century)
The Madonna and Child
on gold ground panel
18 5/8 x 13 3/8 in. (47.3 x 34 in.)

Provenance

with Matthiessen, London, where acquired by
Kenneth Clark, 1st Baron Clark of Saltwood, O.M., C.H., K.C.B. (1903-1983); (+) [The Property of a Family Trust of the Late Lord Clark of Saltwood], Sotheby's, London, 6 July 1988, lot 3, as School of the Veneto, circa 1340, where purchased by the present owner.

Literature

E.B. Garrison, Italian Romanesque Panel Paintings. An illustrated index, Florence, 1949, p. 58, no. 92, as Adriatic, group C, probably Venetian, second quarter of 14th Century.
D.C. Schorr, The Christ Child in Devotional Images during the XIV Century, New York, 1954, pp. 103-4, as Venetian School, circa 1335.

Exhibited

London, Royal Academy, Italian Art and Britain, 1960, p. 103, no. 271, as Vitale da Bologna.

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 15% on the buyer's premium

Lot Essay

We are grateful to Professor Miklós Boskovits for proposing the present attribution, judging from a transparency. This highly refined trecento Madonna and Child belongs to a small group of works identified by Garrison as Adriatic School, group C (op. cit., nos. 65, 92, 106 and 247). He notes that stylistically this group derives from Venetian duecento models, with a marked Byzantine influence that makes it difficult to give a precise geographical centre of production, although the high quality of the works make Venice a distinct possibility (ibid., p. 11). More recently the artist has been identified as The Master of the Sterbini Diptych, after the eponymous work formerly in the collection of Giuilo Sterbini, and now in the Palazzo Venezia, Rome (ibid., no. 247, p. 98). No biographical information exists for this artist, although Boskovits makes the intriguing suggestion that he may have originated in the Liguria, before settling in the Veneto (private communication, 18 August 2006).

The panel was formerly owned by Kenneth Clark, one of the foremost Art Historians of his generation. At the age of only thirty-one he was appointed Director of the National Gallery, London (1934-45), and also Surveyor of the King's Pictures (1934-44). He was also a distinguished patron of the arts as well as a brilliant author and broadcaster. His television series Civilisation, written and presented by Clark himself, in 1969, was one of the most influential arts programmes ever broadcast, and made him one of the most recognisable figures in the art world.

More from Important Old Master Pictures Evening Sale

View All