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Lot Essay
This recently discovered painting by Fra Diamante is a fine example of Florentine High Renaissance portraiture. Diamante was Fra Filippo Lippi’s entrusted assistant and a devout monk of the Vallombrosan order (E. Borsook, G. Marchini, L. Tintori, 'Fra Filippo Lippi nel Duomo di Prato', Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, XIX , pp. 107-108, doc. 304). By 1454 he is documented, for the first time, working with Lippi on the frescoes of the main chapel of the Cathedral of Prato and toward the end of Lippi’s career, Diamante completed several of his teacher’s works. Indeed, a number of paintings by Diamante have been erroneously attributed to Lippi.
The oeuvre of Fra Diamante was first listed and discussed in 1983 by Luciano Bellosi (L. Bellosi, 'Tre note in margine a uno studio sullarte a Prato', Prospettiva, XXXIII-XXXVI, 1983-1984, pp. 51-52). In a 1998 article, Miklós Boskovits identified a core of Diamante’s painted work (M. Boskovits, ‘Un dipinto poco noto della Collezione Lanckoroński e il problema di Don Diamante’, Foliae Historiae Artium, IV-VI, 1998-2000, pp. 159-172). This group includes the large Nativity in the Louvre, Paris (inv. no. 338) formerly ascribed to the anonymous Master of the Louvre Nativity and a Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saint Lawrence, Saint Anthony-Abbot and Canon Carlo di Giovanni Casini as a donor in the Museum Fine Arts, Budapest (inv. no. 45). More recently, Gabriele Fattorini examined the production of Fra Diamante (G. Fattorini, ‘Fra Diamante a Prato, al fianco di Filippo Lippi: un bilancio degli studi’, Officina Pratese: tecnica, stile, storia, Prato, Palazzo Comunale, 6-7 dicembre 2013, Florence, 2014, pp. 367-386)
This Portrait of a Vallombrosan Monk was exhibited at the Stedelijk Museum in 1934 with an attribution to Domenico Ghirlandaio, a view which was subsequently taken up by Raymond van Marle, who considered it ‘una bellissima tavoletta’ (‘a very beautiful little painting’) and contemporary with Ghirlandaio’s frescoes at San Gimignano (R. van Marle, op. cit., p. 309). Recently, Mattia Vinco and Andrea De Marchi, respectively, suggested and endorsed an attribution to Fra Diamante on the basis of digital images. As noted by Vinco, this portrait was painted when Fra Diamante was in the workshop of Filippo Lippi (from 1454 until Lippi's death in 1469) and dates to circa 1465, before the commission of the frescoes of the Cathedral of Spoleto. Further, Vinco compares this portrait to areas of the Disputation of St. Stephen in the choir of the Cathedral of Prato (1452 / 1453 - 1465) which Bellosi attributed to Fra Diamante and to the St. Francis of Assisi enthroned between St. Louis of Toulouse and St. Stephen, delivers the rule to the Order of the Poor Clares (c. 1465-1470) in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin (inv. no. 1131) and to the Madonna of the Mercy (destroyed, formerly Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum, Berlin) attributed to Fra Diamante respectively by Berenson and Bellosi (loc. cit.).
As noted by Luciano Bellosi, Fra Diamante includes his self-portrait in the Disputation in the Synagogue fresco at the Prato Cathedral (op. cit.). He looks to be a young man, around age twenty-five, wearing his Vallombrosan habit. In the present portrait, Diamante paints a similarly dressed monk. It is tempting to speculate that the man depicted in this sympathetic and intimate portrait was familiar to Fra Diamante.
We are grateful to Mattia Vinco and Andrea De Marchi for their assistance in cataloging this lot.
The oeuvre of Fra Diamante was first listed and discussed in 1983 by Luciano Bellosi (L. Bellosi, 'Tre note in margine a uno studio sullarte a Prato', Prospettiva, XXXIII-XXXVI, 1983-1984, pp. 51-52). In a 1998 article, Miklós Boskovits identified a core of Diamante’s painted work (M. Boskovits, ‘Un dipinto poco noto della Collezione Lanckoroński e il problema di Don Diamante’, Foliae Historiae Artium, IV-VI, 1998-2000, pp. 159-172). This group includes the large Nativity in the Louvre, Paris (inv. no. 338) formerly ascribed to the anonymous Master of the Louvre Nativity and a Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saint Lawrence, Saint Anthony-Abbot and Canon Carlo di Giovanni Casini as a donor in the Museum Fine Arts, Budapest (inv. no. 45). More recently, Gabriele Fattorini examined the production of Fra Diamante (G. Fattorini, ‘Fra Diamante a Prato, al fianco di Filippo Lippi: un bilancio degli studi’, Officina Pratese: tecnica, stile, storia, Prato, Palazzo Comunale, 6-7 dicembre 2013, Florence, 2014, pp. 367-386)
This Portrait of a Vallombrosan Monk was exhibited at the Stedelijk Museum in 1934 with an attribution to Domenico Ghirlandaio, a view which was subsequently taken up by Raymond van Marle, who considered it ‘una bellissima tavoletta’ (‘a very beautiful little painting’) and contemporary with Ghirlandaio’s frescoes at San Gimignano (R. van Marle, op. cit., p. 309). Recently, Mattia Vinco and Andrea De Marchi, respectively, suggested and endorsed an attribution to Fra Diamante on the basis of digital images. As noted by Vinco, this portrait was painted when Fra Diamante was in the workshop of Filippo Lippi (from 1454 until Lippi's death in 1469) and dates to circa 1465, before the commission of the frescoes of the Cathedral of Spoleto. Further, Vinco compares this portrait to areas of the Disputation of St. Stephen in the choir of the Cathedral of Prato (1452 / 1453 - 1465) which Bellosi attributed to Fra Diamante and to the St. Francis of Assisi enthroned between St. Louis of Toulouse and St. Stephen, delivers the rule to the Order of the Poor Clares (c. 1465-1470) in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin (inv. no. 1131) and to the Madonna of the Mercy (destroyed, formerly Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum, Berlin) attributed to Fra Diamante respectively by Berenson and Bellosi (loc. cit.).
As noted by Luciano Bellosi, Fra Diamante includes his self-portrait in the Disputation in the Synagogue fresco at the Prato Cathedral (op. cit.). He looks to be a young man, around age twenty-five, wearing his Vallombrosan habit. In the present portrait, Diamante paints a similarly dressed monk. It is tempting to speculate that the man depicted in this sympathetic and intimate portrait was familiar to Fra Diamante.
We are grateful to Mattia Vinco and Andrea De Marchi for their assistance in cataloging this lot.