Antonio del Ceraiolo (Florence, first half 16th Century)
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VA… Read more The following two lots come from the collection of the Viscounts Scarsdale at Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire. Kedleston is the masterpiece of Sir Nathaniel Curzon, 5th Bt. (1726-1804), created Baron Scarsdale in 1761. Long before his inheritance of the estate in 1758, he had begun planning the replacement of his father's red-brick mansion with a Roman villa appropriate to its Arcadian landscape park. He instigated the work with the assistance of Matthew Brettingham (d. 1769), the architect of Holkham Hall, Norfolk, together with James Paine (d. 1789), architect of Doncaster Mansion House, and in addition consulted the artist/architect James Stuart, famed author of The Antiquities of Athens, 1762. Only a small part of their designs had been executed, however, when in 1760 Scarsdale turned the commission over to Robert Adam, whose south facade, grounds and interiors constitute one of country's finest eighteenth-century palaces. Long before he had chosen an architect for his proposed new mansion at Kedleston, Curzon had begun to assemble pictures for this, making regular purchases in the London sale-rooms from 1753 onwards (see, for example, F. Russell, 'Pictures at Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire', Country Life, 181, iii, 23 July 1987, pp. 96-9). Among the agents for whom significant auctions were held in London were Dr. Bragge and William Kent, and Curzon took advantage of these. Kent, who is not to be confused with the eponymous architect, made significant purchases in Italy, and his sale of 1757 yielded three major pictures, the enormous Giordano Bacchus and Ariadne (118 gns.), and two masterpieces by Benedetto Luti (150 and 85 gns.), which were to have important positions in the Drawing Room at Kedleston; similarly the 1759 Bragge sale was the source of a landscape then accepted as by Cuyp (95 gns.), also still in the Drawing Room. With the exception of Reni's Bacchus and Ariadne, now in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Lord Scarsdale's picture hang of the main block at Kedleston as recorded in Adam's hanging plans is substantially intact. The more private rooms, however, also contained pictures of significant calibre, including the small Parmigianino Madonna and Child, sold in these Rooms, 7 July 1995, lot 118 and now in the J.P. Getty Museum, Malibu; this was purchased directly from Kent who had secured it from the Arnaldi collection in Florence in 1758, in which city he may also have obtained the Dolci. The Property of the Kedleston Estate Trustees, removed from Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire (Lots 137-8)
Antonio del Ceraiolo (Florence, first half 16th Century)

The Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist

Details
Antonio del Ceraiolo (Florence, first half 16th Century)
The Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist
oil on panel
26 x 20¾ in. (66 x 52.7 cm.)
Provenance
Sir Nathaniel Curzon, 5th Bt., later 1st Lord Scarsdale (1726-1804), Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire, and by descent to the present owners.
Special notice
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

Antonio del Ceraiolo was a pupil of Lorenzo di Credi, whose essentially quattrocento style was maintained with very little change well into the sixteenth century. He was subsequently drawn to the orbit of Ridolfo Ghirlandaio, heir of the workshop built up by his father Domenico, who was one of the abler and more adaptable of the painters who emerged in the new century in Florence. After he left Ridolfo's shop, Antonio del Ceraiolo built up his own, somewhat conservative practice, painting a number of altarpieces, two of which are mentioned by Vasari in his biography of Ridolfo Ghirlandaio, and smaller devotional works. Vasari also records that he executed portraits.

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