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Lot Essay
Jacopo di Cione was the younger brother of Andrea di Cione, known as Orcagna (c. 1315-1368), and Nardo di Cione (c. 1320-c.1366). While no signed paintings by Jacopo survives, he is first recorded in 1368 as having completed the Saint Matthew triptych at Orsanmichele begun by Andrea, who had fallen ill (now Florence, Uffizi, inv. 3163). Further documented works around which his oeuvre has been reconstructed are the majestic polyptych for the high altar of San Pier Maggiore, Florence of 1370-1371 and the Coronation of the Virgin for the mint of Florence from 1372-1373.
The present full-length standing Madonna is a rare trecento composition. A remarkable survival, this large panel has always been associated with the fourteenth-century milieu of the Cione brothers. Formerly, the present work was attributed to the 'Master of the San Niccolò Altarpiece', a minor Cionesque personality invented by Offner. It is possible, however, that Offner never saw the painting in person: his first mention of it in relation to the 'Master of San Niccolò' is in a footnote of his review of the 1933 Florence exhibition Mostra del Tesoro di Firenze Sacra, at which the picture was not displayed. Later authors seem to have simply absorbed Offner's classification; there is no evidence to suggest any of them had knowledge of the painting beyond photographic reproductions. Laurence Kanter, however, having recently examined the panel firsthand, has concluded that it is an early picture by Jacopo di Cione, probably datable to circa 1365. It thus constitutes an important addition to a period of the artist's career about which very little is understood.
In his discussion of Jacopo di Cione, Offner distinguished two distinct hands within the artist's oeuvre, creating the so-called 'Master of the Infancy of Christ' and 'Master of the Prato Annunciation', whose works are now associated, respectively, with the early and late phases of Jacopo's career. Several paintings that have in the past been attributed to the 'Master of the Infancy of Christ' bear strong similarities to the present work, reinforcing both its attribution to Jacopo and early dating within his career. Salient examples are the Madonna of Humility with two Donors, four Saints and Crucifixion in Florence (Accademia, inv. 5887) and the Madonna and Child with Saints and Angels in Budapest (Szépmüvészeti Mùzeum, inv. 2540).
The first recorded owner of this painting was Arnaldo Corsi (1853-1919), a Florentine engineer, collector, and occasional dealer in paintings, who counted among his friends the Italian Renaissance art scholar Frederick Mason Perkins (1874-1955) and the formidable American collector Dan Fellows Platt (1873-1938). Corsi amassed an enormous group of pictures, which Federico Zeri described as among the most extraordinary accumulated by a private collector in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (F. Zeri in Il Museo Nascosto: Capolavori dalla Galleria Corsi nel Museo Bardini, exhibition catalogue, Florence, 1991, p. 11). Most of Corsi's collection was purchased by the Museo Bardini in Florence in 1939.
We are grateful to Laurence Kanter for suggesting the attribution on the basis of firsthand examination.
The present full-length standing Madonna is a rare trecento composition. A remarkable survival, this large panel has always been associated with the fourteenth-century milieu of the Cione brothers. Formerly, the present work was attributed to the 'Master of the San Niccolò Altarpiece', a minor Cionesque personality invented by Offner. It is possible, however, that Offner never saw the painting in person: his first mention of it in relation to the 'Master of San Niccolò' is in a footnote of his review of the 1933 Florence exhibition Mostra del Tesoro di Firenze Sacra, at which the picture was not displayed. Later authors seem to have simply absorbed Offner's classification; there is no evidence to suggest any of them had knowledge of the painting beyond photographic reproductions. Laurence Kanter, however, having recently examined the panel firsthand, has concluded that it is an early picture by Jacopo di Cione, probably datable to circa 1365. It thus constitutes an important addition to a period of the artist's career about which very little is understood.
In his discussion of Jacopo di Cione, Offner distinguished two distinct hands within the artist's oeuvre, creating the so-called 'Master of the Infancy of Christ' and 'Master of the Prato Annunciation', whose works are now associated, respectively, with the early and late phases of Jacopo's career. Several paintings that have in the past been attributed to the 'Master of the Infancy of Christ' bear strong similarities to the present work, reinforcing both its attribution to Jacopo and early dating within his career. Salient examples are the Madonna of Humility with two Donors, four Saints and Crucifixion in Florence (Accademia, inv. 5887) and the Madonna and Child with Saints and Angels in Budapest (Szépmüvészeti Mùzeum, inv. 2540).
The first recorded owner of this painting was Arnaldo Corsi (1853-1919), a Florentine engineer, collector, and occasional dealer in paintings, who counted among his friends the Italian Renaissance art scholar Frederick Mason Perkins (1874-1955) and the formidable American collector Dan Fellows Platt (1873-1938). Corsi amassed an enormous group of pictures, which Federico Zeri described as among the most extraordinary accumulated by a private collector in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (F. Zeri in Il Museo Nascosto: Capolavori dalla Galleria Corsi nel Museo Bardini, exhibition catalogue, Florence, 1991, p. 11). Most of Corsi's collection was purchased by the Museo Bardini in Florence in 1939.
We are grateful to Laurence Kanter for suggesting the attribution on the basis of firsthand examination.