The Madonna and Child

This Madonna and Child is signed characteristically by Giovanni Speranza and repeats a composition invented by his master, Bartolomeo Montagna, already known in more than one version (see, for example, the Holy Family with the Infant Saint John formerly in the Fairfax Murray Collection and now in the Museo Civico Amedeo Lia, La Spezia).
The unique relationship between the workshop of Giovanni Speranza and that of his master has been investigated by Professor Lionello Puppi on several occasions: 'non si tratta di relazione di reciproco scambio ma di senso unico'. The workshop of Speranza received compositional ideas and suggestions from the workshop of Bartolomeo Montagna, and reused them with little or no variants, possibly to supply a different sector of the market (L. Puppi, 'Schedula per Giovanni Speranza', Arte veneta, XXVII, 1973, p. 255). Puppi discussed a similar case in his 1973 article, comparing the Holy Family, signed by Giovanni Speranza, with the Madonna and Child by Bartolomeo Montagna (respectively Sotheby's, London, 11 July 1973, lot 68 and Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum; ibid., pp. 254-5).

We are grateful to Professor Mauro Lucco and Professor Peter Humfrey for independently confirming the attribution after inspection of the original.