Lot 26: ANTONIO DI BENEDETTO AQUILIO, CALLED ANTONIAZZO ROMANO

ANTONIO DI BENEDETTO AQUILIO, CALLED ANTONIAZZO ROMANO ROME BEFORE 1452- 1508/12 MADONNA AND CHILD gold ground, tempera on panel, within an engaged frame 25 by 40 1/2 in.; 102.8 by 63.4 cm.

G. Noehles, Antoniazzo Romano, unpublished dissertation, Westfalischen Wilhelms University, Münster 1973, no. 40, fig. 30C;
G. Hedberg, Antoniazzo Romano and His School, Ph.D dissertation, New York University, New York 1980, p. 226, no. 105, reproduced fig. 103.

Cardinal Paccas sale, Rome (as by Pinturicchio);
Casa Vasconcellas, Piazza d'Azeglio, Florence;
By whom sold circa 1929.

Romano had a thriving workshop in Rome and received prestigious commissions from the papal court and nobility as well as numerous requests from the growing bourgeoisie. The most popular theme requested by these patrons was that of the Madonna and Child, pictured with and without saints and donors. The facture of many of these compositions recalls motifs found in medieval and Byzantine iconography. In the present Madonna and Child the figures are solitary and placed within a solid gold background without any recession of space. However, the tender expressions of both Madonna and Child are evocative and reflect the influence of Romano's contemporaries, Perugino and Pinturicchio.

This painting relates in composition, in reverse sense and with some slight differences, to a painting in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (see A Cavallaro, Antoniazzo Romano e Gli Antoniazzeschi, Pasian di Prato 1992, p. 187, cat. no. 11, reproduced, fig. 27). Both Madonnas have very gentle and serene expressions and their hands are in an almost identical position. Other works related to our picture are in the Institute of Art, Detroit; Pinacoteca di Fermo among others (see Cavallaro op cit., figs. 129, 132).