Lot 11: * BIAGIO D' ANTONIO FLORENCE 1446 - 1516

MADONNA AND CHILD IN A LANDSCAPE

17 1/2 by 14 7/8 in.; 44.5 by 37.7 cm.

oil on panel

B. Berenson, The Florentine Paintings of the Renaissance, Oxford 1963, vol. I, p. 212 (under Homeless), reproduced vol II, pl. 1039;
A. Corbara, "La due Pieta di Biagio d' Antonio le loro vicende critiche", in Il Piccolo, LXIX, no. 25 (suppl.), 26, 27, 28 (20 June - 1 August),1968;
E. Fahy, Some Followers of Domenico Ghirlandaio, London and New York 1976, p. 210;
B. Montuschi Simboli and A.R. Gentilini (eds.), Gli artisti. La citta, tudi sull' arte faentina di Antonio Corbera, Bologna 1986, pp. 77 and 79;
M. Tamassia, Collezione d'arte tra Ottocento e Novecento. Jacquier fotografi a Firenze 1870 - 1935, Naples 1994, pp. 161-162, cat. no. 56586;
F. Frangi (ed.), C. Montagnani and R. Longhi, Il Palazzo non Finito. Saggi inediti 1910 - 1926, Milan 1995, p. 284;
R. Bartoli, Biagio d' Antonio, Milan 1999, p. 226, cat. no. 112, reproduced p. 227, fig. 112.

PROPERTY FROM A FAMILY COLLECTION

With D' Atri, Paris;
With Galeria il Podio, Bologna;
Giuseppe Volterra, Florence (circa 1922);
With Bellini, Florence (circa 1924);
With Victor Spark, New York, by 1968;
From whom acquired by the fomer owner circa 1970 and thence by descent.

This beautiful example of the Florentine Renaissance style clearly reveals the strong influence that Fra Filippo Lippi, Domenico Ghirlandaio and Sandro Botticelli had on Biagio d' Antonio's stylistic development. Bernard Berenson was the first to attribute this picture to Biagio d' Antonio after discovering a photograph of the work in the archives at the Villa "I Tatti" when it was in the Volterra collection. Berenson wrote the following passage on the reverse of the photograph "Gia Volterra May 1922/ altezza 0,45 / larghezza 0,35 / homeless / very close to Madonna, Poldi Pezzoli 591, Milano". Berenson went on to publish the painting in his 1963 Florentine Paintings as Utili - Biagio d' Antonio "homeless" (see Literature below). Berenson described the artist as a "follower of Verrochio and Ghirlandaio, frequently active in Faenza. First identified with Andrea Utili da Faenza (1481 - 1502), then erroneously with Giovanni Battista Utili (doc. 1503 - 1515), and lately with Biagio d' Antonio da Firenze (doc. in Faenza 1476 - 1483 and again in 1504). So far no documented picture has confirmed either hypothesis. A shadowy entity in life, his artistic personality, however is consistent and clear." Grigioni and Golfieri were the first to document his true identity together with the art historian Corbera, who in 1968 discovered the present work in the collection of the dealer Victor Spark of New York (see Literature below). Bartoli places this work to the years of the artist's maturity after his sojourn in Rome, circa late 1480's - 1490s, contemporary with the Madonna and Child with the Young St. John the Baptist in the collection of the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore.

The charming juxtaposition of the Madonna and Child in the present work and the beautiful still life of flowers in the lower left of the corner are particularly rich. Biagio d' Antonio here clearly reveals his debt to Ghirlandaio both in the composition and the facial type. Biagio favoured bright, crystalline colors and a luminous palette to depict naturalistic details, techniques derived from Flemish and German paintings like those of Hugo van der Goes. Biagio d'Antonio was an eclectic painter whose style reflected the influence of many of his contemporary Florentine and Tuscan painters. He started his artistic training in Florence in the 1460's where he became heavily influenced by the work of Pesselino and Fra Filipo Lippi, mimicking their elegant, linear style of modelling. By 1476, Biagio d' Antonio had left Florence for Faenza, where he established a large bottega and actively pursued commissions from all over Italy. In 1482 he was summoned to work in the Sistine Chapel with the most distinguished artists of his day, where he executed the fresco of the Crossing of the Red Sea and collaborated with Cosimo Rosselli on the frescoing of the Last Supper. In 1483 he is documented back in Faenza, which is most likely where he painted the present Madonna and Child. It is during this later period that Biagio d' Antonio was particularly impressed by the work of Verocchio, Domenico Ghirlandaio and also Perugino. From these influences Biagio d' Antonio developed his characteristically meticulous style, evident in the present work.