Lot 38: Biagio d'Antonio da Firenze (active Florence c. 1445-1510)

The Madonna and Child enthroned flanked by two angels
oil on panel
11 3/8 x 9 5/8 in. (28.8 x 24.4 cm.)

Montevideo, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Obras de Arte Europeas del Siglo XII al XIX, 1945.
Buenos Aires, Museo Municipal de Arte Hispanoamericano Isaac Fernandez Blanco, Exposición de Arte Gótico, 1947.

A. Calzi, 'Andrea e G. Battista Utili Pittori Faentiti. Appunti d'Arte', in Il Lamone, 20 October 1907, XXIV, p. 2, no. 42.
A. Messeri and A. Calzi, Faenza nella Storia e nell'Arte, Faenza, 1909, pp. 505 and 534.
D. de Francovich,'Benedetto Ghirlandaio', in Dedalo, 1925-1926, VI, p. 739, note 33.
R. Buscaroli, 'Di un pittore faentino del secolo XV e un problema di critica d'arte', in Valdilamonte, 1929, IX, 3, p. 106, illustrated. R. Buscaroli, La pittura romagnola del Quattrocento, Faenza, 1931, p. 280.
R. van Marle, The Development of the Italian Schools of Paintings, The Hague, 1931 XIII, p. 176.
C. Grignoni, 'La pittura faentina dalle origini alla metà del Cinquecento', in Valdilamone, 1934, XIV, 2, p. 216.
E. Fahy, Some followers of Domenico Ghirlandaio, New York, 1976, p. 211.
R. Bartoli, Biagio d'Antonio, Milan, 1999, pp. 94, 205, 212-13, no. 75 (under Alfonso Castellani collection, Faenza).

Alfonso Castellani, Faenza, by 1940.
Bothenwieser collection, New York, by 1944.
Sold by Order of the Fifth Avenue Bank of New York Executors, Parke-Bernet, New York, 25 May 1944, lot 73.
P. de Koeningsberg, Montevideo, 1945.

PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF NELSON GRIMALDI SEABRA

Biagio d'Antonio was trained in Florence, where he was first influenced by the elegant, linear style of Fra Filippo Lippi. By 1476 he had established himself as an independent painter in Faenza, where he remained for at least thirty years and built a large workshop, although he continued to work in other parts of Italy.

Biagio collaborated with Domenico Ghirlandaio, considered the best painter in Florence, incorporating Ghirlandaio's compositions and facial types into his own paintings. Biagio favored the bright, crystalline colors, carpets of flowers, genre details, and landscape backgrounds of northern European art, though scholars are uncertain about precisely how he became exposed to Flemish and German painting. Biagio painted many religious subjects, particularly the Madonna and Child. In his mythological subjects, Biagio animated his pictorial narratives with rich and highly colored costumes and armor. He created many panels for cassoni, the elaborately carved and decorated marriage chests that held a bride's trousseau.

The present work is sold with a copy of a photocertificate dated 8 July 1944 by William Suida in which he compares the throne of this composition to an altarpiece by Biagio di Firenze in the church of S. Francesco in S. Casciano (Val di Pesa). He also compares the angels of this composition to the ones depicted in Biagio's altarpiece in the Pinacoteca of Faenza.