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Lot 1: - Bicci di Lorenzo , Florence 1373 - 1452 the birth of St Nicholas of Bari tempera on panel

Est: £20,000 GBP - £30,000 GBPSold:
Sotheby'sLondon, United KingdomJuly 08, 2009

Item Overview

Description

tempera on panel

Dimensions

measurements note 30.5 by 35.5 cm.; 12 by 14 in.

Artist or Maker

Exhibited

London, The Heim Gallery, Recent Acquisitions in Painting and Sculpture, 12 June – 31 August 1967;
Warsaw, The Royal Castle. Opus Sacrum, 10 April – 31 July, 1990, no. 5.


Literature

F. Zeri, Metropolitan Museum of Art Catalogue. Florentine School, New York 1971, p. 69;
A.S. Labuda in J. Grabski, ed., Opus Sacrum, exhibition catalogue, Vienna 1990, pp. 46-49, no. 5.

Provenance

San Niccolò in Cafaggio, Florence, 1433-1787;
Possibly Marchese Alfonso Tacoli Canacci (1724-1801), Florence and Parma, presumably circa 1787;
Anonymous sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 8 March 1967, (as 'Attributed to Lorenzo di Bicci');
With the Heim Gallery, London, 1967-1976, when acquired by the present owner.

Notes

This panel formed one of the predella panels of Bicci di Lorenzo's 1433 altarpiece for the church of San Niccolò di Caffaggio in Florence. The altarpiece was broken up when the church was destroyed in 1787. The central panel, Madonna and Child with Angels, is now in the Galleria Nazionale, Parma; the right-hand wing, Saint John the Baptist and Saint Matthew(?), is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and the left-hand wing, Saints Benedict and Nicholas, is in the Museo di Badia, Grottaferrata. Two other predella panels are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, a third in the Ashmolean, Oxford and a fourth in the Wawel Museum, Krakow. Saint Nicholas of Bari was distinguished by his precocious piety. The present panel depicts the scene straight after his birth when, being given a bath, he stood up and began to pray, giving thanks for his safe delivery. Another manifestation of his early devoutness was his refusal to suckle, whilst being breastfed, on Christian fast days. The uncertain origins of this saint led the Catholic Church to remove him from the Calendar in 1969. PROVENANCE:
It is likely that the present painting, along with the pilaster panel, Saint Mary of Egypt (sold New York, Sotheby's, 28 January 1999, lot 215), was in the collection of the Marchese Alfonso Tacoli Canacci. Both panels are set into 18υth century embossed gold frames distinctive of the family collection.υ1 1. For a discussion of this see A. Galli, 'Tavole toscane del Tre e Quattrocento nella collezione di Alfonso Tacoli Canacci', in N. Baldini ed. Invisibile agli occhi : atti della giornata di studio in ricordo di Lisa Venturini, Florence 2007, pp. 13-28.

Auction Details

The Barbara Piasecka Johnson Collection: Renaissance & Baroque Masterworks.

by
Sotheby's
July 08, 2009, 12:00 AM GMT

34-35 New Bond Street, London, LDN, W1A 2AA, UK