Lot 53: f - Paolo di Giovanni Fei San Quirico, Castelvecchio circa 1345 - circa 1411 , A triptych: the Crucifixion with Saint Francis of Assisi, flanked by Saints John the Baptist and Mary Magdalene oil and tempera on panel, gold ground, a triptych

oil and tempera on panel, gold ground, a triptych

measurements note overall: 30.5 by 26.4 cm.; 12 by 10 3/8 in.

Zurich, Kunsthaus, Ausländische Kunst in Zürich, 1943.

Anonymous sale, Zurich, Galerie Tanner, 30 September 1932, for CHF. 20,000;
With Julius Böhler, Munich;
With José Carreras, Barcelona.

PROPERTY FROM A DECEASED'S ESTATE
We are grateful to Prof. Miklós Boskovits for proposing the attribution to Paolo di Giovanni Fei on the basis of photographs. We are also grateful to Everett Fahy for independently endorsing the attribution on the basis of photographs and for suggesting that this is a late work by the artist. Paolo di Giovanni Fei followed in the Early Renaissance Sienese tradition of Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti. He is listed on the register of painters in Siena, the Breve dell'Arte, in 1389 and is documented as working in Siena Cathedral from 1395 to 1410. As well as public commissions, many of which are still in situ or in Tuscan museums, Paolo di Giovanni Fei produced smaller devotional works such as the present triptych. The placing of Saint Francis at the foot of the cross alongside the mourning Virgin and John the Evangelist, where Mary Magdalene normally kneels, might suggest that this portable triptych was commissioned by a Franciscan or by someone who wished his name-saint to appear in such a prominent position.