Lot 118: Jacopo del Landini called Jacopo del Casentino , active in Florence 1339- 1349/58 Madonna and child enthroned with saints oil and tempera on panel, gold ground, pointed top, in an engaged frame

oil and tempera on panel, gold ground, pointed top, in an engaged frame

measurements note overall: 42.4 by 23.7 cm.; 16 3/4 by 9 1/4 in. painted surface: 35.5 by 18.8 cm.; 14 by 7 1/2 in.

THE PROPERTY OF A FRENCH FAMILY
Though little is known of the life of Jacopo del Casentino, the fact that he was elected as first councillor of the newly-established Compagnia di San Luca in 1339 suggests that he was a leading painter of his generation. Vasari even deemed him important enough to include him in his biography of artists, and he is said to have been the master of Agnolo Gaddi and Spinello Aretino. The Aretine biographer also claims that he was a pupil of Taddeo Gaddi, though more modern scholarship has cast some doubt on this ascertain. The chronology of Jacopo's work is uncertain as only two of his works are dated: a Circumcision (Kansas City, Nelson Atkins Museum)υ1 that bears the date of 1330 on its frame, and a fragmentary Madonna and Child (Crespino sul Lamonte) dated 1342. It has been suggested that he was formed in the circle of the St Cecilia Master who, while influenced by Giotto, worked in a separate style from the great master. Both Jacopo and the St Cecilia Master worked within the group of Florentine artists of miniaturist tendency. His St Menas Surrounded by Eight Scenes from his life (Florence, San Miniato al Monte)υ2 displays his early training in the exploration of architectural perspective, but also looks back at Giotto in the monumentality of the central figure. The present work would once have been the central part of a portable triptych. It displays a frugality of punched ornamentation which appears to be entirely consistent with the artist's work. The work is, however, rich in miniaturist details: the Madonna's ring; the remnants of a star on her cloak; the little branch of coral round the child's neck which was thought to be an effective antidote in medieval times for all childhood illnesses. The symmetrical shape of the composition in its positioning of figures calls to the mind the ex-Bondy triptych sold in New York, Christie's, 11 January 1995, lot 119, for $426,000. Similarly, the shape of the sharply-receding throne and positioning of the Madonna and Child, with Christ's outstretched arms, mirrors the Madonna and Child Enthroned with ten saints and eight angels in Budapest, Szépmuvészeti Múzeum (inv. no. 6006)υ3. The long figures and the shape of the step mirror recall the signed triptych of the Madonna and Child enthroned in the Uffizi, Florence (inv. no. 9258)υ4. Prof. Miklos Boskovits, to whom we are grateful for proposing the attribution on the basis of photographs, dates the present painting to the 1330s.

1. See B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance..., The Florentine School, vol. I, London 1963, p. 102, reproduced, plate 103.
2. Idem, p. 101, plates 106-108.
3. Idem, p. 101.
4. Idem, p. 101, plate 102.