Lot 76: LIPPO D' ANDREA

CHRIST APPEARING TO HIS MOTHER

27.5 by 29 cm.; 10 3/4 by 11 1/2 in.

tempera on panel, gold ground

Edward George Fitzalan-Howard, 1st Lord of Glossop (1818-1883);
Thence by direct family descent.

This small panel almost certainly formed part of a predella and shows the Resurrected Christ appearing to Mary, His mother. The episode is said to have taken place on the morning of the Resurrection when, while the three Maries made their way to the tomb, the Virgin remained at home to pray. The subject was particularly popular in 14th-century Italian art.

The attribution to Lippo d'Andrea is due to Prof. Miklós Boskovits, to whom we are grateful, on the basis of photographs. Formerly known as the 'Pseudo-Ambrogio di Baldese', and initially thought by Enzo Carli to be Ventura di Moro, scholars now unanimously accept his identification with Lippo d'Andrea. (1) Following Carli's publication, Serena Padovani identified the frescoes in the Nerli chapel in the church of Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence, which had generally been ascribed to the Pseudo-Ambrogio di Baldese, to have been painted by Lippo d'Andrea; named by Vasari as 'Lippo fiorentino'. (2) More recent studies have attempted to construct Lippo's oeuvre around pictures formerly given to the Pseudo-Ambrogio, starting with the polyptych at Yale University, New Haven. (3) This small panel may be compared to Lippo's Vision of Saint Brigida (private collection) and Assumption of Saint Brigida (Szépművészeti   Múzeum, Budapest). (4)

1. See E. Carli, "Chi è lo Pseudo Ambrogio di Baldese?", in Scritti di Storia dell'Arte in onore di Valerio Mariani, Milan 1971, pp. 109-21.
2. S. Padovani, "San Michele Arcangelo", in tesori d'arte antica a San Miniato al Tedesco, Genoa 1979, pp. 55-57.
3. L. Pisani, "Pittura tardogotica a Firenze negli anni Trenta del Quattrocento: il caso dello Pseudo-Ambrogio di Baldese", in Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, vol. XLV, 2001, pp. 1-36, fig. 1; and S. Chiodo, "Lippo d'Andrea: problemi di iconografia estile", in Arte Cristiana, vol. XC, no. 808, January-February 2002, pp. 1-16, fig. 1.
4. The former was sold in these Rooms, 11 July 1973, lot 57. Both are published by L. Pisani, "Pittura tardogotica a Firenze negli anni Trenta del Quattrocento: il caso dello Pseudo-Ambrogio di Baldese", in Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, vol. XLV, 2001, p. 22, fig. 26, and p. 23, fig. 29 respectively; and subsequently by S. Chiodo, "Lippo d'Andrea: problemi di iconografia e stile", in Arte Cristiana, Year 808, January-February 2002, vol. XC, p. 13, fig. 14, and p. 15, fig. 16 respectively.