Lot 17: MARIOTTO DI NARDO

ACTIVE IN FLORENCE 1394 - 1424 THE MADONNA AND CHILD WITH SAINTS JOHN THE BAPTIST, FRANCIS, LAWRENCE AND JEROME tempera on panel, shaped top, gold ground 63 by 43.5 cm.; 24 3/4 by 17 1/8 in.

With Frascione, Florence; Private collection, Italy.

Mariotto di Nardo was a painter and illuminator in Florence at the turn of the 15th century and was much sought after both for private and public commissions. The gothicism of his early works suggests he had a close knowledge of the work of Spinello Aretino, before being drawn into the neogiottesque revival which swept over the last part of trecento Florence. Eventually he settled for the late-gothic elegance of Lorenzo Monaco, particularly evidenced here in the fine folds of the Madonna's drapery. The sculptural elements in his style probably derive from his association with Lorenzo Ghiberti, with whom he is thought to have travelled to Pesaro at the request of Pandolfo Malatesta.1 This characteristic portable panel, almost certainly intended for private devotion, finds parallels in several other works by the artist, among them the Madonna and Child with Four Saints in the Muzeum Narodowe in Warsaw, inv. no. 158657, which dates from the early 1420s.2 The poses of the Madonna and the Child are virtually identical in the two paintings, though in the Warsaw panel the Child looks down to Saint Nicola da Bari lower right, rather than looking directly at the viewer as in the present work. The close interaction of the saints and the way they populate the scene is also very similar, particularly the figure of Saint John who is presented with the same pose in both paintings. However, the present work stands out above the Warsaw panel thanks to the finely decorated red curtain which hangs behind the central characters. Given the close similarities, the same dating to the 1420s should be assumed for the present panel. 1. In his Commentarii Ghiberti does not record the name of the painter who accompanied him but the presence in that town's Museo Civico of a Madonna and Child with Saints Michael and Francis, dated 1400 and clearly by Mariotto's hand, lends weight to the theory that it was Mariotto. 2. See M. Boskovits, Pittura fiorentina alla vigilia del Rinascimento, Florence 1975, p. 402.