Lot 181: MARIOTTO DI NARDO ACTIVE IN FLORENCE 1394 - 1424

PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTOR

SAINTS STEPHEN AND BARTHOLOMEW

measurements note
28 1/2 by 14 1/2 in.; 72.5 by 36.9 cm.

tempera and gilt on panel

PROVENANCE

William Young Ottley (according to an old label on the reverse of the frame, which identifies the artist as F. Lippi, and strangely notes the Saints as Matthias and Barbara);
Sir George Leon, Bt., and thence by descent;
Sale: Christie's, London, December 17, 1999, lot 30, there purchased by the present collector.

NOTE

Miklòs Boskovits was the first to recognize this picture as by the artist, and related it to another panel from the same altarpiece, depicting Saints Nicholas and Reparata (or Lucy?)υ1. This was a moment of great activity for Mariotto; he had frescoed the churches of Santa Maria Maggiore and Orsanmichele over the previous few years and was working as a miniaturist and designer of stained glass as well. It is also the time that he seems to have been connected to the Cathedral of Florence, and the possible depiction of Saint Reparata (the original titular saint of the Florentine Duomo) in the companion to the present panel suggests a possible connection.

1 M. Boskovits, Pittura Fiorentina alla vigilia del Rinasicmento, Florence, 1975, p. 396, illus., fig. 486, where he dates it to 1400-05. In a more recent communication, Dr. Boskovits states that he would suggest a slightly later dating of 1405-10.