The Madonna and Child signed and dated '·NADDVS·CECCHARELLI·DE SENIS·ME PINSIT·M·CCCXLVII·' (lower edge) tempera and gold ground on panel, in an engaged frame with eight roundels, the Redeemer above and, clockwise, Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Louis of Toulouse, Saint Apollonia, an unidentified Saint, Saint Clare, Saint Paul and Saint James 29 5/8 x 20 3/4 in. (75.3 x 52.6 cm.)
London, Burlington Fine Arts Club, Winter Exhibition, 1902, no. 19. London, Burlington Fine Arts Club, Pictures of the School of Siena, 1904, no. 26, pl. XX. London, Royal Academy, Italian Art, 1930, no. 67. Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, on loan, 1947-1958. London, Kenwood House, on loan, 1958-1964. Manchester, City Art Gallery, on loan, 1964-1966.
Literature
J.A. Crowe and G. B. Cavalcaselle, A History of Painting in Italy, London, 1864, II, p. 99; second edition, London, 1908, III, p. 71. F.M. Perkins, 'Su certe pitture sconosciute di Naddo Ceccarelli'. Rassegna d'Arte Senese, 1909, pp. 5-6, repr. Thieme-Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler, VI, 1912, p. 253. T. Borenius, A Catalogue of the Paintings at Doughty House, Richmond and Elsewhere in the Collection of Sir Frederick Cook, Bt., I, Italian Schools, London, 1913, p. 5, no. 4, illustrated. An Abridged Catalogue of the Pictures at Doughty House, Richmond, belonging to Sir Frederick Cook Bart., Visconde de Monserrate, 1914, p. 12, no. 5, in the Smoking Room. M.W. Brockwell, 'The Cook Collection Part I - The Italian Schools', Connoisseur, XLVII, March 1917, p. 124, illustrated p. 123. R. van Marle, The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting, II, The Hague, 1924, pp. 303-5, pl. 200. Lord Balniel and K. Clark, A Commemorative Catalogue of the Exhibition of Italian Art, London, 1931, no. 31. C. Weigelt, 'Minor Simonesque Masters', Apollo, LIII, 1931, p. 13. B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance, Oxford, 1932, p. 143. [M.W. Brockwell], Abridged Catalogue of the Pictures at Doughty House, Richmond, Surrey, in the Collection of Sir Herbert Cook, Bt., London, 1932, pp. 18-9. F.M. Perkins, 'Pitture Senesi', La Diana, 1934, p. 54. B. Berenson, Pitture Italiane del Rinascimento, 1936, p. 123. U. Caletti-Camesasca, Enciclopedia della Pittura Italiana, 1951, I, p. 624. B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance, Central Italian and North Italian Schools, London, 1968, I, p. 85, II, pl. 320. Dizionario Enciclopedica Bolaffi dei Pittori e degli Incisiori Italiani, Turin, 1972, 3, p. 226. C. de Benedictis, 'Naddi Ceccarelli', Commentari, 1974, pp. 142, 150-1, and 153, n. 27, fig. 16. F. Zeri, Italian Paintings in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, 1976, I, p. 41.
Provenance
Peter Ferdinand Deurer (1777-1844), and by descent to his son Ludwig Deurer (1806-1847), Mannheim. with Donnadieu, London, 1865, according to J. C. Robinson's inscription on the reverse (fig. 1). Acquired by John Charles, later Sir Charles, Robinson on behalf of Sir Francis Cook, 1st Bt., Visconde de Monserrate (1817-1901), and by descent in the Smoking Room (no. 50) at Doughty House, Richmond, Surrey to Sir Francis Cook, 4th Bt. (1907-1978); Christie's, London, 25 November 1966, lot 62 'Property of the Trustees of the Cook Collection' (35,000 gns.), purchased on behalf of Brenda, Lady Cook.
Notes
PROPERTY SOLD AT THE DIRECTION OF BRENDA, LADY COOK (LOT 18-25)
This distinguished panel has since 1864 been recognised as the key work by the artist. With the Liechtenstein Man of Sorrows, which is directly comparable in style, it is one of only two signed panels by Ceccarelli, and thus the basis for further attributions to him. And, most surprisingly in view of the high calibre of the panel, the date, 1347, is the only fixed point in the Sienese artist's chronology.
The most considerable art historian to consider Ceccarelli in recent times was the late Federico Zeri. While noting, in connection with the Baltimore Crucifixion (Zeri, op. cit., no. 24, p. 42) that the painter's 'development remains problematic', Zeri prefaces his entry with what remains the most authoritative summary of the artist's percorso:
Ceccarelli's style apparently derives from Simone Martini and Lippo Memmi, and it often shows faint similarities to Barna. Some elements of his style, both in composition and figure types, reveals parallels with the Catalan painter Ferrer Bassa, who also derives from Simone Martini and his circle. It is not unlikely that Ceccarelli was amongst the pupils of Simone Martini during his stay in Avignon.
Simone was called to Avignon in circa 1335 and remained there until his death in 1344, specialising in small panels of exquisite refinement, many of which are of rectangular format: some of these, for example the Christ Among the Doctors (Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery) were, like the Cook Madonna, decorated on the reverse with trompe l'oeil marbelling and evidently thus intended to be freestanding. Ceccarelli was, as this picture so elegantly demonstrates, in full sympathy with the taste of Simone: his design is sinuous in flow, his detail refined, his attention to fabric meticulous; and his control of the use of punches both in the gold ground and in the draperies shows how thoroughly he had learnt from Simone's example.
Like Simone, Ceccarelli may have worked for patrons outside Siena. There is, however, little to go on so far as hard evidence of patterns of patronage is concerned. The ex-Platt predella panel at Princeton (Museum of Fine Arts, inv. no. 62.57) bears the arms of that great Sienese charitable institution, the Ospedale della Scala, but nothing is known of the early provenance of the substantial altarpiece in the Pinacoteca Nazionale at Siena (inv. no. 115). The Liechstenstein Man of Sorrows, although at 70 by 49 centimetres marginally smaller, is identical in construction with this Madonna. Both are on rectangular panels used vertically, to which raised borders were added. These are decorated with eight roundels, all of saints in the case of the Man of Sorrows, set within gilded cartapesta borders enriched with jewels. The patterns of the borders and the arrangement of the jewels differ in the two panels; and the fact that both are signed would in any case establish that the two were not conceived as pendants. But similarities between the two, both in carpentry and style, establish that they are closely contemporary. And the fact that the two, unlike say the polyptych at Siena, are relatively intimate in scale suggests how much importance the artist attached to what were clearly seen as luxury items, commissioned no doubt by private patrons. The two works mark a high point of mid-trecento Sienese art.
At some stage, presumably in the second quarter of the nineteenth century, the reverse of the panel was coated in gesso. On this are written two inscriptions of particular interest.
"NADDVS CECCHARELLI DE SENIS ME PINSIT MCCCXLII" (1347)
"Ce precieux et rare tableau vient de la Collection de M r Deurer, artiste allemand decedé a Rome (1844). Son fils M r L Deurer de Mannheim à la mort de son pêre exposa à Mannheim les tableaux qu'il lui avait laissés, et ce tableau fût vendu a un amateur de Munich".
The above note by M Donnadieu, who hosted [?] this picture, and who parted with it sometime before his death, whilst living at no. 8 Duke St St James' - about 1865. It was offered for sale at Christies but was not sold - whilst in the possession of Mr Donnadieu the picture was seen by Mr Cavalcaselle and it is noticed by him in the 'History of painting in Italy' vol 2 p 99. Cavalcaselle states that it is the only work of Ceccharelli known, and that there is no other record of this painter, who seems to have been an able pupil or successor of Simone Memmi (Memmi died in 1344)
J C Robinson July 6 1873
Peter Ferdinand Deurer, who in fact died at Munich rather than Rome in 1844, settled in Rome in 1826, and presumably purchased the picture in Italy. A portrait painter of some distinction, he was interested in renaissance pictures and copied works by Raphael. His son, Ludwig, was also a painter, visiting Rome on several occasions.
Sir John Charles Robinson (1824-1913) was in some ways the most remarkable English connoisseur of his generation. The range of his interests owed much to his early studies of architecture and painting -- the latter under Michel-Martin Drolling. In 1852 he was appointed Keeper of the future Victoria and Albert Museum. That institution's holdings of manuscripts, drawings and ceramics still reflect the energy of his acquisitions in the ensuing fifteen years. Yet more remarkable were his purchases in the field of Italian sculpture, as a result of which the museum has the most representative collection in the world: his catalogue of this, Italian Sculpture of the Middle Ages and Period of Revival of Art, A descriptive catalogue..., London, 1862, was a pioneering work. So too was A Critical Account of the Drawings of Michel Angelo and Raffaello in the University Galleries, Oxford, issued in 1870. This was the first publication to include details of watermarks and set a new standard for the connoisseurship of old master drawings.
Robinson's long connection with Sir Francis Cook was paralleled in his association with other collectors, including Robert Napier (1791-1873) of Shandon whose vast assemblage of the applied arts he helped to form. Napier was Scottish and so too was John Malcolm (1805-1893) of Poltallach for whom Robinson bought old master drawings with a consistent discrimination: the collection passed to the British Museum, but other drawings were given to Malcolm's son-in-law, A. E. Gathorne-Hardy. From this group comes the Michelangelo nude study to be sold on 24 January at Christie's, New York. Robinson himself owned drawings by Michelangelo and other major Italian artists: the majority of these were sold in these Rooms 12-14 May 1902. Posterity can only regret that, after his effective dismissal from the Victoria and Albert Museum by Sir Henry Cole, Robinson was not in a position to purchase works of art for a public institution in any of the many areas in which his connoisseurship was so outstanding. Robinson's inscription on the reverse of Ceccarelli's Madonna reflects his own understanding of the significance of this.
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