Lot 270: NERI DI BICCI FLORENCE 1419 - 1491

SAINTS SEBASTIAN AND APOLLONIA

measurements note
each: 44 by 15 7/8 in.; 111.7 by 40.3 cm.

each inscribed at the bottom SCS. SEBASTIANUS MATI. SC.... and ...S. SCA. APPOLONIA VIRGINIS

a pair, both tempera on panel

Quantity: 2

PROVENANCE

Painted for Zanobi di Manno, Piazza de Nerli, Florence 1457 (see Literature below);
With Galleria Luigi Bellini, Florence, from whom purchased in 1925 by
Richard M. Hurd, New York (original single panel with Saints Sebastian and Apollonia flanking The Meeting of Saints Zenobius and Ambrose );
His sale, New York, Kende Galleries, October 29, 1945, lot 12 (panel cut into three sections);
With A. and E. Silberman Gallery, New York, circa 1950;
Norman G. Hickman, by 1973.

EXHIBITED

New York, Newhouse Galleries, Inc., The Collection of Richard M. Hurd, Esq., May 1937, no. 13;
Southhampton, New York, Parrish Art Museum, Art from Southampton Collections, August 4- September 2, 1973 (lent by Norman G. Hickman).

LITERATURE

B. Berenson, The Italian Pictures of the Renaissance, 1932, p. 388;
Newhouse Galleries, The Collection of Richard M. Hurd, Esq., exhibtion catalogue, New York 1937, no. 13, reproduced;
B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance, Florentine School, vol. I, London 1963, p. 156;
N. di Bicci, Le Ricordanze (10 Marzo 1453-24 Aprile 1475), Pisa 1976, pp. 75-76, cat. no. 148.

NOTE

These paintings once formed the right and left wings of an integral panel depicting the Meeting of Saints Zenobius and Ambrose. According to Neri di Bicci's Ricordanze (see Literature below) the artist received a private commission in 1457 to paint an altarpiece depicting the meeting of these two bishop saints standing between the figures of Saints Sebastian and Apollonia. The painting remained intact until after the 1925 sale (see Provenance below) but by the time it was exhibited in 1937, the panel had been altered. The central section depicting Saints Zenobius and Ambrose was given to the Grand Rapids Museum, Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1946 by the Herpolscheimer Company and remains in their collection.