Lot 74: Taddeo di Bartolo (Siena? 1362-3-after 28 August 1422)

Saint Mary Magdalene: a fragment from an altarpiece on gold ground panel, unframed 11 x 61/4 in. (28 x 15.8 cm.) PROVENANCE Private collection, Paris where acquired by the present owner. NOTES Tadeo is first recorded in 1386 in Siena, painting statuettes of angels for the new choir-stalls in Siena Cathedral. In 1388-9 he was a counsellor to the Cathedral Works and in 1389 he was first listed as an independent painter. It is also the year of his first dated work, a polyptych of the Virgin and Child with Saints, sold in these Rooms, 3-4 December 1997, lot 56 (œ397,500). Although he was active in Padua and Genoa, where he was recorded until September 1398 before returning to Siena in 1399, his work is, like that of his Sienese contemporaries, modelled on that of the city's preceding generation, as for example Simone Martini and the Lorenzetti. We are grateful to Everett Fahy (verbal communication) and Professor Mikl¢s Boskovits (letter 20 October 2000) who attributed this hitherto unpublished picture independently on the basis of transparencies.