THE MASTER OF CARMIGNANO, Florence circa 1400 - Lot 1

THE MASTER OF CARMIGNANO, Florence circa 1400 Madonna and child between Saint Francis, Saint Dorothy, Saint Jerome, Saint Catherine and two flying angels holding a baldachin Limewood panel, parqueted. Unique devotional panel. Egg painting and gold background. Old restorations. 70.5 x 46 cm, thickness 1 cm Frameless Condition: panel split and thinned, showing open wood-boring galleries and fixed wooden floor on reverse. Painting surface: wear and restoration, particularly on the faces of the saints and angels; the object held by Saint Francis is a late addition. Worn gold background, black painted vegetal ornamentation and halo punches are original. Inscription: on the reverse, on one of the floor jambs, handwritten in black ink: École de Sienne, fond d'or 14e?siècle/ Taddeo Gaddi. In 1952, Luciano Berti published an Annunciation in the church of San Michele in Carmignano near Prato, which he attributed to a follower of Lorenzo Monaco, now known as the Master of Carmignano. In 1968, M. Boskovits detected the combined influence of Lorenzo Monaco and Mariotto di Nardo, and in 2001, Federica Fiorillo completed the catalog of this painter, who worked in the Florence region at the end of the 14th century and beginning of the 15th, and reconstructed his artistic career, whose style is close to that of Agnolo Gaddi in his early years, before later being influenced by the Orcagnesques Lorenzo di Nicolo and Mariotto di Nardo, and then by Lorenzo Monaco. Indeed, it is from these last two artists that our panel is most closely associated. The rigidity of the elongated figures and their severe expressions are reminiscent of Mariotto di Nardo, while the airy elegance of the angels holding the baldachin and the refined coloring are reminiscent of Lorenzo Monaco. The vegetal ornamentation of the gold background remains a special characteristic of this artist, which is also found in two Madonnas and Child published by F. Fiorillo, of which the one sold at Christie's in New York in 1999 is particularly striking for its similarity.