Auction 40 / Lot 2051

We thank Professor Michele Bacci for his kind support. A highly significant work of Italian Gothic art from the second half of the 14th century, in which many different elements come together. The influence of the Sienese School, to which the painter Allegretto Nuzi (1315 - 1373) also belongs, is unmistakable. Working in Siena and Florence in cooperation with other artists, he owes the important impulses for his painterly work especially to Giotto's successor, Bernardo Daddi. One of Nuzi's few pupils is Francescuccio Ghissi, to whose hand the panel painting presented here can be attributed. Compared to the other students, Ghissi uncompromisingly followed his teacher's painting style and is known for his Madonnas dell' Umiltá, painted between 1359 and 1374. One of these depictions of the Virgin Mary is in the Pinacoteca in Fabriano. Of particular note is a comparable work by the artist in the Pinacoteca Vaticana in Rome. Also worth mentioning is a joint work by Nuzi and Ghissi, created around 1350, which is in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin: a triptych with the Mother of God, Saint Catherine and Saint Bartholomew. In the present work, the classical pictorial structure of a Maestà representation can be found. Turned to the side, the Mother of God with the blessing Christ Child, seated on a throne, is flanked by two angels each dressed in blue robes, as well as St Catherine and St John the Baptist. The finely detailed ornamentation on the Virgin's robe, which Ghissi takes from his great model, is striking.