(Florence active circa mid-15th Century)
The Visitation, the Nativity and the Madonna and Child with Saint Peter Martyr and Saint Francis of Assisi,
tempera on panel, 42.5 x 111 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private collection, Switzerland;
with Galerie G. Sarti, Paris;
where acquired by the present owner

We are grateful to Emanuele Zappasodi for suggesting the attribution and his help in cataloguing this lot.

This triptych can be assigned to the hand of the so-called Master of the Johnson Triptych. The Master was named by Federico Zeri after an altarpiece conserved in the Museum of Fine Arts, Philadelphia now catalogued as The Master of the Johnson Tabernacle (inv. no. 2034).

The present work from left to right represents The Visitation, The Nativity and The Madonna and Child enthroned with Saint Peter Martyr and Saint Francis. The work was made on a single horizontal-veined wood panel, divided into three sections by white painted frames. Each scene is rendered on a dark ground. In the foreground of the central scene, the Madonna is shown kneeling, her gaze intent on the Christ Child who is shown lying on part of her mantle which is stretched out on the ground in three broad arcs. A little to one side, Saint Joseph rests his head on his hand, seemingly immersed in meditation. Beyond them rises a steep hill, enclosed to one side by the crenelated walls of the city of Bethlehem. At its centre is the opening of the cave against which rests the hay-covered roof of the shelter, beyond which two shepherds, summoned by angels, arrive to announce the birth of Christ.

The scene is evidently modelled after a composition frequently used by Bicci di Lorenzo, the leading master of the traditionalist current of Florentine painting during the first half of the Quattrocento. In addition to compositional similarities, the full forms of the figures also point to the prolific ambit of Bicci’s studio.

The Madonna’s fine and delicately modelled features are reminiscent of the last period of Florentine late Gothic painting: her slightly inclined head, her blue eyes and arched eyebrows, and the dense layering of brushstrokes to describe the rose colour of her cheeks and the highlighting that outlines the bridge of her nose, her upper lip, chin and long neck are all articulated to attenuate their Gothic inflection.

The present panel appears to have been conceived as an independent work. Its reduced width probably excludes that it was intended as a predella for a larger altarpiece. Moreover, the painting’s integral autonomy is suggested by the depiction of a donor in the central scene, a monk shown kneeling wearing a white habit with a light blue scapular.