(San Giovanni Valdarno 1406–1486 Florence)
The Madonna and Child holding grapes, with two angels,
tempera and oil on panel, 76.5 x 48.5 cm, arched top, integral frame

Provenance:
Collection of Alphonse Kann (1870–1948), Paris;
sale, Sotheby’s, London, 30 June 1971, lot 102 (as Master of the Adimari Cassone);
Collection of Adolfo Arenaza Basanta, (born 1907), Bilbao/ Madrid;
and thence by descent;
where acquired from the present owner

Literature:
R. Fremantle, Florentine Gothic Painters, London 1975, p. 546, fig. 1138 (as Master of Fucecchio);
L. Bellosi, M. Haines, Lo Scheggia, Florence 1999, p. 77 (as a mature work)

The present painting is registered in the Fototeca Zeri under no. 10967 (as Giovanni di Ser Giovanni, lo Scheggia).

We are grateful to Mauro Lucco for confirming the attribution after examining the present painting in the original. He dates the work to circa 1440–50.

The present work depicts the Christ Child holding a cluster of grapes as he is being fed by the Virgin Mary; she supports the Infant as he sits on a handrail dividing the composition between foreground and background. Below, in front of the rail, two angels appear caressing the Child’s feet. All the figures are portrayed with light tonalities and blushing rose coloured cheeks. They are wearing garments with gilded rims and decorations that confer a sense of delicateness, refinement and elegance to the composition. Particularly interesting are the four pendants worn by the Child around his neck, each holding a different symbolic meaning. Behind the figures is an architectural alcove in typical Renaissance taste.

Giovanni di Ser Giovanni Guidi, also known as ‘Lo Scheggia’, was the grandson of Mone di Andreuccio, a furniture maker, and the younger brother of Masaccio. The name ‘Scheggia’ (meaning splinter) was a nickname in Tuscany given to individuals of thin stature or that were in some way connected with wood. We know much about Scheggia thanks to numerous documents reporting his life events. He began his artistic career around 1420 in Florence in the workshop of Bicci di Lorenzo; seven years later he also worked in Masaccio’s workshop in Piazza Sant’Apollinare (now Piazza San Firenze). Because of his close contact with his brother, Scheggia’s work, especially his early works, recall the style of Masaccio. Scheggia’s only signed work is a fresco depicting the Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, located in the church of San Lorenzo (or San Giovanni Valdarno) in Florence, dated 1456/57.

Scheggia became popular for his ‘colmi’, or small tabernacles, intended for private devotion, depicting the Madonna and Child, as well as for his birth salvers (symbolic gifts given on occasion of successful births), and paintings for furniture decorated with single figures or narrative scenes. Between 1436 and 1440, Scheggia collaborated on the intarsia designs for the cupboards on the south wall of the Sagrestia delle Messe in the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence. For the birth of Lorenzo de’ Medici in 1449, Scheggia received the commission to paint a birth salver depicting The Triumph of Fame, today at The Metropolitan Museum, New York (acc. no. 1995.7). During this time, Scheggia was also sharing a workshop with the embroiderer Luca di Piero and another with his son, Antonfrancesco. Among the chests with wall panelling realised by Scheggia in 1492 for the Medici’s residence in Via Larga, a spalliera depicting a famous tournament in which Lorenzo participated in 1469 stands out. Scheggia died in 1486 and was buried in the Basilica di Santa Croce in Florence.