(Badia a Passignano 1460–1506)
Madonna and Child enthroned with Saint Michael and Saint Sebastian,
oil on panel, 116 x 114.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private European collection

The present painting is registered in the Fototeca Zeri under no. 14813 (as Anonymous Florentine artist).

We are grateful to Christopher Daly for suggesting the attribution on the basis of a photograph.

The composition of the present painting incorporates an elegant marble parapet with a classical throne, with its decorated back and hemispherical arch supported by volutes. The middle section of the parapet is opened by a slender balustrade bearing the cornice: this invention allowed for the inclusion of a flowering hedge beyond which spans the width of the painting. In the foreground, flanking the throne on which the Madonna is majestically seated holding the Child, are Saint Michael the Archangel and Saint Sebastian.

Both stylistically and compositionally the present painting can be compared to two frescoes by Filippo d’Antonio Filippelli in the right hand nave of the Pieve di Santa Maria a Colonica near Prato. The two wall paintings represent Saints Roch, Julian and Sebastian and the Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, and were executed by the artist at the end of the fifteenth century, as can be read in the fragmentary inscription ‘MCCCCLXXXXV’ (see F. Gheri, Una nota pratese, e altro, per Filippo d’Antonio Filippelli, in: Prato, 120, 2016, pp. 20–30). The present painting on panel can be dated to the same period.

The features and pose of Saint Sebastian in the present painting can be compared to the representation of the saint in the Pieve di Santa Maria a Colonica, and it is possible that the artist used the same cartoon for both works. The features of the figures are also typical and can be compared to those in other works by Filippelli, such as the Assumption of the Madonna in the church of Santa Maria at Marcialla (see F. Gheri, ibid., 2016, p. 27, fig. 7). Another comparison can be made with the frescoes dated 1496, painted by Filippelli in the chapel of San Michele at Casanuova di Ama, Gaiole where the same compositional features are evident, although in the present panel there is a greater quality of description in the details, including a far more elegant and ornate throne, which in the fresco is simplified and similarly positioned before a balustrade, but closed with marble panels.

Filippo d’Antonio Filippelli was the son of a brass smith who worked in close collaboration with the monastery of the Vallombrosani of Passignano. He belonged to a family including numerous other artists and artisans who worked in collaboration with the Rosselli family. At the age of twelve, in 1474, Filippo became the garzone, or assistant of Bernardo di Stefano Rosselli who was working at the Badia di Santo Stefano and in the documents of the period Filippelli appears as ‘Filippo suo discepolo’ – his disciple. He further assisted Rosselli at the Badia di Passignano where his master was commissioned to paint the frescoes Expulsion of Adam and Eve and the Slaying of Abel, the latter of which is in the refectory. Here the young painter came into contact with the work of David and Domenico del Ghirlandaio who painted the Last Supper, also in the refectory. Thereby, Filippelli was able to become acquainted with two of the most important Florentine workshops of the latter half of the Quattrocento: that of the Ghirlandaio and above all that of the Rosselli. The influence of both workshops was fundamental to Filippo’s painting (see N. Pons, Il pittore Filippo d’Antonio Filippelli e la sua attività fra Valdelsa e Valdipesa, in: Antichità Viva, 30, 4–5, 1991, pp. 5–13).