Master of Marradi (documented in Italy between... Lot 48

Master of Marradi (documented in Italy between 1498 and 1513) The Arrival of the Magi in Bethlehem Published and appearing on the market as the work of great masters of the Italian Renaissance such as Pinturicchio and Botticelli, the authorship of the panel presented here was traced back to its legitimate executor by Federico Zeri only at the end of the twentieth century. The latter, in fact, believed that the work should be attributed to the so-called maestro di Marradi, an artist active toward the end of the 15th century and trained in the workshop of Domenico Ghirlandaio, whose identity is unfortunately unknown but who takes his name from a group of five works, made by this painter in the abbey of santa Riparata in rialto Salto in Marradi. In addition to those that revolve around the figure of its executor, the history of the panel itself turns out to present some unknowns, as it was originally not a unified work but, in all likelihood, two separate panels. These in fact, depicting the procession and the adoration of the Magi, must have been part of a dossal or placed at the sides of the central altarpiece of a triptych, which in all likelihood is to be identified with a panel, again traced by Zeri to the Master of Marradi (Zeri Photo Library, card no. 13608), depicting St. Joseph and the Madonna holding the Child Jesus with a crumbling wall behind them, quite similar to the one that serves as the background to our procession. Later, at an unspecified time, this figurative complex was, as was often the case, disarranged and the two side panels joined together to form a unified scene, but reversing the order of the original depiction. Indeed, it can be seen that, as the panel appears today, the figures of the Magi are inexplicably facing outward from the composition, when originally their gestures were supposed to converge toward a center, in the act of bearing gifts toward the Madonna and Child. W. 55 - H. 75 Cm oil on panel Expertise Dott. G. Gregoretti with attribution to Pinturicchio (1971): Fototeca Zeri as Master of Marradi (card no. 13609) Ruck Collection, London (until 1925); Collection of the Earl of Ellesmere, Bridgewater House, London; Sotheby's, Old Master Paintings, London, July 15, 1970, lot no. 57 (as a work by Botticelli) R. Van Marle, The Development of Italian School of Painting, The Hague, 1933, vol. XIV, p. 287 as Bernardino di Betto Betti known as Pinturicchio Published and appearing on the market as the work of great masters of the Italian Renaissance such as Pinturicchio and Botticelli, the authorship of the panel presented here was traced back to the legitimate executor by Federico Zeri only at the end of the twentieth century. The latter, in fact, believed that the work should be attributed to the so-called maestro di Marradi, an artist active toward the end of the 15th century and trained in the workshop of Domenico Ghirlandaio, whose identity is unfortunately unknown but who takes his name from a group of five works, made by this painter in the abbey of santa Riparata in rialto Salto in Marradi. In addition to those that revolve around the figure of its executor, the history of the panel itself turns out to present some unknowns, as it was originally not a unified work but, in all likelihood, two separate panels. These in fact, depicting the procession and the adoration of the Magi, must have been part of a dossal or placed at the sides of the central altarpiece of a triptych, which in all likelihood is to be identified with a panel, again traced by Zeri to the Master of Marradi (Zeri Photo Library, card no. 13608), depicting St. Joseph and the Madonna holding the Child Jesus with a crumbling wall behind them, quite similar to the one that serves as the background to our procession. Later, at an unspecified time, this figurative complex was, as was often the case, disarranged and the two side panels joined together to form a unified scene, but reversing the order of the original depiction. Indeed, it can be seen that, as the panel appears today, the figures of the Magi are inexplicably facing outward from the composition, when originally their gestures were supposed to converge toward a center, in the act of bearing gifts toward the Madonna and Child.