Signorelli, Luca Cortona ca. 1450 - 1523 Oil... Lot 1002

Signorelli, Luca Cortona ca. 1450 - 1523 Oil tempera on wood. 26,5 x 22,5cm. Framed. Certificate: T.F.K. Henry, Kent, on 22.07.2020. Provenance: Church of San Niccoló, Cortona Art market, Florence Collection Herzog Georg II. from Sachsen-Meiningen (1826-1914) Family collection from Sachsen-Meiningen till 1947 Private ownership, Germany. Literature: B. Berenson: The Central Italian Painters of the Renaissance, London and New York 1897, p. 180 M. Cruttwell: Luca Signorelli, London 1899, p. 133 G. Mancini: Vita di Luca Signorelli, Florence 1903, p. 182 P. Lehfeldt und G. Voss: Bau- Und Kunst-Denkmäler Thüringens. Herzogtum Sachsen-Meiningen, Band XXI, 1984, p. 55 L. Kanter: Some Late Altarpieces by Luca Signorelli. In: Studi di Storia dell'Arte, 2, 1991, p. 88-89 T. Henry and L. B. Kanter: Luca Signorelli. The Complete Paintings, London 2002, p. 223-224, cat. 89 T. Henry: The Life and Art of Luca Signorelli, New Haven and London 2012, p. 266-268. Verso: On the plate old handwritten inventory number. \"This important picture, which was last seen in the first half of the 20th century, is certainly by Luca Signorelli and formed part of an altarpiece that he painted for the church of S. Niccolò in Cortona, c.1508-10. The altarpiece survives in situ, and two related fragments of very similar dimensions to the present picture survive in the High Museum of Art, Atlanta (K494 and K499). It represents a legend from the life of Saint Nicholas of Bari, Bishop of Myra (270-343), e.g. in the Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine (1275). Three knights had been led to a place of execution and blind-folded, when the saint interceded, grabbing the executioner's sword and throwing it away (Voragine: \"they were come to where they should be beheaded, he found them on their knees, and blindfold, and the executioner brandished his sword ov