(Perugia circa 1460–1544)
God the Father with angels,
oil on panel, 42.5 x 54 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private collection, Austria

We are grateful to Sheri Shaneyfelt for suggesting the attribution to Giannicola di Paolo on the basis of high-resolution digital photographs.

This apparently previously unpublished panel is closely related to the work of Perugino in both the design of the composition and the pictorial style, as well as the palette and the use of form and it has been attributed to an artist close to the Umbrian master: Giannicola di Paolo. The work represents God the Father making a blessing, flanked by two winged cherub heads and may be a fragment from a larger work.

This work can be compared to compositions by Perugino, such as the lunette in the Oratorio della Nunziatella in Foligno, where there is a similar figure of God the Father flanked by angels, but with his head turned to the left.

Shaneyfelt has suggested dating the present painting to circa 1510 and thereby positioning it in the period of the artist’s full maturity.

Giannicola probably initially trained in his native city of Perugia with a local painter, and he collaborated with Perugino later in Florence, contributing to the execution of the Last Supper of Foligno [Cenacolo di Foligno]. This provided Giannicola with a source for his Last Supper executed between 1506 and 1507 for the refectory of the Palazzo dei Priori in Perugia.This prestigious commission initiated his successful career (see S. F. Shaneyfelt, Giannicola di Paolo’s collaboration with Pietro Perugino at the Cenacolo di Foligno, Florence, in: Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, 73, 2010, pp. 573-586).

The present painting is close in date to Giannicola’s Ognissanti Altarpiece [Pala d’Ognissanti] originally created for the Baglioni Chapel in San Domenico Vecchio, Perugia, and now conserved in the Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, Perugia.