(Florence active circa mid-15th Century)
The Visitation, the Nativity and the Madonna and Child with Saint Peter Martyr and Saint Francis of Assisi,
tempera on panel, 42.5 x 111 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private collection, Switzerland
with Galerie G. Sarti, Paris;
where acquired by the present owner

We are grateful to Alessandro Tomei for confirming the attribution on the basis of a photograph.
We are also grateful to Emanuele Zappasodi for independently confirming the attribution and his help in cataloguing this lot.

This triptych can be assigned to the hand of the so-called Master of the Johnson Triptych; from left to right it represents The Visitation, The Nativity and The Madonna and Child enthroned with Saints Peter Martyr and Saint Francis; each scene is rendered on a dark ground. The work was made on a single horizontally-veined wood panel, divided by white painted frames into three sections.

In the foreground of the central scene, the Madonna is shown kneeling, her gaze intent on the Christ Child shown lying on part of her mantle, stretched out on the ground in three broad arcs; a little to one side, Saint Joseph rests his head on his hand, seemingly immersed in meditation. Beyond them rises a steep hill, enclosed to one side by the crenelated walls of the city of Bethlehem. At its centre is the opening of the cave against which rests the hay-covered roof of the protagonist’s shelter, and beyond, are two shepherds summoned by angels, arriving to announce the birth of Christ.

The scene is evidently modelled after a composition frequently used by Bicci di Lorenzo, the leading master of the traditionalist current of Florentine painting during the first half of the Quattrocento. In addition to compositional similarities, the full forms of the figures also point to the prolific ambit of Bicci’s studio.

The manner in which the Madonna is modelled in the right hand scene recalls the pictorial elegance of Florentine international painting around 1440–1450: her slightly inclined head, her fine and slender features, her blue eyes and arched eyebrows, and the dense layering of brushstrokes to describe the rose colour of her cheeks and the highlighting that outlines the bridge of her nose, her upper lip, chin and long neck are all articulated to attenuate their gothic inflection.

This altar-like panel appears to have been conceived as an independent work. Its reduced breadth excludes the notion that it may have been intended as the predella of a larger altarpiece, or for a smaller pier altar. Moreover, the painting’s integral self-sufficiency is suggested by the presence of the donor in the central scene, shown wearing a white robe with a light blue scapular and hood.

Federico Zeri assigned this work to the anonymous mid-fifteenth century Florentine painter identified by the moniker of Master of the Johnson Triptych: the works making up this artist’s identity are grouped round the altarpiece of the same name conserved in the Museum of Fine Arts, Philadelphia.