(active in Tuscany, 1480–1500)
Madonna and Child with an angel,
tempera on panel, tondo, 85.5 cm, unframed

Provenance:
with Leasarte, Milan (according to a label on the reverse)
Private Collection, Piedmont

The present painting is registered in the Fototeca Zeri (inv. 13650) as the Maestro di Marradi.

The tondo represents the Madonna, seated and supporting the Child on her knee, while tenderly holding his foot in her left hand and proffering a flower in her right. The standing Child leans forward, his right hand in a gesture of benediction. His left hand grips a goldfinch, an allusion to the Passion. Both figures are turned towards the angel who kneels at their side, paying homage with flowers. Above, the scene is framed by red draped curtains, and in the background, beyond a marble screen, a landscape opens out over a lake.

The Master of Marradi produced altarpieces, tondi, ornamented chests or forzieri, and small devotional panels in Tuscany between the late 15th century and the early 16th century. The artist is named after a large nucleus of his works, which are conserved in the church of San Lorenzo at Marradi, in the province of Florence, situated in the Appennines dividing Tuscany and Emilia Romagna. The corpus of works from which he gains his name were originally situated in the nearby abbey church of Santa Reparata in Salto at Badia del Borgo and consist of five altarpieces, the most important of which represents the titular saint of the abbey complex, the Santa Reparata Altarpiece dated 1498. The latest work in his corpus can be dated with certainty; it is the Enthroned Madonna and Child of Montefiridolfi of 1513.

During the last century, various scholars identified this anonymous artist with a specific artistic personality: among them Roberto Longhi and Wilhelm Suida proposed different names. However, it was during the 1960s that Federico Zeri coined the current and generally accepted name, based on his identification of the most substantial body of works by this anonymous master at Marradi. The Bolognese scholar identified this artist as a follower of the circle of Domenico Ghirlandaio, active in both Florence and its territories, as in the case of Marradi. Moreover, the artist reflects the influence of his contemporaries, including Botticelli, Filippino Lippi and Perugino, by creating works, such as the present one in which rigorous compositional sobriety is combined with a delicate linearism. This is seen in the figures’ gracefully depicted faces and draperies and in certain passages, such as the Virgin’s transparent veil.