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Saint Bernardino
Saint Ambrose
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Exhibitions:
This artwork is currently on display in Gallery 956
Sienese in origin, Benvenuto di Giovanni was a painter of extraordinary accomplishment in his early years, during which he painted this tender "Madonna and Child". According to Robert Lehman, the painting was once owned by Pope Pius II Piccolomini (d. 1465), whose coat of arms is said to have formerly appeared on the back of the panel. The tabernacle frame is also of the highest quality, dating to the last years of the fifteenth century. The acorns, clustered beneath the scroll console, may be a heraldic allusion to Pius II. The candelabra-decorated pilasters are characteristic of Sienese frames of the period.
Inscription: Inscribed (on Madonna's halo): AVE.GRATIA.PLENA.DOM
Ernest Odiot, Paris (Catalogue des objets d'arte de M. Ernest Odiot, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, April 26-27, 1889, p. 30, no. 15, as 14th century Sienese school); M. Chabrières-Arlès, Oullin, nr. Lyon; Duveen Brothers, New York. Acquired by Philip Lehman in 1916.
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