Despite its generally poor condition, this is a work of considerable interest. The poses of the Virgin and Child are especially inventive. The picture was at one time attributed to Pesellino, but it has also been thought a Sienese work close to Domenico di Bartolo. It is probably Florentine and dates around 1440. The frame, though original, has been regilt.
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Dimensions:Overall, with engaged frame, 29 3/4 x 17 1/8 in. (75.6 x 43.5 cm); painted surface 17 1/8 x 14 1/4 in. (43.5 x 36.2 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Gift of Georges Brauer, 1906
Accession Number:06.1048
Inscription: Inscribed (in pediment): IHS
[R. Langton Douglas, London, in about 1905]; [Georges Brauer, Florence, 1906]
Lexington, Va. Washington and Lee University. "The Metropolitan Museum of Art Loan Exhibit," October 30, 1950–January 15, 1951, no. 10.
Athens, Ga. Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia. February 15–April 5, 1951, no catalogue?
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Florentine Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum," June 15–August 15, 1971, no catalogue.
Roger Fry. Letter to his wife, Helen Fry. December 5, 1906 [published in Ref. Sutton 1972, vol. 1, letter no. 210, p. 276].
R[oger]. E. F[ry]. "Madonna, by Pesellino." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 1 (December 1906), p. 164, ascribes it to Pesellino and notes the influence of Masaccio; identifies the saint on the right as John the Evangelist.
William Rankin. "Corriere da Nuova York." Rassegna d'arte 8 (March 1908), p. IV, attributes it to Pesellino.
Raimond van Marle. The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting. Vol. 10, The Renaissance Painters of Florence in the 15th Century. The Hague, 1928, p. 495, fig. 299, assigns it to Pesellino's transitional period, when he was influenced by Filippo Lippi.
Bernhard Berenson. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Oxford, 1932, p. 443, lists it as by Pesellino.
Bernhard Berenson. Pitture italiane del rinascimento. Milan, 1936, p. 380, tentatively attributes it to Pesellino, and identifies the saint on the right as a young martyr.
Harry B. Wehle. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Catalogue of Italian, Spanish, and Byzantine Paintings. New York, 1940, p. 34, ill., tentatively ascribes it to Pesellino and says "the saint on the right may be Cosmo or Damian since he carries an oinment pot, the attribute of these physician saints".
Roberto Longhi. "Fatti di Masolino e di Masaccio." Critica d'arte, part 2, 25–26 (July–December 1940), pp. 178, 189 n. 28, fig. 67, considers it much closer to Domenico di Bartolo than to Pesellino, and calls it a Sienese work of about 1430 that shows Florentine influence.
Cesare Brandi. Quattrocentisti senesi. Milan, 1949, p. 209 n. 72, rejects the attribution to Domenico di Bartolo and calls it Pesellinesque.
Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 76.
Bernard Berenson. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Florentine School. London, 1963, vol. 1, p. 168, tentatively as by Pesellino.
Federico Zeri with the assistance of Elizabeth E. Gardner. Italian Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Florentine School. New York, 1971, pp. 98–100, ill., attribute it to an unknown Florentine painter in the close following Pesellino, and date it to the second quarter of the fifteenth century; note that although the saint on the right has been tentatively identified as Cosmo or Damian, he could also be Miniato.
Burton B. Fredericksen and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, Mass., 1972, pp. 242, 333, 414, 461, 605, as by an unknown Tuscan painter of the fifteenth century.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 19, ill.
Caroline Elam. Roger Fry and Italian Art. London, 2019, pp. 176, 184 n. 23.
Fra Filippo Lippi (Italian, Florence ca. 1406–1469 Spoleto)
ca. 1440
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