Master of the Maddalena Assunta
Madonna and child enthroned with Saint Nicholas of Tolentino and Saint Sebastian
Oil on panel. 37..5 x 29.5 cm.
This small panel showing the Virgin enthroned with the Child and Saints, doubtless intended for private devotion, was long attributed to one of the leading exponents of the Renaissance in Ferrara, Lorenzo Costa. It is now credited to a Ferrarese artist who has been given the provisional name "Maestro della Maddalena Assunta", after a monumental altarpiece that once adorned the church of Sant'Andrea in Ferrara and is now housed in the Pinacotea Nazionale there (fig. 1). Roberto Longhi, in his epochal publication on the Ferrara school "L'officina ferrarese" characterised this as an artist who had adopted the "new lyrical, romantic and grotesque tendencies of Costa and Aspertini" ("nuove tendenze liriche, romantiche e grottesche del Costa ell'Aspertini"). In addition to Lorenzo Costa's influences, the panel also shows those of Perugino, who exerted a lasting influence on the artists in Ferrara. The view of a landscape seen in the throne base is a motif also found in other Ferrarese altarpieces, for example in Ercole de' Roberti's Pala Portuense (Milan, Pinacoteca Brera).
Provenance
With Jacques Goudstikker, Amsterdam, by October 1931 and until 29 June 1940 (label on the reverse, stock no. 2132, as Lorenzo Costa). - Looted by the Nazis. - Hermann Göring, Berchtesgarden and Carinhall, July 1940. - Munich Central Collecting Point, 1945 (inv. no. 7181). - Returned to the Dutch Authorities, 23.4.1946. - Frederick Muller et Cie, 13-19.3.1951, lot 19 (as Lorenzo Costa). - Frederick Muller et Cie, Amsterdam, 11-14.12.1956, lot 59 (as Lorenzo Costa). - With Pieter de Boer and Frederick Mont. - With Newhouse Galleries, New York, 1957 (label on the reverse). - Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, 1958 (inv. no 58-31). - Restituted to the heir of Jacques Goudstikker by the above, October 2018. – Auction Sotheby´s, London, 28.1.2018, Lot 305. – There acquired by the present owner.
Literature
Catalogue des Nouvelle Acquisitions de la Collection Goudsikker, Amsterdam 1928, cat. no. 7, reproduced (as Lorenzo Costa). - M.M. Hennus: Tentoonstellingen, Maandblad Voor Beeldende Kunst, December 1928, p. 376, reproduced p. 377. -Italiaansche Kunst in Nederlandsch Bezit, exhibition catalogue, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam 1934, p. 61, cat. no. 92 (as Lorenzo Costa). - R. Van Marle, "La pittura all’esposizione d’arte antica italiana di Amsterdam," in Bollettino d’arte, 28, 1934-1935, p. 452, reproduced fig. 10 (as Lorenzo Costa). - European Art in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Virginia Museum of Arts, Richmond 1966, p. 14, cat. no. 10, reproduced (as Attributed to Lorenzo Costa). - B.B. Fredericksen and F. Zeri F. Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections, Cambridge, Massachusetts 1972, pp. 216, 629 (as anonymous Ferrarese school, 15th century). - A. Ugolini: Antologia di Artisti: Il Maestro della Maddalena Assunta, in: Paragone, XL, no. 13 (467), 1989, pp. 73, 77, plate 54 (as Master of the Maddalena Assunta). - W. Angelli and A.G. de Marchi: Pittura dal Duecento al primo Cinquecento nelle fotografie di Girolamo Bombelli, Milan 1991 (as Master of the Maddalena Assunta). - A. Ugolini: Un nuovo approccio al Maestro della Maddalena Assunta, in: Arte Cristiana, CI (2013), no. 27.