Lot 218: Cosimo Rosselli , Florence 1439 - 1507 (?) Portrait of a Gentleman, said to be Francesco Datini tempera on panel, unframed

tempera on panel, unframed

measurements note 17 3/8 by 12 3/4 in.; 44.2 by 32.4 cm.

R. Benson, The Holford Collection, Dorchester House, Oxford 1927, vol. I, p. 19, cat. no. 16, reproduced plate 14 (as Florentine School, period of Baldovinetti);
R. van Marle, The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting, The Hague, 1923-1938, 1929 ed., vol XI, p. 280, reproduced fig. 180;
P.G. Konody, Works of Art in the Collection of Viscount Rothermere, London 1932, plate 9 (as Baldovinetti, where it is noted that before cradling there was an old inscription on the reverse: 'Fr. Datini fondatore della Chiesa del Ceppo, Prato');
G. Pudelko, "Two Portraits ascribed to Andrea del Castagno," in The Burlington Magazine, vol. LXVIII, p. 239, footnote 6;
R.W. Kennedy, Alesso Baldovinetti. A Critical and Historical Study, New Haven 1938, pp. 226-227, footnote 291;
B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Florentine School, London 1963, vol. I, p. 22 (as Baldovinetti);
E. Fahy, "An altarpiece by Cosimo Rosselli," in Quaderni di Emblema. 2. Miscellanea, Bergamo 1973, p. 56;
A.R. Blumenthal, Cosimo Rosselli, Painter of the Sistine Chapel, Florida 2001, pp. 156-157, reproduced in color on p. 156, fig. 71 (as Rosselli);
E. Fahy, "Lists of Paintings by Cosimo Rosselli," in A.R. Blumenthal, Cosimo Rosselli, Painter of the Sistine Chapel, Florida 2001, p. 251 (as Rosselli);
E. Gabrielli, Cosimo Rosselli, Catalogo Ragionato, Torino 2007, p. 253, cat. no. R16, reproduced (under erroneous attributions).

Sir George Lindsay Holford;
His deceased sale, London, Christie's, July 15, 1927, lot 8, for 1,732 guineas, to Langton Douglas;
Viscount Rothermere, 1932;
Anonymous sale, New York, Christie's, May 22, 1998, lot 114, for $46,000, where acquired by the present owner.

PROPERTY FROM AN AMERICAN COLLECTION
Although published as not by Rosselli in Edith Gabrielli's recent monograph on the artist (see Literature), the painting is included in Everett Fahy's seminal list of paintings by Rosselli published in Arthur Blumenthal's 2001 publication. Previously Bernard Berenson had attributed it to Alessandro Baldovinetti, a view shared by R.W. Kennedy and, before him, by P.G. Konody who knew the painting when it was in the Rothermere collection (see Provenance).

It was Konody who noted the inscription on the reverse, since obscured by the cradling, that identifies the sitter as 'Fr. Datini fondatore della Chiesa del Ceppo, Prato'.