Lot 6: Gherardo di Giovanni (di Miniato) del Fora , Florence 1445 - 1497 The Madonna and Child with an attendant angel tempera on panel, circular, in a carved and gilt wood frame

tempera on panel, circular, in a carved and gilt wood frame

measurements note diameter: 61.5 cm.; 24 1/8 in.

Mrs Barbara McLellan;
By whom sold, London, Sotheby's, 8 April 1970, lot 13, bought by Francesco Romano;
Acquired from Franceso Romano, Rome, by the present owner in April 1983.

We are grateful to Everett Fahy for endorsing the attribution to Gherardo di Giovanni del Fora following inspection of the original. The present work only came to light in 1970 when sold in these Rooms (as by Gherardo di Giovanni), and was not therefore included in Mr Fahy's 1968 catalogue of the works of Gherardo di Giovanni.υ1 Gherardo was probably best known as an illuminator of illustrated books and his workshop, which was jointly run with his brother Monte di Giovanni del Fora, was primarily engaged in this activity. Gherardo did, however, paint a number of panels and frescoes, finding inspiration for the latter during his lengthy stay at the convent of San Marco in Florence where he served as a lay brother. His brilliant illuminations, which ultimately resulted in several commissions from Lorenzo de Medici, paved the way for his secondary career as a decorative fresco painter and devotional panel painter. Gherardo painted a number of tondos which follow the same broad design and are of a type made popular slightly earlier in the century in Florence by Domenico Ghirlandaio and Sandro Botticelli. The tondo format was popularised during the 15th century and culminated at the beginning of the next in Michelangelo's Doni Tondo, the apogee of High Renaissance panel painting. Such tondos were to be hung high on a wall, as if a window into a heavenly sphere. The present tondo may be closely compared to Gherardo's painting on the same theme, which employs the same three protagonists, and a similarly conceived background landscape, in the Seattle Art Museum.υ2

1. See E. Fahy, Some Followers of Domenico Ghirlandajo, University thesis, Cambridge (Mass.) 1968, pp. 113 ff.
2. Ibid., pp. 123-4, no. 22.