Lot 71: Guido di Piero, Fra Angelico (Vicchio c. 1395/1400-1455 Rome)

An angel in adoration on gold ground panel 151/4 x 8 in. (38.7 x 20.3 cm.) PROVENANCE Thierry de la Noue, Paris, 1909. Anon. Sale, Palais Galli‚ra, Paris, 14 June 1974. LITERATURE G. Migeon, Gazette des Beaux Arts, 1909, 4, 1, p. 412. S. de Ricci, Description raisonn‚e des peintures du Louvre, I, Paris, 1913, p. 58. R. van Marle, The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting, X, The Hague, 1928, p. 58. J. Pope-Hennessy, Fra Angelico, London, 1952, p. 203, 2nd edn., London, 1974, pp. 230-1. E. Morante and U. Baldini, L'Opera Completa dell'Angelico, Milan, 1970, p. 95, under no. 40. A. Brejon de Lavergn‚e and D. Thi‚baut, Catalogue Sommaire Illustr‚ des Peintures du Mus‚e du Louvre: Italie, Espagne, Allemagne, Grand-Bretagne et divers, Paris, 1981, p. 144. F. Scaglia, 'Contributo all'Angelico: Nuovi documenti per il Ciborio di San Domenico a Fiesole', Critica d'Arte, 55, nos. 2-3, 1990, pp. 34-40. J.T. Spike, Fra Angelico, New York, London, and Paris, 1997, pp. 241-242, under no. 91. G. Bonsanti, Beato Angelico, catalogo completo, Florence, 1998, p. 120. EXHIBITION Paris, Exposition Douanes. NOTES Since its initial publication in 1909, this picture has been recognised as the companion to the panel of an angel in profile to the right formerly in the collection of Walter Gay, now in the Louvre, Paris (inv. no. 1294B): this measures 38 by 26 cm. and clearly depends, in reverse, on the same cartoon. The present panel was thought, as van Marle records, to have belonged to a ciborium associated with the high altar of the church of San Domenico at Fiesole, the church of the Dominican Observants where Fra Angelico was received into that order in 1407. The ciborium is referred to by Vasari and a number of panels have been associated with this (see Pope-Hennessy, op. cit., pp. 166-7); its hypothetical components are not to be confused with those of Fra Angelico's early altarpiece of 1422-3 (main panels still in the church, predelle in the National Gallery, London, no. 663). Fra Angelico supplied two further altarpieces for the church, the Annunciation (Madrid, Prado, inv. no. 15) and the Coronation of the Virgin (Paris, Louvre, inv. no. 1290). Pope-Hennessy (1974, p. 230) specifically rejects the association with the ciborium. Scalia, who is followed by Bonsanti, considers that the two panels probably come from the San Domenico tabernacle, but this view is considered unlikely by both Keith Christiansen and Larry Kanter. The former inaccessibility of the present panel means that it has received less critical attention than its due. However, observations about the companion Angel are clearly relevant to it. Van Marle described the Louvre Angel as a 'superb fragment' and this was also accepted as an autograph work of Fra Angelico's by F. Schottm”ller ( Fra Angelico: des Meisters Gem„lde, Stuttgart, 1911, 2nd edn., 1924, p. 240), Berenson ( Italian Pictures of the Renaissance, Oxford, 1932, p. 22) and by U. Baldini ( L'opera Completa dell' Angelico, Milan, 1970, p. 95): M. Salmi ( Il Beato Angelico, 1958, p. 115) characterised it as ' questo nobile dipinto'. Pope-Hennessy in 1952, however, considered it to be from the workshop and, in 1974 (p. 231), slightly more flatteringly, as an 'attractive workshop product of good quality': but it should be borne in mind that his views about some lesser panels are now generally considered to be unnecessarily restrictive. Although the panel appears to depend on the same cartoon as the Louvre example, it is arguably the more refined of the two. Keith Christiansen (letter of 13 April 2001) considers, on the basis of photographs, that this is by 'a different, even finer hand' than the companion, noting the 'more delicately inflected profile and the drawing of the hands'. He proposes a date of circa 1433-5. Laurence Kanter (letter of 16 April 2001), also on the basis of photographs, suggests a date post 1430 and suspects that the two panels are autograph. Carl Strehlke (fax of 25 April 2001), again on the basis of photographs, agrees that this panel is of even higher quality than that in the Louvre. We are indebted to Keith Christiansen, Laurence B. Kanter and Carl B. Strehlke for their comments on the picture. SALESROOM NOTICE Please note that this lot has been withdrawn for private sale.