Lot 31: MICHELE TOSINI, CALLED MICHELE DI RIDOLFO DEL GHIRLANDAIO FLORENCE 1503 - 1577

THE PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTOR

ALLEGORICAL FIGURE

measurements note
28 3/4 by 21 1/2 in.; 73 by 54.7 cm.

oil on panel

PROVENANCE

John Giles, Albion Street, London;
His sale, London, Christie's, February 2, 1881, lot 635 (as Andrea del Sarto), for 33.12 pound, where acquired by the great-grandfather of a private collector;
By whom sold ("The Property of a Gentleman"), London, Sotheby's, December 11, 1996, lot 34 (where the image was reversed in the catalogue);
Anonymous sale, New York, Sotheby's, January 22, 2004, lot 15.

NOTE

This painting appears to belong to a group of female bust portraits, all on panel and of similar size, painted by Michele di Ridolfo at a time when he was much influenced by Vasari. Other pictures in the group include: Lucretia and Leda in the Galleria Borghese, 1959, Rome (inv. nos. 322 and 323; 73 by 51 cm. and 76 by 54 cm. respectively; reproduced in P. della Pergola, Galleria Borghese, 1959, vol. II, nos. 53 and 54, plates 54 and 55); a Saint Mary Magdalen, formerly with Colnaghi & Co. and now in a private collection, New York (see London Colnaghi & Co., Gothic to Renaissance, European Painting 1300-1600, 1988, p. 100, cat. no. 17, reproduced); and a Judith formerly in the Heathcote sale, London, Christie's, April 27, 1928, lot 41 (69 by 53.5 cm.). A similar figure holding a column, also given to Michele di Ridolfo, was with H. Shickman, New York, (according to a Witt Library mount), where the subject was identified as an Allegory of Architecture.