Lot 105: NICCOLÒ DI SER SOZZO TEGLIACCI

NICCOLÒ DI SER SOZZO TEGLIACCI DIED 1363, SIENA MADONNA AND CHILD WITH TWO ANGELS tempera, silver and gold ground on panel, unframed 35 3/8 by 27 1/2 in.; 89.9 by 69.9 cm.

Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Italiaansche Kunst in Nederlandsch Bezit, 1 July - 1 October 1934, no. 389 (as Luca di Tommè);
Hartford, CT, Wadsworth Atheneum, An Exhibition of Italian Panels and Manuscripts from the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries in Honor of Richard Offner, 9 April - 6 June 1965, no. 28.

B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance, Oxford 1932, p. 313 (as Luca di Tommè);
U. Thieme-Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler, Leipzig 1938, vol. 32, p. 502;
F. Zeri, "Sul problema di Nicolò Tegliacci e Luca di Tomè," in Paragone, vol. 105 (September 1958), p. 9;
F. Zeri, "Angelo Puccinelli a Siena," in Bolletino d'arte, vol. 49 (1964) p. 232, reproduced fig. 4;
M. Bucci, "Proposte per Nicolò di Ser SozzoTegliacci," in Paragone, vol. 105 (1965) p. 60 (note 3);
B. Klesse, Seidenstoffe in der Italienischen Malerei des 14. Jahrhunderts, Bern 1967, pp. 202, 285, nos. 72, 188;
B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Central and North Italian Schools, New York 1968, vol. I, p. 425, reproduced vol. II, pl. 359;
S.A. Fehm, Jr., Luca di Tommè (Fourteenth Century Sienese Painter), Yale 1971, unpublished Ph.D. diss., vol. I, pp. xx, 60-61, 77; vol. IV, p. 81, no. 72 (under rejected attributions), reproduced fig. 95;
B. Fredericksen, Catalogue of the Paintings in The J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu 1972, pp. 4-5, no. 4;
S.A. Fehm, Jr., "The Collaboration of Niccolò Tegliacci and Luca di Tommè," in The J. Paul Getty Museum Publication, no. 5 (1973), pp. 11-12, 29 (note 17);
C. de Benedictis, "Sull'attività giovanile di Niccolò Tegliacci," in Paragone, vol. 291 (1974) p. 57, reproduced pl. 55;
S.A. Fehm, Jr., "Attributional Problems surrounding Luca di Tommè," in Essays Presented to Myron P. Gilmore, Florence 1978, vol. II, p. 156;
C. de Benedictis, La pittura senese 1330-1370, Florence 1979, p. 95;
E. Carli, La pittura senese del Trecento, Milan 1981, p. 224;
S.A. Fehm, Jr., Luca di Tommè: A Sienese Fourteenth-Century Painter, Edwardsville, IL 1986, p. 23 note 27;
D. Jaffé, Summary Catalogue of European Paintings in The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles 1997, p. 124, reproduced.

Prince Leon Ourusoff, Nice, France, before 1929;
Arthur Sachs (1880-1975), New York;
By whom sold via exchange to F. Steinmeyer, working as an agent for Julius Böhler Gallery, Munich and Lucerne, 1929;
With Galerie Paul Cassirer, Amsterdam, 1933-1952 (on consignment from Julius Böhler);
Returned unsold to Böhler, 1952;
From whom acquired by Thomas S. Hyland, Greenwich, CT, 1958 (as Luca di Tommè);
From whom acquired by The J. Paul Getty Museum, 1970.

This imposing, early work was once the central panel for an altarpiece. Although it is now cut down, it must once have depicted a full-length, larger than life-size Virgin and Child enthroned and flanked by angels. The red ground that is visible in the Virgin's throne, her dress, the Christ Child's chemise and in the borders of their cloaks was originally covered with elaborately patterned silver gilt. Remnants of the silver can still be detected in the dark indentations of the patterning; however, because it needed to be constantly polished to ward off tarnish, most of the lavish background has been rubbed away. Although no other panels from this altarpiece have as yet been identified, a similar polyptych in the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Siena, signed and dated "NICCHOLAUS SER SOCII ET LUCAS TOMAS DE SENIS HOC OPUS PINSERUNT ANNI MCCCLXII," must be very close in composition and treatment to the present work.