Lot 12: * NICCOLÒ PISANO PISA 1470 - 1538

23 1/8 by 19 1/8 in.; 58.7 by 48.7 cm.

oil on panel

E. Sambo, "Niccolò Pisano tra Ferrara e Bologna", in Paragone, 455, 1988, p. 20, note 41;
A. Pattanaro, "La 'scuola' del Boccaccino a Ferrara", in Prospettiva, 64, 1991, pp. 65, 74, note 39, fig. 26;
E. Sambo, Niccolò Pisano pittore (1470 - post 1536), Rimini 1995, pp. 132-133, no. 31.

PROPERTY FROM A FAMILY COLLECTION

Erick W. Bergmann Sale, Parke - Bernet Galleries, New York, 24 February,1949, lot 63 (as Boccaccio Boccaccino);
There purchased by L. Medina for $425;
In the collection of the present family by circa 1950 and thence by descent.

Previously attributed by Dr. Lionello Venturi to the Cremonese artist Boccaccio Boccaccino, Sambo was the first to publish and identify this picture as a rare work by the artist Niccolò Pisano (see Literature below). Pisano's first recorded work is the altarpiece of the Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints and the associated predella of the Adoration of the Magi and Slaughter of the Innocents, dated to circa 1493, formerly in the Matteo collection, Pisa. In 1499, Pisano was commissioned to participate in the decoration of the choir in the Cathedral in Ferrara. The success of his commission resulted in Pisano being offered a position in the court of Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara with a recorded salary. The present work would appear to be painted while he was active in Ferrara. The head of the bearded man, presumably St. John the Baptist or St. Joseph, who turns to look at the spectator with his direct gaze seems to be a direct quotation (in reverse) from a picture by Boccaccio Boccaccino's, Adoration of the Shepherds in the Galleria Estense in Modena. Boccaccino's Modena work has been traditionally dated to the second decade of the 16th century, although recent scholarship has suggested a date as early as circa 1500-1501, shortly after Boccaccino left Ferrara where he would have come in to contact with Niccolò Pisano and seen examples of his work. The present work with its harmonious colour palette and delicate evocation of the surrounding landscape would appear to date to precisely the same moment of circa 1500. In Ferrara Pisano also painted an altarpiece of the Virgin and Child Enthroned between SS James and Helen, dateable to circa. 1512?14 now in the Brera, Milan.