Lot 71: The Pietà

Francesco Botticini (Florence 1446-1497)
The Pietà
tempera and gold on panel, shaped top
16 3/8 x 11¾ in. (41.6 x 29.8 cm.)

VAT rate of 17.5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.
Botticini was, like his reputed teacher Neri di Bici, an artisan painter who was able to adapt to the swiftly changing currents in late quattrocento Florence. Paintings such as The three archangels with Tobias (Uffizi, Florence) demonstrate his facility with physiognomy and the portrayal of emotion. His influences were various and include Verocchio, Botticelli and latterly Filippino Lippi. Botticini painted a number of larger-scale altarpieces such as the Madonna and Child enthroned (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) and Saint Monica and Augustinian nuns (San Spirito, Florence), but like his contemporaries he produced numerous smaller devotional paintings of which this is a fine example.

We are grateful to Everett Fahy for confirming the attribution on the basis of photographs.