(Florence 1370 – before 1451)
Madonna and Child enthroned with Saints and Angels,
tempera on panel, gold ground, 84.5 x 45.5 cm, integral frame

Provenance
sale Porro & C, Milan, 21 October 2009, lot 37 (as Master of Montefoscoli);
sale Bonhams, London, 9. July 2014, lot 74 (as Master of the Sportelli dell’Accademia)

We are grateful to Alessandro Tomei for suggesting the attribution after examining the present painting in the original.

The painting depicts the Madonna enthroned with the Child; behind the back of the throne, two angels hold an embroidered drape. In the background (left of the observer) is Saint Blaise and on the right Saint Dorothy who can be identified by the mass of flowers she holds in her hands. In the foreground are Saint John the Baptist on the left and Saint James the Greater on the right.

Lippo d'Andrea (Lippo d'Andrea di Lippo di Borgho [from Santa Maria Novella]) is documented in 1420 and for a long time the figure of Lippo (perhaps identifiable with the Florentine Lippo, to whom Giorgio Vasari devotes one of his Lives), was confused with Ambrogio di Baldese, a Florentine painter born in 1352 who worked in Florence and Prato; confused to such a point that works by Lippo were given to an unidentified Pseudo Ambrogio di Baldese.

The painting in question has significant similarities with other works by the painter, such as the Madonna and Child with angels in the Museo del Bargello, Florence, a Madonna and Child with Saints and donors in the Museo Civico of Colle Val d’Elsa, an altarpiece in the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven (U.S.A.), and a polyptych with the Madonna and Child with angels between four Saints in the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Florence: the elegant rendering of the figures, the drapery, and the handling of the faces, in particular that of the Child, bear clear references to the work of Giotto. These elements make Lippo d'Andrea one of the most important interpreters of late-Gothic Florentine painting.

We are grateful to Alessandro Tomei for his help in cataloguing this painting.