(active in Lucca circa 1460–1480)
Madonna and Child
tempera on gold ground panel, 77 x 54 cm, framed

Roberto Longhi was first to catagorise the works of this specific artist, and name him the „Familiare del Boccati“, identifing his oeuvre as including a Madonna and Child with Two Angels in the Louvre, Paris; a Coronation of the Virgin in the Städel Museum, Frankfurt; and a Saint Sebastian in a private collection (see R. Longhi, Un ‚familiare del Boccati‘ under Appunti, in: Paragone, vol. 153, Milan September 1962, pp. 60–64).

De Marchi added the present panel to the artist‘s corpus of works suggesting a date of execution to approximately 1470. The present painting manifests striking physiological parallels with another Madonna and Child (formerly in Umberto Pini collection, Bologna, see Sotheby’s anonymous sale, New York 26th January 2012, Lot 12), especially the smooth molding of the flesh of the faces, the Madonna‘s slightly pronounced and dimpled chin, her half closed eyes and the stout little nose and Lippi like cheeks of the Christ Child. The similarities between the two panels leave imply that they were both painted by the same hand.

The name „Familiare del Boccati“ was given by Longhi because of the artist‘s stylisitic likeness to the painter Giovanni Boccati (1445–1480), who was active in the Marche and Umbria. However Andrea de Marchi has recently suggested that the artist may be a Lucchese painter, linking him to Baldassare di Biagio del Firenze (1430/1434-1484) and Matteo Civitali (1436-1501), both of whom were active in Lucca in the 15th century.