(active in Florence, second half of 15th Century)
The Birth of Christ, with angels and donors,
tempera on panel, 44 x 27.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
European Private Collection

In 1967, Fahy was the first to place the Master of the Fiesole Epiphany (Maestro dell’Epifania di Fiesole) in the circle of Ghirlandaio, basing his judgement on the altarpiece of The Adoration of the Magi, with Saints Paul, Francis, and John the Baptist, now in San Francesco in Fiesole. The artist was a follower of Jacopo del Sellajo and was influenced by Cosimo Rosselli, Botticelli, and Filippo Lippi. He might even be identified as Filippo di Giuliano, who around circa 1480 maintained a workshop in Florence together with Jacopo del Sellajo, with whom he had collaborated form as early as 1473.

It seems that the present panel served as a private devotional picture because of its small dimensions. The figures of a female and a male donor – the latter presented by two angels – appear in the foreground. The artist evidently adopted the figures of the Madonna and Child from the panel after which he was named, since they are almost identical. The Master of the Fiesole Epiphany (Maestro dell’Epifania di Fiesole) seems to have derived this group of the Madonna and Child from a panel by Jacopo del Sellajo now conserved in the Metropolitan Museum in New York, which dates from the 1480s. It may therefore be assumed that the present panel was painted in the final decade of the 15th century, probably around 1500, as it already displays a more mature style.