(Florence, 1385-post 1437)
The Madonna and Child, with Saint Bartholomew and Saint Anthony the Abbot,
oil on panel, goldground, shaped top, 83.5 x 44.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private collection, Austria

We are grateful to Alessandro Tomei for suggesting the attribution and for his help in cataloguing this lot.

The present painting represents the Madonna and Child enthroned, flanked by Saint Bartholomew on the left and Saint Anthony on the right, each identified by their respective attributes: the knife symbolic of the former’s martyrdom and the wild boar at the feet of the latter. Along the lower edge of the frame an inscription reads AVE MARIA GRATIA PLENA. The upper margin of the shaped goldground panel is embellished by a series of embossed trilobite arches.

This small altarpiece painted by Giovanni dal Ponte during the second or third decade of the Quattrocento would have been made for private devotion. Giovanni dal Ponte was among the leading late gothic painters active in Florence during the first half of the fifteenth century where he would have been certainly influenced and in contact with the foremost masters active in the city at the time, including Lorenzo Ghiberti, Lorenzo Monaco and Masaccio.

The sculptural solidity of the figures, the soft elegance of the drapery and details such as the distinctive rendering of the various protagonists’ hair are reminiscent of other works of similar subject unanimously assigned to the artist.