(active in Ferrara 1405–1441)
Madonna of Humility,
tempera on gold ground panel, 62.5 x 45.5 cm, integral frame

Provenance:
with Georges Wildenstein, Paris, 1951;
with Galleria Celestini, Milan;
where acquired in 1960;
sale, Bonhams, London, 7 December 2011, lot 36 (as Antonio Alberti da Ferrara);
Private European collection

Literature:
L. Servolini, Una Madonnina sconosciuta di Antonio da Ferrara, in: Arte figurativa antica e moderna. Rivista bimestrale. Pittura, scultura, arredamento, antiquariato, vol. 6, no. 30, November – December 1957, p. 27 (as Antonio da Ferrara);
M. T. Zanchi, Antonio Alberti da Ferrara e il suo itinerario umbro-marchigiano, in: Commentari. Rivista di critica e storia dell’arte, vol. XV, July – December 1964, no. III-IV, p. 176 (rejected attribution to Antonio Alberti da Ferrara);
S. Padovani, Pittori alla corte estense nel primo Quattrocento, in: Paragone, vol. XXVI/299, January 1975, pp. 39-40, note 38, fig. 43a (as Antonio Alberti);
C. Guerzi, Pittori e cantieri della Ferrara tardogotica, da Alberto (1388-1393) a di Nicolò III d’Este (1393-1441), diss. ms., Udine 2007/2008, pp. 91–92, fig. I.75 (as Attributed to Michele dai Carri);
C. Guerzi, Il tardogotico estense tra critica e mercato dell’arte, in: Ricerche di S/confine, no. 1, vol. VIII, Parma 2017, pp. 98–99, illustrated p. 105, fig. 14 (as Attributed to Michele dai Carri)

We are grateful to Chiara Guerzi for confirming the attribution.

The present painting can be compared to other paintings by the painter from Ferrara including the Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saint Nicola presenting Pietro dei Lardi (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, inv. no. 65.181.5) and the Trinity in the Pinacoteca di Ferrara (inv. no. 73). The latter work also bears the initials ‘G. Z.’ from which the master’s traditional identifying moniker derives. These works, along with the fresco of the Resurrection painted for the Confraternita dei Battuti Neri di Ferrara (in the Oratorio dell’Annunziata) constitute the basis upon which the reconstruction of the catalogue of Michele dai Carri is founded.

The Master G. Z., possibly Michele dai Carri, was one of the most important artists in Ferrara at the time of Niccolò III d’Este. Indeed, he became a reference point for various painters such as Antonio Orsini and the Master of Vignola. Furthermore due to this Master’s works, the pictorial innovations of Gentile da Fabriano were communicated to the painters of the local school; additionally, his works, such as the panel in the Metropolitan Museum of Art clearly reveal the painter’s proximity to another leading artist from the late Gothic period active in the Po valley: the sculptor Jacopo della Quercia who worked in Ferrara from 1403.

This small panel painting, created for private devotion, probably dates to the end of the 1430s and it appears to be the model from which many works made in the ambit of Ferrara derived, at least until the 1450s. Indeed, its repeated motifs include the roundels enclosing the Annunciation in the upper corners, the dense ground encrustation of pastiglia relief ornament and above all, the typical arch resting on twisted columns that frames the composition (see Guerzi, 2017).