(Florence 1320/30–1398/1400)
The Angel Gabriel; and
The Madonna Annunciate,
tempera on panel, gold ground, 44.5 x 18.8 cm and 45 x 18.8 cm, framed, a pair (2)

Provenance:
Private European collection

We are grateful to Andrea G. De Marchi for suggesting the attribution after examining the present paintings in the original.

These two panels by Jacopo di Cione depicting the Annunciation probably formed a diptych or were part of a larger polyptych. Andrea G. De Marchi dates them to shortly after 1370. They can be compared to Jacopo di Cione’s Annunciation in the Church of San Niccolò, Calenzano, near Florence, dated to circa 1369 (M. Boskovits, Pittura Fiorentina alla vigilia del Rinascimento: 1370-1400, Florence 1975), as well as to the Madonna and Child with God the Father and Angels in the National Gallery of Art, Washington (inv. no. 1952.5.18). Typical of Jacopo di Cione are the pursuit of the graceful pose and the delicate chiaroscuro in the modeling, the fluency of design, spaciousness of composition, and the artist’s attention to three-dimensional effect.

Jacopo di Cione was the brother of Nardo and Andrea di Cione, called Orcagna, the most celebrated painters in Florence in the mid-fourteenth century. Jacopo himself was not documented until 1365 though following the death of Nardo in that year and of Andrea in 1368. He inherited the illustrious family workshop and was evidently acknowledged in his own right, continuing to secure prestigious commissions. While no signed paintings by Jacopo survive, he is first recorded in 1368 as having completed the Saint Matthew triptych at Orsanmichele begun by Andrea in the Uffizi, Florence (inv. no. 3163).

Jacopo di Cione’s early works have often been attributed to other hands, including Giovanni del Biondo and the Maestro dell’Infanzia. An attempt to define Jacopo’s corpus was made by Boskovits, who recognised the works attributed by Offner under the provisional name of Maestro dell’Infanzia (see M. Boskovits, Ibid., 1975; R. Offner, A critical and historical corpus of Florentine painting, IV, 3, New York 1965).