Probably commissioned by the Arte della Lana, or Wool Merchants Guild, for the Vallombrosan Church of San Michele in Siena;
Henri Chalandon, La Grange Blanche, Parcieux, near Trévoux, by 1907;
Chalandon family, from whom acquired directly by the present owners probably in the mid 1950s.  

B. Berenson, The Central Italian Painters of the Renaissance, New York and London 1909, p. 141 (as Bartolo di Fredi);
M. Meiss, "Notes on Three Linked Sienese Styles," in Art Bulletin, XLV, 1, March 1963, p. 48, note 12 (as by the so-called "Sienese Master of the Magdalen Legend," a follower of Luca di Tommè);
B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Central Italian and North Italian Schools, vol. I, London and New York 1968, p. 30 (as Bartolo di Fredi);
C. De Benedictis, La pittura senese, 1330-1370, Florence 1979, p. 67, note 80;
S. D'Argenio in M. Gregori, ed., La Fondazione Roberto Longhi a Firenze, Milan 1980, p. 242, cited under no. 22;
G. Chelazzi Dini, in Il Gotico a Siena, exhibition catalogue, Siena 1982, p. 278, cited under no. 103;
C. Volpe, Early Italian Paintings and Works of Art, 1300-1480, exhibition catalogue (Matthiesen Fine Art Ltd), London 1983, p. 29;
S.A. Fehm, Jr., Luca di Tommè: A Sienese Fourteenth-Century Painter, Carbondale, Illinois 1986, pp. 26, 35, note 21 (as 'Workshop of Luca di Tommè');
G. Freuler, "L'Eredità di Pietro Lorenzetti verso il 1350: novità per Biagio di Goro, Niccolò di Ser Sozzo e Luca di Tommè," in Nuovi studi, 4, 1997, pp. 20, 23-26, 31, notes 41, 47-48, 56, reproduced figs. 30 (reconstruction of altarpiece), 31, 32, 34;
P. Palladino, in Art and Devotion in Siena after 1350: Luca di Tommè and Niccolò di Buonaccorso, exhibition catalogue, 1997-1998, pp. 40/43♉, 46, reproduced p. 42, fig🌊s. 39-41.

"The following condition report has been provided by Sarah Walden, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This group of panels have not been touched apparently for some time. The beautiful calm tempera surface is largely unworn, although the gold ground has been rubbed in places showing streaks of bole beneath. There are scattered old rough, darkened retouchings, often perhaps superfluous, but with some clearly over old flakes. Near the base there are groups of small circular indents, perhaps from some sort of past amateur fastening. The thick poplar panel has a certain amount of old worm damage but is still strong. An unpainted band at the lower edge presumably fitted into the structure of the altarpiece. The original sections of the frame at the top are complete and intact including the perfectly preserved prophets in the spandrels, apart from a little wear in the gold. There are a few small places where the bole is exposed in the gilding but in this panel even the gold is largely well preserved and the entire panel is exceptionally undamaged and intact overall. There is one knock in the lower right corner. The red book has a wider retouching near the fingers, with another patch on the front of the cowl and a few other little darkened touches, but these are minor interruptions, and the fine tempera surface is beautifully preserved and unworn. This report was not done under laboratory conditions."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

The dowel marks located on the right hand side of this panel indicate that it would have originally occupied a position on the extreme left hand side of the central register of the San Michele polyptych, with the panel depicting Saint Michael the Archangel (lot 20 😼in this sale) ,ﷺ whose own dowel marks correspond, to its right.

Saint John or Giovanni Gualberto (985/95 - 1073) was the founder of the Vallombrosan Order, for whose Church of San Michele in Siena the polyptych to which this panel originally belonged was painted. A member of the noble Florentine Visdomini family, he was entering Florence on Good Friday when he came upon a man who had killed his brother. Together with his armed followers he was about to murder the man in revenge when his intended victim fell to his knees with his arms outstretched inthe shape of the Cross and 👍begged for mercy in the name of Christ, who had been crucified that same day. Giovanni forgave him and entered the Benedictine Church at San Miniato al Monte to pray, whereupon the crucifix upon the altar is said to have bowed its head to him in recognition of his piety. He subsequently entered the monastery at San Miniato as a Benedictine monk. Unwilling to forgive or compromise with his Abbot, Oberto, or the Bishop of Florence, Pietro Mezzabarba, whom he believed to be guilty of simony, he left the monastery. After staying with the monks at Camaldoli, he settled at Vallombrosa, where he founded his monastery and its Order sometime around 1038. He was canonised by Pope Celestine III in 1193 and died on 12 July 1073 in Passignano sul Trasimeno near Perugia.