Marchese Filippo Serlupi Crescenzi, Villa Le Fontanelle, Florence.

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com , an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This panel has probably been fairly recently examined by a restorer and although there are a couple of small scuffs in the varnish, one in the headdress of the Madonna and others in her dress around her legs, the remainder of the picture seems to be very fresh and could perhaps be hung as is. The panel itself is very slightly curved from left to right. There is one reinforcement running horizontally which has been applied only to the middle of the upper half of the picture. The paint layer is clean and varnished. Under ultraviolet light there are a few marks faintly visible, most likely corresponding to retouches in the red dress beneath Christ's left elbow, in a few spots in the brown cloak being worn by the Madonna in the right side and in the lower center. There is a filling in the top of her headdress and top of her head, which has been restored. In the gold itself there seems to be very little retouch. In the calligraphy along the bottom edge there may be a restoration in the center which interferes with two or three letters, addressing a faintly visible crack. Despite the fact that the picture may be slightly dirty, only an adjustment to the varnish is advised prior to hanging the picture.
"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 subject of the dead Christ supported on the lap of the grieving Virgin Mary is not recorded in the Bible, being first recounted in the writings of various late thirteenth-century German mystics. Representations of it appear in German art, especially sculpture, beginning around 1300. Only sporadically, though, was the subject taken up by Italian painters, mostly notably in the north of Italy and during the early years of the Quattrocento. The present panel retains its original thickness. Traces of the barbe survive along the picture's sides and bottom edge, indicating that the composition was conceived as an independent work of art and not as part of some larger altarpiece.  The expressive power of this image as well as its rare iconography is unusual.  Thus far, it has not been possible to identify the author of this work, which shows affinities with paintings by such Bolognese masters as Jacopo di Paolo (active 1371-1426) and especially Simone dei Crocefissi (c. 1330-1399). The attribution to the Bolognese School was first give by Bernard Berenson, who saw the painting in 1958.  In fact, the inspiration for the present panel is probably Simone dei Crocefissi's Pietá in the Palazzo Davia-Bargellini, Bologna, which was commissioned by Johanne🅠s of Elthinl (died 1368).

The first recorded owner of this work, the Marchese Filippo Serlupi Crescenzi, was a wealthy lawyer and art collector who sheltered the great critic Bernard Berenson during the Nazi occupation of Florence in the final years of the Second World War (see. E. Samuels, Bernard Berenson: The Making of a Legend, Cambridge, Ma. and London 1987, p. 474).