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 oil on panel has no cradle on the reverse, but it seems that it used to. It now has two wooden horizontal supports. The frame is not attached, and is not original. The gilding is worn and restored, but certainly not badly at all. I believe the point to which the painting is restored is very attractive. Restorations are quite visible under ultraviolet light. It seems that the top of the arch is not original, but presumably is the original concept. There is also restoration from the same period down the right side, all in the gilded area. There is a broad area of what appears to be restoration across the bottom in the hand in the lower right and in the hand in the lower center. There are smaller restorations along the left edge. In the faces and bodies of both figures, there are numerous retouches, although to a lesser degree in the dark gown of the Madonna. The restoration has been very meticulous and faithful to the work, and it is recommended that the painting be hung as is.
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Formerly known as the Master of 1336 after a dated fresco in Santa Maria delle Grazie, Pistoia, the Master of Popiglio was among the first artists to reject the dominant, rational style of Giotto in favor of reinterpreting earlier, Pistoian models.  His paintings are characterized by a remarkable expressivity and figurative language, which are independent from those of the previous generation.¹  Pier Paolo Donati was first to recognize the Master of Popiglio as an autonomous personality from the workshop of the Master of 1310.² Though few works by the artist survive, his influence can been discerned among his contemporaries beyond Pistoia well into the mid-century.

This Madonna and Child bears a striking resemblance to the central panel of the artist’s polyptych now in the Museo della Collegiata, Empoli, dated by Donati to the second half of the 1330s, based on the enlarged halos.³   The composition and poses are almost identical, the Madonna wears the same mantle, decorated with a geometrically patterned border, with a white veil falling in consecutive, round folds around her neck and an eight pointed star on the hood and🌱 right shoulder.  In the present panel the master’s characteristic, long hands are slightly varied, their placement here is more convincing, the Madonna’s right hand now comfortably placed on the Christ Child’s legs and their widely spaced, tapering fingers appear more elegantly𝕴 positioned.  

We are grateful to Andrea de Marchi for suggesting an attribution of this work to the Master of Popilgio on the basis of photographs. 

1.  See P.P. Donati, “Per la pittura pistoiese del Trecento – II, Il Maestro del 1336” in Paragone, XXVII, 321, November 1976, pp. 3-15, figs. 1-23.
2.  Ibid.
3.  Ibid., reproduced  fig. 1, in detail fig. 4 and 9.