Carlo Lasinio (1759-1838), both his own red wax seal and the black wax seal of Campo Santo, Pisa on the reverse, inv. no. 94 (as Apollonio Greco);
Conte Giulio Sterbini Collection, Rome, circa 1905 - 1910, thence by descent to;
Marilis Bruetighm Collection, Strasbourg, 1910;
Thence by descent in the family, later in Munich.

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 work has not been restored for many years. The panel has some very rough horizontal reinforcements, but these do not seem to be effective. There is a noticeable and open crack running vertically through the figures, another in the upper left corner, and a third in the upper center. The cracking to the picture is quite visible but not unstable; in fact, there is no instability to speak of to the entire paint layer. Given the large crack in the center, it may be an idea to reexamine the structural repairs and supports on the reverse, although it may not be appropriate to completely join and restore this crack. The gilding around the figures and angels may be original. The figures themselves, the angels and the rocks d seem to be very well preserved. Therefore, with some attention to the central crack, which probably will not be completely eliminated, the picture will certainly clean well to reveal a healthy paint layer that requires very few retouches.
"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."

This beautifully preserved Pietà by Nikolaos Tzafouris can be closely compared to the central panel of his icon triptych in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (inv. no. AN1915.180.).  Though the Ashmolean panel has a shaped top, thus eliminating the space for the two angels, it is otherwise almost identical in typology to the present panel.  The figures are drawn in intricate detail; the flesh is expertly depicted, the contours of the musculature and facial features conveyed with curving parallel lines almost as though etched are then modeled with highlighting.  The Madonna is portrayed in a more naturalistic manner: her grief is expressed through the fine, repetitive underlining beneath her eyes; her age is implied by the forking wrinkles at the corners of her eyes and the double lines formed from her nose to the corner of her mouth by her frown; and her drapery falls in elaborate yet convincing folds from her knees.  Christ meanwhile is somewhat more stylized: the line of his pectoral muscles curves round to form his right arm; the sternum and ribs are defined in highlighted strips; his naval is implied with a minute spiral; and his drapery falls in more, regulated, consentric folds to the knee. 

Nikolaos Tzafouris was head of a workshop in Crete, then under Venetian rule and known as the Regno di Candia.  Tzafouris produced small devotional paintings, often signed, to be pedaled by the so called madonneri in Venice and he specialized in images of the Madonna and Child holding a small globe, thought to be imbued with healing properties.  The artist combined popular Western imagery with the Byzantine iconography of his homeland and indeed we see here his unusual treatment of the angels who appear to bear theiꦚr breasts and rend their ha✤ir in an expression of grief reminiscent of that in Greek tragedy.

This Pietà has a distinguished Pisan provenance: on the reverse of the panel is the black wax seal of the Campo Santo collection and a red wax seal with the monogram CL (see fig. 1), denoting the collection of engraver and art historian, Carlo Lasinio (1759-1838).  A professor of engraving at the Accademia in Florence, Lasinio moved to Pisa in 1807 to become curator of the Campo Santo.  There he dedicated the rest of his career to recording and conserving its frescos and supplementing the collections of paintings, sculpture and archeological objects which he researched tirelessly.  A pla🙈que on the verso of thꦏe frame (visible in the catalogue image) displays not only Lasinio’s own attribution to Apollonio Greco, called Maestro del Tafi, but also his inventory number, 94.