Sig. Biaggio Luzi, Rome (according to an old inscription on the reverse).

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 large panel is a heavy and completely unreinforced piece of wood. The surface is similarly in fresh and untouched condition. The gilding and the paint layer are both extremely well preserved, with almost no restorations. The restorations that do exist are not particularly effective, and are certainly not accurately applied. If the work were cleaned, the retouches that would be required would be very small, such as a few in the Madonna's gown between her knees and a few in the white marble floor beneath her feet. The work could also be hung in its current condition.
"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This impressive and previously unpublished panel by Pietro Alamanno is a notable addition to his oeuvre which has been reconsidered in recent scholarship.¹ With its firm, dark outlining and cross hatched modeling, the Madonna and Child enthroned is typical of the artist’s style.  The artist seats the Madonna and Child on a characteristically architectural throne with curved red arms, similar to that in the central panel of his polypych now in the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan.²  The pose of the Christ Child, his body in profile, his head turned to face the viewer and his arms folded,  is based on a model also used in his altarpiece signed, PETRVS ALAMANUS PINXIT formerly in the church of San Giacomo Apostolo, Ascoli Piceno and now in the Bob Jones University collection, Greenville.³  The same Christ Child model reappears once more in the Madonna and Child enthroned with four musical angels in the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, Urbino.⁴  This time the Infant’s drapery is identical to that in the present painting, the simple yellow tunic with a round neck is slit down the sides and belted at the waist and the figure itself differs only in the position of the curls on his forehead, here parted and brushed to either side. The poses and drapery of the Christ Child as depicted here and in both the Greenville and Urbino polyptychs, are each in turn derived from a model by Carlo Crivelli utilized in his Madonna and Child, now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (inv. no. 49.7.5) and painted circa 1480.⁵

Born in Göttweich, Austria, Alamanno moved to the Marches in North East Italy where he is recorded as early as 1466.  Though previous scholarship placed the artist firmly in the shadow of Carlo Crivelli, considering him a simple follower, recent research, including the 2005 monograph by Stefano Papetti and Sandra Di Provvido, have shown him to be a far more independent figure.⁶  These studies revealed the Austrian’s presence in his adopted home of Ascoli Piceno to predate that of Crivelli and found him to have completed significant and complex commissions soon after his arrival in the Marches, suggesting he was already considered an important and accomplished artist.  Far from his repetitive adhesion to Crivellian models suggested by 19^th century scholars, Alamanno’s oeuvre, much of which was only recently restored to him, shows a painter aware of the shifting pictorial influences in the region.  Alamanno is now considered a leading personality in the Northern inspired figure painting popularized in the Marches in the last quarter of the 15^th century.

 

1.  For further information on recent studies of Pietro Alamanno’s corpus, see S. Papetti and S. Di Provvido, Pietro Alamanno: Un pittore austaico nelle Marche, Milan 2005.
2.  Ibid., pp. 80-82, reproduced p. 81.
3.  Ibid. pp. 88-91, reproduced p. 89.
4.  Ibid., pp. 156-159, reproduced p. 157 and in detail p. 159.
5.  Ibid., p. 156.
6.  Ibid., pp. 8-9.