James Kerr-Lawson, Florence, by 1910;
From whom acquired by Martin A. Ryerson, Chicago, 1910 until 1932;
By descent to his widow, Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson, Chicago, until 1937;
By whom bequeathed to the Art Institute of Chicago, in 1937 (Acc.no. 1937.1004).

Chicago, The Renaissance Society, University of Chicago, Old and New Masters of Religious Art, 1931, no. 75;
Decatur, Illinois, Art Center, Masterpieces of the Old and New World, 1948, no. 11.

B. Berenson, Pitture italiane del Rinascimento, Milan 1936, p. 235 (as Jacopo di Cione);
Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago.  A Catalogue of the Picture Collection, Chicago 1961, pp. 246-7 (as Jacopo di Cione);
B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance:  Florentine School, London 1963, vol. 1, p. 103 (as Jacopo di Cione);
F. Zeri, “Early Italian Pictures in the Kress Collection”, in Burlington Magazine 109, 1967, p. 477;
B. Fredericksen and F. Zeri, Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections, Cambridge, Mass. 1972, pp. 110, 318, 571;
M. Boskovits, Pittura fiorentina alla vigilia del Rinascimento, 1370-1400, Florence 1975, pp. 108, 331, reproduced fig. 129;
I. Hecht, “Madonna of Humility”, in Art Institute of Chicago Bulletin 70, 6, 1976, p. 10, reproduced fig. 1;
R. Offner, A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting:  A Legacy of Attributions, ed. H.B. J. Maginnis, New York 1981, p. 39;
C. Lloyd, Italian Paintings before 1600 in The Art Institute of Chicago.  A Catalogue of the Collection, Chicago 1993, pp. 138-40, reproduced, p. 139.

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 seems to have its original reverse intact. The incorporated frame also seems to be original, although the bottom edge and the base on the bottom left and right may have been restored. For the most part, the construction appears to be in its original condition. The panel has cracked in the lower right corner. The crack runs about five inches vertically into the green gown. This crack is quite uneven at present, although it is stable. The painting is quite worn. Some of the gilding may have been augmented over the years, but it seems that what is seen at present is mostly original paint. There are a few small restorations in the figure of Christ, in the hands and face of the Madonna, and perhaps a few in her red dress. This work is certainly from a very early period, and visible sign of age are to be expected. Although the condition is worn, the picture looks well, and it is recommended that the work be hung as is.
"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."

First published by Bernard Berenson in 1936, this Madonna of humility with two angels was thought to be the work of Jacopo di Cione, a brother of Orcagna, an attribution that remained largely unchallenged until the 1960s when Evelyn Sandburg-Vavalà suggested an attribution to Bicci di Lorenzo.¹  It was, however, Richard Offner who first proposed the panel to have been executed by Bicci’s father, Lorenzo di Bicci, an opinion shared and later published by Federico Zeri in 1967.²  In 1975, Miklos Boskovits corroborated that attribution, dating the painting between 1375 and 1380.³ 

The iconography here is typical of the traditional Madonna dell’umiltà: while the cloth of honor suspended by two angels behind recalls the resplendence of an enthroned Madonna, here she sits modestly on a cushion, laying emphasis on the humility of her character, as a protective mother nursing her child.  In the 1993 Art Institute of Chicago catalogue, the panel is linked to a group of similar pictures intended for private devotion, also given to Lorenzo di Bicci, in which the Madonnas each share the typically rounded facial type seen here and the somewhat stiff pose that characterize many of Lorenzo’s figures.⁴

 

1. See B. Berenson under Literature, op. cit.; Sandburg-Vavalà’s opinion is noted in the Art Institute of Chicago curatorial files.
2.  See R. Offner and F. Zeri under Literature, op. cit.
3.  See M. Boskovitz under Literature, op. cit.
4.  For further images of this subject by Lorenzo di Bicci see M. Boskovits, op. cit., figs. 130-133.