MAESTRO DELLA MADONNA DI NAUMBURG (workshop of David Bigordi, known as del Ghirlandaio) (Florence, active from 1485 to around 1510) Nativity Tempera on panel, 61.5X43 cm Provenance: New York, Schaeffer Galleries (1936, as Raffaellino del Garbo) London, Sotheby's, 27 May 1987, lot 63 (as the circle of Niccolò Soggi) Traced back to the catalogue of the Master of the Madonna Di Naumburg by Alessandro Nesi, the author's name derives from a Madonna and Child belonging to the Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge (Massachusetts), but from the collection of Mrs. Aaron Naumburg (see Naumburg Bequest Notes (Fogg Art Museum), Vol. 2, No. 5 (Jun., 1930), pp. 222-225). The work in the American museum generally attributed to the workshop of Lorenzo di Credi was recognised as the work of the anonymous master by Everet Fahy to whom we owe the recognition of a small nucleus of paintings later expanded by the scholar (cf. Pons 2001, footnote 2). The panels collected by Fahy show compositional schemes derived from the models of Lorenzo di Credi, Ghirlandaio, Filippino Lippi, Raffaellino del Garbo and Perugino and are usually of small dimensions suitable for domestic devotion. The painting is accompanied by a critical card by Alessandro Nesi. Reference bibliography: E. Fahy, The Master of the Naumburg Madonna, in: Acquisitions (Fogg Art Museum) no. 1966/1967 [1966-1967], pp. 11-18 N. Pons, La fortuna figurativa dell'Adorazione Sassetti di Domenico Ghirlandaio in Santa Trinita, in Domenico Ghirlandaio 1449-1494. Proceedings of the international conference, 1996, pp. 165-174 N. Pons, Moretti. Pittori attivi in Toscana dal Trecento al Settecento, edited by F. Baldassari, Florence 2001, pp. 110-113