15TH-15TH CENTURY FLORENTINE PAINTER Madonna and Child with Saint Francis Tempera on panel, 76.5X42.5 cm Provenance: Milan, private collection The panel can be traced back to the catalogue of the Master of the Epiphany of Fiesole, an artist whose profile and catalogue was delineated by Everett Fahy in 1967 starting from the study of the altarpiece with the Adoration of the Magi and Saints Paul, Francis and John the Baptist conserved in the Church of San Francesco in Fiesole (cf. E. Fahy, Some followers of Domenico Ghirlandaio, New York, 1976). In this work, the scholar recognised an author who was a follower of Jacopo del Sellaio, but also influenced by Cosimo Rosselli and Filippo Lippi. These clues suggested the possibility of identifying the anonymous master in the personality of Filippo di Giuliano, who collaborated with il Sellaio in Florence in 1480, while Caroselli suggests the identification with Gherardo di Giovanni del Flora (1445-1497). The work under examination presents precise formal and stylistic similarities with certain paintings by the master, certainly intended for private devotion and probably datable to the early 16th century. Comparisons can be made with, for example, the Madonna in Adoration of the Child and St. John in the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (cf. Zeri Archive, no. 4942/Fahy, 2001-2002, p. 22) and the very similar ones from a private collection in Essen (cf. Zeri Archive, no. 3842) and the Courtauld Institute in London (cf. Zeri Archive, no. 14015; Fahy, 2001-2002, p. 23; Fahy 2020. P. 170, fig. 200) and also the one previously held at Christie's, New York on 28 January 2009, lot 1 (fig. 1) and at Galleria Moretti (Fahy, 2001-2002, p. 25), all of which show the same compositional scheme and similar expressive types of faces and stylistic features. Reference bibliography: E. Fahy, Some Early Paintings in the Gambler Parry Collection, in Burlington Magazine CIX, March 1967, pp. 128-139 A. Padoa Rizzo, L'altare della Compagnia dei Tessitori in San Marco in Florence, in Antichità Viva, 28, no. 4, 1989, pp. 17-24 M. Gregori, A. Paulucci and C. Acidini, Maestri e botteghe. Pittura a Firenze alla fine del Quattrocento, Milan 1992, pp. 35, 44, nn. 6, 7 S. L. Caroselli, Italian Panel Painting of the Early Renaissance in the Collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1994 E. Fahy, The Este Predella Panels and other works by the Master of the Fiesole Epiphany, in Nuovi Studi, 9, 2001/2002 (2003), pp. 17-29 E. E. Fahy, The Este Predella Panels and other works by the Master of the Fiesole Epiphany, in Nuovi Studi, 2001/2002 (2003), in Studi della pittura Toscana del Rinascimento, Fondazione Zeri, Bologna 2020, I, pp. 311-325, II, pp. 170-212