Lot 6

Lilienfeld Galleries, New York 1942 (according to Frick Art Research Library records)
James William Alsdorf (1913-1990), Chicago (on Colnaghi label verso)
P & D Colnaghi & Co Ltd., London, 1966 (label verso)
where purchased by Robert Compton Jones (accompanied by a copy of Colnaghi records)

Neri di Bicci was born in 1418, into a well-known Florentine artistic family. His father was Bicci di Lorenzo (1373-1452) and his grandfather was Lorenzo di Bicci (c. 1350-1427). Given this pedigree it was perhaps inevitable that Neri would also become an artist, and he entered the family workshop in 1434. He soon took a leading role in the running of the business, and kept a diary containing detailed records of the workshop from 1453-75, known as the Ricordanze, which is one of the most important surviving documents relating to a fifteenth-century Italian painter and his working methods.(1) Neri's own forthright and distinctive style moved away from his father's model and shows the influence of other contemporaries such as Filippo Lippi and Domenico Veneziano, although he retained archaic features, such as the golden haloes and toolwork well into the fifteenth century in contrast to other Florentine artists of the Quattrocento. This work was previously owned by James Alsdorf (1913-1990) a prominent Chicago businessman and patron of the arts. He and his wife Marilynn built up a large collection that ranged from Greek, Roman and Egyptian antiquities, to medieval painting and works of art, as well as Southeast Asian, Chinese and Islamic art. James Alsdorf served as chairman of the Art Institute of Chicago from 1975-8, and he donated many of his works to the institution. The present work, however, was sold to the dealers Colnaghi, probably in the early 1960s, and was purchased by Robert Compton Jones in 1966, making it one of the first major Italian pictures acquired by Robert, and it remained in his collection for the rest of his life.

Tim Hunter

(1) see B. Santi ed., Neri di Bicci: Le Ricordanze (10 marzo 1453-24 aprile 1475), Pisa, 1976