di Giovanni, Scolaio ('Maestro di Borgo alla Collina') Florence... Lot 1001

di Giovanni, Scolaio ('Maestro di Borgo alla Collina') Florence ca. 1386 - 1434 1410-1415. Tempera on gold ground on wood. Dimensions incl. frame: 102 x 56,5cm. Tabernacle frame. Provenance: Private ownership, Italy Art dealer, Italy (2008) Private ownership, Italy Private ownership, Switzerland. Literature: A. Lenza: Il Maestro di Borgo alla Collina, Proposte per Scolaio di Giovanni pittore tardogotico, Florence 2012, p. 30, 104-105, cat. XXXII. The present painting was recognised in 2007 by Alberto Lenza as an original work by Scolaio di Giovanni (also known as Maestro del Borgo alla Collina) and discussed in his monograph on the artist when it was in the possession of the art dealer Guido Bartolozzi in Florence. The notorious name of this artist was given in 1938 by Georg Pudelko, who first reconstructed the catalogue by examining some of the works that Osvald Siren had attributed in 1904 and 1905 to the Maestro del Bambino Vispo, a painter now identified with the young Gherardo Starnina. Pudelko's proposal was later accepted by the greatest connoisseurs of the 20th century, including Roberto Longhi, Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti, Federico Zeri and Miklos Boskovits, who added numerous new additions to the catalogue of the Maestro di Borgo alla Collina. The identification of the anonymous painter with Scolaio di Giovanni was furthered in 1996 by Anna Maria Bernacchioni. The scholar found the name of the parish priest of Borgo alla Collina, a centre in Casentino in the province of Arezzo, among the artist's debtors in the 1431 land register. Since the work of the same name by the Master of Borgo alla Collina is in the parish church of San Donato in Borgo alla Collina, she assigned it, with the consent of the critics, to the Scolaio di Giovanni. The charming panel presented here, with the representation of the Madonna and Child between St. Lucia, Catherine of Alexandria and two A