Cennino Cennini (1370-1440), Madonna and Child with Angels and Saints. Tempera, 82 x 58 cm. 

FLORENCE - Two exquisite Renaissance paintings of the Madonna and Child will be among the fine Italian Old Masters to be featured by Moretti Fine Art at the XXVIII Biennale Internazionale dell’Antiquariato di Firenze which takes place in the Palazzo Corsini, Florence, from 5 to 13 October 2013, Stand no. 12. 

Until recently, Madonna and Child with three angels by Piero di Cosimo (1461/2-1521), which is recorded as having been in the illustrious Borromeo-Monti collection from 1830, was only known from a poor late 19th century photograph. Visitors to the Biennale will be moved by this appealing work in which the artist has sensitively conveyed the intimate relationship between Mother and Child, expressed by the meeting of their eyes and affectionate gestures. Piero di Cosimo’s tender depiction of such details as the knot of the mantle over the Virgin’s shoulder, her unshod foot resting on the ground, the strip of the swaddling clothes she holds in her hand illustrate why this artist was so highly regarded.

There are no signed, documented or dated works by Piero di Cosimo and reconstruction of his oeuvre, to which this painting can now be added, is dependent on the entertaining account in Vasari’s Lives of the Artists which portrays him as a highly eccentric character who lived on hard-boiled eggs ‘which he cooked while he was boiling his glue, to save the firing’. The son of a goldsmith, Piero was born in Florence and apprenticed to Cosimo Rosseli, from whom he derived his popular name and whom he assisted in the painting of the Sistine Chapel in 1481. His works are in the collections of some of the world’s most prestigious museums including The National Gallery, London, the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, the Uffizi in Florence and the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. 

The beautiful gold-ground painting of Madonna and Child with Angels and Saints has recently been identified as the work of Cennino Cennini (c.1370-c.1440) who is most famous as the author of Il Libro dell’Arte. This attribution was first made by the eminent historian of early Italian art, Miklos Boskovits, and is now confirmed by the art historian Angelo Tatuferi. There are very few works known by this Tuscan artist who was a pupil of Agnolo Gaddi. Il Libro dell’Arte, probably written in the late 1390s and translated into English under the title The Craftsman’s Handbook by D.V. Thompson (1954), is a practical handbook for the apprentice artist and an invaluable source of information about all aspects of the craft and techniques of the late medieval painter’s workshop. 

Fabrizio Moretti opened his gallery in Florence in 1999 with the inaugural exhibition From Bernardo Daddi to Giorgio Vasari and soon established a respected reputation in the field of Italian Old Masters. The gallery works closely with the most notable scholars and public institutions and is known for its dedication to research and for handling works of the highest quality as well as for making this particular area more accessible to private collectors. In 2005 Moretti opened his first gallery space in London and in 2007 he opened a gallery in New York just steps away from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This Upper East Side gallery offers a glorious space in which to present the finest of Italian Old Masters. In December 2011, Moretti Fine Art moved its London headquarters to 2a Ryder Street in St James’s, SW1. 

Moretti Fine Art takes part in the annual Master Paintings Week in London as well as being a regular exhibitor at TEFAF Maastricht, where he chairs the Young Dealers Committee; the Biennale des Antiquaires in Paris and the Biennale Internazionale dell’Antiquariato di Firenze. In October 2012, the gallery exhibited at the first Frieze Masters, for which Fabrizio Moretti is a member of the Selection Committee.

Piero di Cosimo (1461/2-1521), Madonna and Child with three angels. Panel, diameter: 82 cm. Price: 750.000 euros