NICCOLÒ DI PIETRO GERINI (ACTIVE IN FLORENCE 1366-C.1414/15)

Lot 33
31.01.2024 10:00UTC -05:00
Classic
Starting price
$ 1 200 000
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUSA, New York
Archive
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Archive
ID 1126168
Lot 33 | NICCOLÒ DI PIETRO GERINI (ACTIVE IN FLORENCE 1366-C.1414/15)
Estimate value
$ 1 200 000 – 1 800 000
NICCOLÒ DI PIETRO GERINI (ACTIVE IN FLORENCE 1366-C.1414⁄15)

Scenes from the Passion of Christ: Peter protesting at Christ washing the feet of the Disciples; The Betrayal of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane; The Mocking of Christ; and The Flagellation

the second: inscribed 'SPQR' (on the banner at right) and 'SPQR' (on the shield next to the Judas figure); the fourth: inscirbed 'S.P.Q.R.' (on the shield) and 'SPQR' (on the banner)

tempera with gold and (degraded) silver leaf on linen canvas

37 ¾ x 40 ¼ in. (96 x 102 cm.); 38 x 40 in. (96.5 x 101.5 cm.); 35 ½ x 36 1⁄2 in.; (90 x 92 cm.); 35 ½ x 36 ½ in. (90 x 91.5 cm.), respectively

(4)



Provenance

William Young Ottley (1771-1836), by whom probably acquired in Italy (perhaps in 1791-99), thence by inheritance to,

his brother Warner Ottley (1775-1846), of York Terrace, Regent's Park, and Stanwell House, Middlesex, thence by descent to,his second son Edward John Ottley (b. 1821), Captain of the Royal Rifle Regiment of Mil.

Warner Ottley's deceased sale (sold by the Executors of Warner Ottley's Estate), London, Foster, 30 June 1847, lot 14, as 'School of Giotto. 1300. A set of four – Christ washing the feet of his Disciples; the Betrayal of Christ; the Mocking of Christ, and the Scourging of Christ', where unsold at 11 gns. and returned to the family (they did not appear again in the 1850 Warner Ottley sale).

Presented by Edward John Ottley to the Church of Saint Michael and All Angels, Withyham, East Sussex, in 1849 (the Rector of Withyham, the Rev. C.N. Sutton, states that the four pictures 'were brought from Italy by William Ottley, whose nephew presented them to the church in 1849'. Corroborating with this, each picture had a label on the reverse inscribed: DEO et ECCLESIE de WITHYHAM – Memoriale Edwardi J. Ottley. Arm. FEST. S. MICH. AD 1849).

The paintings hung in the chancel of the Church of Saint Michael and All Angels, Withyham, until the last quarter of the 19th century whereupon they were removed (possibly by Reginald Sackville West, 7th Earl De La Warr, and former Rector of the church) to the Earl De La Warr's private chapel at Buckhurst Park, Sussex (this happened sometime after the chapel was built in the 1880s but before 1902, when the Rector Rev. C.N. Sutton refers to their being at Buckhurst).

The paintings were returned to the Church of Saint Michael and All Angels, Withyham, in 1920 and hung there, on the South Wall of the Lady Chapel according to church pamphlets of 1960 and 1968, until 1990 whereupon they were removed and taken to the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, for restoration (1990-95).

On loan to Leeds Castle, Kent, from 1997.

Anonymous sale; Sotheby’s, London, 5 December 2012, lot 16, where acquired by the present owner.





Literature

R. Windsor Sackville, 7th Earl De La Warr, Historical Notices of the Parish of Withyham, London 1857, pp. 38-39.

The Rev. C.N. Sutton, Historical Notes of Withyham, Hartfield and Ashdown Forest, Tunbridge Wells 1902, pp. 47-48.

E.K. Waterhouse, 'Some Notes on William Young Ottley's Collection of Italian Primitives', in C.P. Brand, K. Foster & U. Limentani eds., Italian Studies presented to E.R. Vincent, Cambridge 1962, pp. 276 and 278, as 'School of Giotto'.

I. Nairn & N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Sussex, Harmondsworth 1965, p. 638.

R. Gunnis, Withyham parish church and the family of Sackville, Tunbridge Wells 1968, p. 4.

Withyham parish church (guide book), 1968.

D. Sutton, 'From Ottley to Eastlake,' Apollo, CXXII, 1985, pp. 84-95.

C. Villers, L. Stevenson & J. Sharp, The Technique of Four Fourteenth-Century Italian Paintings on Fabric Supports, in ICOM 10th Triennial Meeting, Washington D.C., 22-27 August 1993, I, pp. 104-9.

C. Villers, 'Painting on Canvas in the 14th Century', Zeitschrift Kunstgeschichte, LVIII, no. 3, 1995, pp. 338-58.

C. Villers, 'Four Scenes of the Passion Painted in Florence around 1400', in C. Villers, ed., The Fabric of Images: European Paintings on Textile Supports in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries, London 2000, pp. 1-10, illustrated pp. 2-3, figs. 1-4, and details on pp. 4-6, figs. 5-7, as 'attributed to Niccolò di Pietro Gerini'.

C. B. Strehlke, 'Niccolo Pietro Gerini,' Chefs-d'oevre de la pienture italienne: La Collection Alana, F. Mercator ed., pp. 84-95, no. 22.





Exhibited

Paris, Musée Jacquemart-André, Chefs-d'oevre de la peinture italienne: La Collection Alana, 13 September 2019-20 January 2020, no. 22, The Mocking of Christ only.
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