Lot 500 | Simone di Filippo detto "Dei Crocifissi" | Enthroned Madonna with Child, Blessing Savior, Angels and a Holy Bishop

FILIPPO DETTO "DEI CROCIFISSI", SIMONE DI
Bologna ca. 1330 - 1399

Title: Enthroned Madonna with Child, Blessing Savior, Angels and a Holy Bishop.
With the original carved pointed gable border.
Date: ca. 1355/60.
Technique: Tempera on wood.
Measurement: 50 x 22cm.
Frame/Pedestal: Mounted in frame.

Literature:
G. del Monaco: Simone di Filippo detto "Dei Crocifissi". Pittura e devozione nel secondo Trecento bolognese, Padua 2018, no. 66, p. 197f, ill. Tafel XXVII.

Exhibitions:
"Ausstellung von Meisterwerken alter Malerei aus Privatbesitz". Exhib. Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt/Main 1925, cat. no. 193, ill. Tafel VII.

Provenance:
Collection Bertha Gräfin von Francken-Sierstorpff, Eltville;
Collection Jenö Romhanyi, Heidelberg;
Auction Helmut Tenner, Heidelberg 05.-06.06.1957, Lot 1910;
Art dealer Julius Böhler, Munich 1958;
since private ownership, Germany.

Simone dei Crocifissi was one of the most prolific painters of the 14th century in Italy. He was active in Bologna, where he was a leader in the production of altarpieces intended for both church furnishings and private devotion. The beginnings of Simone's artistic career can be seen above all in the wake of the late phase of Vitale da Bologna, who remained for Simone a fundamental model of idealized aristocratic beauty. However, the painter developed a more structured and plastic figurative conception.
Because of its stylistic proximity to the works of Vitale da Bologna, the present work can be dated to the years between 1355 and 1360, the artist's first known phase (documented from about 1354 to 1399). The small panel with a pediment in the upper part depicts the Madonna enthroned with Child, behind whom four angels hold a precious cloth. The child, dressed only in a transparent tunic, bends down to his mother. In the pediment, Christ stands as the Savior, blessing and holding an open book in his other hand. To the right of the central group, the artist has painted a holy bishop in a kneeling position with joined hands. Due to the lack of specific iconographic attributes, it is not possible to identify the saint depicted: This could give clues about the patron of the work, who wanted to be remembered by the saint of the same name.
Due to its vertical format and the frame with two small cut rock needles, the present panel can be interpreted as the central element of a small triptych for private devotion.