Neri di Bicci

Description:

Florenz 1418/20 - 1492/93
76,5 x 45 cm
The Virgin with Child. Tempera/panel.
Maria-Helga and Erwin Ziegler Collection, Pforzheim. Neri Di Bicci was the last representative of a very active Florentine family of artists in the 14th and 15th centuries. He was trained in his father's workshop and took over its management after the death of his father, Bicci di Lorenzo (1373-1452). His activities and commissions are documented in a diary known as ‘Le Ricordanze’. It was written between 1453 and 1475 and is now kept in the Uffizi Library. Neri di Bicci's style remained virtually unchanged throughout his 40-year career, making it difficult to date his paintings accurately. His traditional, almost Gothic, elegant elements were extremely popular and secured him commissions from both the church and the bourgeoisie.
The dark background and other stylistic features of this panel suggest that it was created during Neri di Bicci's final creative phase in the late 1480s. The Madonna repeats a type similar to that embodied by a Madonna in private ownership, which was last offered on the Austrian art market in 2021. The panel also shows echoes of di Bicci's late panel of the Coronation of Mary, created around 1488/89, in the Museo dello Spedale degli Innocenti in Florence. This is particularly true of the slightly overpainted baby Jesus in the present painting, which can be compared to a seraphim head there, as well as the Madonna, which shows similarities to the figures there.
With an expert report by Prof. Gaudenz Freuler, 2025.