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Neri di Bicci
Florence, 1419-1492
Born into a family of artists, Neri trained in the workshop of his father, Bicci di Lorenzo, himself the son of the renowned painter Lorenzo di Bicci. By 1452 - the year of his father’s death, when Neri inherited the workshop - he was already an accomplished and independent master. Born in 1419, it is reasonable to assume that he had begun practicing the profession at the start of the fifth decade of the Quattrocento, almost certainly through close collaboration with his father.
Madonna and Child with two Adoring Angels
Tempera on panel, 84 x 68 cm
PROVENANCE
Florence, commissioned by Antonio di Jacopo in 1464
Paris, private collection
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Galleria degli Uffizi, Biblioteca degli Uffizi, Manoscritti, 2, Ricordanze di Neri di Bicci dipintore, 1453-1475, fol. 93v
B. Santi, Neri di Bicci. Le Ricordanze, Pisa 1976, p. 233
Central to the composition of the panel presented here is the Madonna, seated on a large cushion resting on the ground, according to the iconography of the Madonna of Humility. The Child, resting upon the Virgin’s knees, is venerated by two standing angels who flank either side of the panel. A striking feature of the composition is the deliberate emphasis on the Child’s nudity: He is clothed only in a narrow bandage, which leaves His genitals visible. This iconographic choice underscores the doctrine of the Incarnation, affirming that Christ fully assumed human flesh in order to redeem humanity from sin.
The painting, cradled on the back, reveals an excellent state of conservation: the gold background allows the preparatory bole to resurface only in a few places, while some modern repainting can be found exclusively in a strip about two centimetres high (probably once covered by the frame) that runs horizontally at the base of the panel, and, to a lesser extent, in the hands of the adoring angel placed on the left of the composition.
Neri only superficially became involved in the novelty of the early Florentine Renaissance orienting himself to an audience who may not have been up to date with the latest trends, sometimes echoing the language of other painters established in the Florentine scene, including Fra Angelico, Benozzo Gozzoli and even Antonio Pollaiuolo. However, when following his production from 1453 to 1475 through the many recorded notes in his workshop diary which have survived to present day, the now famous Ricordanze, it is discovered that Neri had the opportunity to collaborate with some of the most innovative and established artists of his day, such as Desiderio da Settignano, of whom he polychromed numerous Marian reliefs made in stucco or terracotta and of whom he probably personally replicated several matrices. of his day.
Despite their sometimes-archaic visual language, Neri di Bicci’s altarpieces are almost always conceived as “antique picture altarpieces”. This term indicates a departure from the Gothic polyptych format in favour of a unified panel with a simplified, streamlined silhouette - a format that became widespread from the 1430s onward and characteristic of Renaissance painting. The panel under discussion conforms to this structural model; however, its modest scale, measuring less than one meter in height, suggests that it was not intended as the centrepiece of a church altar. Rather, its dimensions make a destination for private devotional use more plausible.
A full fact sheet is available on request.
