Biagio D' Antonio

BIAGIO D'ANTONIO TUCCI Italien 1446-1515, tillskriven Sankt Hieronymus Tempera på pannå, 82 x 64 cm Attibuted to. Tempera on panel. På baksidan, äldre etikett med text: Capt:n J. Fenwick-Owen EXPERTIS Cabinet Turquin, Stéphane Pinta, Paris PROVENIENS Samling J. Fenwick Owen som såldes på Christie's i London 4/2 1948, nr 169 (som ett verk av Botticini, 16£, 16 guines) Samling Appelby In the crevice of a rock overlooking a distant luminous landscape, St Jerome is seen in three-quarters profile, with his head haloed and partly without clothes, praying with folded hands in front of a beam of light coming from the right. At his side on the right, the artist has represented the lion and on the left, the hat of the Cardinal, which represents attributes of the father of the Church. Thanks to the creation of the Hieronymites, a religious group of hermits of St Jerome, and with the publication of the vernacular language of St Jerome's text, around 1450, this image of devotion meets the enthusiasm of the believers of the theme of the holy penitent. In the beginning of the fifteenth century, a community of hermits from great patrician families had gathered in Florence. Biagio d'Antonio, who has painted our St Jerome, is a Florentine painter who worked for a long time in Faenza and has for a long period been mistaken with two other artists from this city: Andrea and Giovanni Battista Utili. Biagio d'Antonio's true identity was revealed in 1935 by C. Grigioni (cf. R. Battistini in the Pittura in Italia, Il Quattrocento, 1987, Vol. II, p.583-584 ad voc. with earlier bibliography). In the year of 1475, Biagio d'Antonio paints a first version of St. Jerome (to be found at Brunswick, Walker Art Museum). His acrimonic style is revealed by the sharp contrasts between the dark rocky landscape and the bright and striking light in the face of St Jerome. This recalls that Biagio d'Antonio worked in the important studio of Verrocchio, where he met Jacopo del Sellaio who also painted several versions of St. Jerome in Penitence (to be found in Milan, Italy and Louvre, Paris). For Biagio d'Antonio, this acrimony is exceeding in San Sebastian and John the Baptist (missing) who used to be found in Faenza, Pinacoteca Comunale, painted in 1475 or 1483 (cf. R. Bartoli, "Biagio d'Antonio", Milan 1999, No. 33, respectively Fig. p.62, No. 36-37 fig. p.58). Our Saint Jerome shows the same desire to emphasize the angular features of the face to the cheekbones prominently, the wrinkles and swollen veins, the description of the emaciated chest, are witnesses of the sufferings that the saint had imposed. The enhanced hardness and the fantastic rocky landscape recalls those of Leonardo da Vinci. The attribution to Antonio Biagio can also be confimed through other works by his hand: the bearded saint (Benoît?) in the altarpiece of The Madonna on the throne and six saints (Bremen, Kunsthalle) attributed to Biagio by E. Fahy (Some Followers of Domenico Ghirlandajo, New York 1976, p. 205, cf. Bartoli No. 132 Fig.p.138). The saint's attitude, looking at the Virgin, the gesture of his arm and the pleated sleeve, are treated the same way as our saint or in the same work, St. François, whose fluted folds of the flows are reminiscent of the tunic of St. Jerome. Although the altarpiece of Bremen is dated to the beginning of the sixteenth century, our painting should be dated to the 1480's.

with d' atri, paris; with galeria il podio, bologna; giuseppe volterra, florence (circa 1922); with bellini, florence (circa 1924); with victor spark, new york, by 1968; from whom acquired by the fomer owner circa 1970 and thence by descent. provenance material/medium oil on panel