PSEUDO PIER FRANCESCO FIORENTINO
active in the second half of the 15th century
Nativity with the Infant Saint John
tempera on wood, 67×42 cm
This delightful nativity scene, despite its simplicity infused with pure devotion, is a testament to the artistic mastery of the early Florentine Renaissance, particularly Filippo Lippi. The painting can be confidently attributed to the so-called Pseudo Pier Francesco Fiorentino, an anonymous painter for whom the proposed identifications with Pietro di Lorenzo del Pratese (suggested by Anna Maria Bernacchioni and Carl Brandon Strehlke) and Riccardo di Benedetto di Niccolò (proposed by Creighton Gilbert) remain open for further investigation. The painter worked in Florence under the influence of Filippo Lippi, but his career – likely quite long – led him in his mature years, possibly even during the 1480s, to engage with the more elegant solutions of Filippino Lippi. His early work is rooted in the so-called “Florentine painting of light” of the 1440s, evident in works such as the Madonna and Child at the Musée Fesch in Ajaccio, Corsica. The present panel, however, is much more mature and echoes the highly successful iconography of the Madonna Adoring the Child, first established by Filippo Lippi in the panel housed at the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin.
Already known to Everett Fahy, our panel is listed with the correct attribution in the photographic archive of the American scholar, now part of the catalogue of the Fondazione Zeri.
Publications:
“Fototeca Everett Fahy”, in “Catalogo Fototeca Fondazione Federico Zeri”, entry no.107600.