Bottega Antonelliana

Report by Prof.Claudio Strinati

” The painting with a gold background depicting St. Anne, the Virgin and the child (reduced panel applied on canvas, cm. 117x100) reflects the iconography, very widespread in the fifteenth century in the various Italian and foreign pictorial schools, defined by historians as Sant' Anna Metterza. It derives from the Latin term Sancta Anna Mater tertia, i.e. the grandmother of Jesus seen as mother of the Virgin and, as such, third mother of the Redeemer.

The iconography and style of the painting would lead us to place the work in the seventh decade of the fifteenth century and consider it as insertable in that Flemish-style stylistic sphere which from Spain and Portugal crosses Palma de Mallorca and culminates in some disciples of the Neapolitan school who were largely industrious in the second half of the fifteenth century and beyond up to Calabria and Sicily.

In particular, our painting appears closely connected, in composition and style, with the activity of one of the most remarkable painting workshops in Palma de Mallorca, namely that of Rafel Moget and Pedro Nisart (perhaps so called because he was originally from Nice), authors of notable and still well-preserved works in part dating back to the seventh decade of the fifteenth century and in particular celebrated authors of the politician of San Giorgio now preserved in the Cathedral Museum of Palma de Mallorca. Examining the table with St. George and the dragon by Pedro Nisart, marked by a delicate, dreamy and fairy-tale character, as our painting appears (cf. C. Challet, dalle Fiandre a Napoli, L'Erma di Bretschneider Roma, 2012, p.49 ff.) I can confirm without delay that our painting belongs to the same area and to the same school.

This undoubtedly makes the work a conspicuous testimony of that moment of convergence of the Spanish-Flemish lesson with the native one in the Kingdom of Naples, which created a large and very noble school from which gigantic personalities such as Colantonio emerge.

Of extreme interest is the iconography of the boy who seems to leap out of the composition, demonstrating, as if greeting, joy and affection towards the two mothers. An iconographic modality that is often found above all in the Catalan school as, to recall another supporting actor parallel to our painter, in the great Luis Dalmau.

Ultimately, the painting in question constitutes a remarkable historical-artistic testimony and is in itself a very fine and delicate work.

Sincerely, Claudio Strinati

00184 Rome, via capo d'Africa 31 ”