Coronation of the Virgin with Saint Jerome, Saint Antony of Padua and the Donor

The donor of the painting has West African features and was probably a freed slave who lived as a Christian in Florence (Nelson 2021). Given the specificity of the subject and of the saints represented, the painting was presumably produced as a special commission for the donor, rather than for the art market (Lowe 2008). Csenge Béres, 2023.

The painting was executed by a member of Domenico Ghirlandaio’s large workshop, who received his name of convenience from a work now preserved in the Saint Louis Art Museum. The pictorial space is divided into two zones, a heavenly and an earthly sphere. In the upper section, the final event in the life of the Virgin is shown in a compositional type rare in Italy but more popular in regions north of the Alps: God the Father and Jesus Christ appear on either side of Mary, while the third person of the Holy Trinity, the Holy Spirit, hovers in the form of a dove above the two cherub heads. In the lower section, Saint Jerome, the Church Father and translator of the Bible, kneels with his faithful companion, the lion, paired with Saint Anthony, the Franciscan saint of Padua. Behind them opens a spacious landscape, likewise reflecting the influence of northern art. On the bank of a river lies an Italian city which, with its great ribbed dome, most closely recalls Florence of the period. In the lower right corner appears the profile of a Black man: in all probability, the portrait of the painting’s donor. Dóra Sallay.

Provenance

Simor collection. Purchased from the Bertinelli estate in Rome in 1878.

Restauration

1998 Varga Dezső

Bibliography

• https://www.academia.edu/58556923/Ethiopian_Christians_on_the_Margins_Symbolic_Blackness_in_Filippino_Lippis_Adoration_of_the_Magi_and_Miracle_of_St_Philip
• Nelson, Jonathan K. Ethiopian Christians on the Margins: Symbolic Blackness in Filippino Lippi's 'Adoration of the Magi' and 'Miracle of St Philip’. Renaissance Studies, 2021, vol. 35, no. 5. 857-879
• https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdfplus/10.1086/JWCI83010081
• Ito, Takuma: Ghirlandaio Brothers Reconsidered: The Master of the Saint Louis Madonna as the Young Benedetto Ghirlandaio. Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, vol. 83, no. 1, 2020. 81-130
• Spicer, Joaneath: Free Men and Women of African Ancestry in Renaissance Europe. In: Revealing the African Presence in Renaissance Europe. Exh. cat. ed. by Joaneath Spicer. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, 2012. 81-97
• https://www.jstor.org/stable/43445982
• Lowe, Kate: ‘Black Africans’ Religious and Cultural Assimilation to, or Appropriation of, Catholicism in Italy, 1470– 1520. Renaissance and Reformation, 2008, vol. 31, no. 2. 67-86
• Boskovits Miklós: Toskanische Frührenaissance-Tafelbilder. 2. kiadás. Budapest, 1978
• Boskovits Miklós: Toszkán kora reneszánsz táblaképek. Budapest, 1968
• Fahy, Everett: Some Early Italian Pictures in the Gambier-Parry Collection. The Burlington Magazine, CIX (1967), 128–139.
• Berenson, Bernard: Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. A List of the Principal Artists and their Works with an Index of Places. Florentine School. 2 kötet. London, 1963
• Dávid Katalin: Adatok a Trinitas ikonográfiájához. Művészettörténeti Értesítő, 11 (1962), 24–39.
• Van Marle, Raimond: The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting. 18 kötet és index. The Hague, 1923–1938
• Maszlaghy 1878, 62. sz. („Neri di Ricci”) – Maszlaghy 1891, 62. sz. („Nereo di Ricci”) – Gerevich 1916a, 825 (Sebastiano Mainardi) – Gerevich 1916b, 3 (ua.) – Gerevich 1928, 231 (Mainardi) – Van Marle 1923–1938, XIII (1931), 224 (ua.) – Genthon 1948, 77-78 (ua.) – Czobor 1955, 8 – Prokoppné Stengl 1960, 98 – Dávid 1962, 37 (ua., 1500 k.) – Berenson 1963, I, 126 (Mainardi) – Boskovits–Mojzer–Mucsi 1964, 80 (ua.) – Fahy 1967, 137: 34. j. (A St. Louis-i Madonna Mestere) – Boskovits 1968, 41 (ua.) – Mucsi 1975, 46, 222. sz. (A St. Louis-i Madonna Mestere) – Boskovits 1978, 41 (ua., 1480–1486 k.) –Tátrai Vilmos, in Keresztény Múzeum 1993, 237, 117. sz. (a St. Louis-i Madonna Mestere) – Lowe 2008, 74-78, 1-2. kép (David Ghirlandaio?, 1495 körül) – Sallay 2009, 58, 61, 63, 66-67, 93, 149, XXIX. sz., korábbi irodalommal (David Ghirlandaio?, hátoldalán az asztalos tölgyfalevél-alakú mesterjegye) – Spicer 2012, 93, note 28 (ua.) – Ito 2020, 99-100, fig. 15 (a St. Louis-i Madonna Mesterét Benedetto Ghirlandaióval azonosítja) – Nelson 2021, 859, fig. 2 (Davide Ghirlandaio?, 1495-1499 körül)