Virgin and Child

Lippo Memmi (Italian (Sienese), active in 1317–1350)

Medium/TechniqueTempera on panel

Dimensions65.72 x 46.67 cm (25 7/8 x 18 3/8 in.)

Credit LineCharles Potter Kling Fund

Accession number36.144

On View

Not on view

ClassificationsPaintings

Collections

Europe

Provenance1919, possibly Paolo Paolini (dealer), Rome [see note 1]. Before 1926, Grazzini, Florence [see note 2]. By 1935, Aldo Janoldo (dealer), Rome and New York; 1936, sold by Jandolo to the MFA for $16,200. (Accession Date: February 6, 1936)

NOTES:
[1] Mojmir Frinta, "Drawing the net closer: the case of Ilicio Federico Joni, painter of antique pictures," Pantheon 40, no. 3 (July-September, 1982): 222, states that "an old photograph of a Madonna that corresponds in many respects" to the MFA painting is annotated to indicate that Paolini owned it in 1919. Frinta suggests that the photograph either represents the MFA work in an overpainted state, or that it is a different painting entirely.

[2] An undated authentication by the art historian Giacomo de Nicola (b. 1879 - d. 1926) states that he had known the painting since the time that it belonged to Signor Grazzini in Florence.