"Niccolo di Buonaccorso and workshop" is a follower of the Master of San Jacopo a Mucciana

Roquigny, from France, sells on 1 January 2019 a "Niccolo di Buonaccorso and his workshop" Virgin and Child triptych, estimated at 15,000 to 25,000 Euro.

The more detailed full description makes it clear that they don't believe it to be actually a work by Niccolo di Buonaccorso, but perhaps by a collaborator or pupil, which is not really the same as the short description made us believe. They also mention other artists like the Master of the Pieta, Paolo di Giovanni Fei, and Francesco di Vanuccio, and make it clear that the triptych must be placed in Siena.

An artist they don't mention though is the Master of San Jacopo a Mucciana, a Florentine (not Sienese) master active around 1390-1420. He has painted the almost same composition, not some similar work like the Buonaccorso shown above.

This work, from a private collection in Italy (two images from Fondazione Zeri), is dated to the end of the 14th century, and is very close to the one for sale in many respects, much more so than the Buonaccorso.

The stipple effect in the clothing, the strange position of the Christ child, the general posture of the Virgin (central and in the annunciation), the decoration in the gold leaf paint... All this makes it clear that either the work for sale is a copy after the Master of San Jacopo a Mucciana, or both are based on the same work. The work for sale doesn't seem to be good enough to be directly by the Master of San Jacopo a Mucciana, but the condition isn't good enough to really judge this.

Some elements which differ between the two paintings seem to be taken from other works by the same Master: e.g. both the clothing of the virgin (the neckline), the hand position and the flower in it (very vague in the work for sale), and the child with a scroll and an orb, are taken from a Virgin and Child from the Museo di Santa Verdiana  in Castelfiorentino.

An interesting work in any case, it may be worth the estimate, but it probably has not got the right attribution.

UPDATE: sold for 58,000 Euro instead!

Overpriced, misattributed, misdescribed, but interesting anyway!

Marques dos Santos, from Portugal, sells on 13 December an "Attributed to Maerten de Vos" Coronation of the Virgin, estimated at 15,000 to 20,000 Euro.

The description goes on to state "in the center the Virgin, the Holy Trinity and Pope Sixtus VI, view of Antwerp in the background". The figure they claim to be Sixtus VI is God the Father, and the city one can view at the bottom is unidentified, but definitely not Antwerp.

The painting also has little to do with Maerten de Vos, his style is quite different, and better. Which brings me to the valuation, which seems very high for an iconographically very interesting work, but with little artistic value.

It is an extremely unusual version of the Coronation of the Virgin, which usually comes in two flavours; either Christ and God the Father are each to a side, and Mary is inbetween them, and they both are crowning her together. Or else you only get Mary and Christ side by side (the former seems to have been used more since the time of the Reformation, giving even more "credibility" to the status of Mary; the latter was mainly used in older depictions of the scene). But I have never seen one with a triple (though asymmetrical) throne with Mary on the side. It seems to be an effort, probably at the time of the Reformation and the Contrareformation, to get things doctrinally exactly right; getting such things wrong in those years could have very bad results for you...

"Dutch mannerist, ca. 1600" is copy after Marten de Vos

Hampel, from Germany, sells on 6 December 2018 a "Dutch Mannerist, ca. 1600" Family image of Christ, a small (21 by 27 cm) oil on copper estimated at 6,000 to 8,000 Euro.

I always have trouble remembering what the common name for this image is, but some searching refreshed my memory: the "Holy Kinship" or the "Kinship of the Virgin".

The description of this work indicates that it has an attribution to Goltzius, and the auctioneer sees some similarities with the work of Cornelis de Vos. I see no similarities at all with his work though, I guess the auctioneer just pointed to the wrong de Vos. Cornelis (1584-1651) is a typical, very good Baroque painter in the style of Rubens and the like, best known for his beautiful family portraits and portraits of children. Maerten de Vos (1532-1603) (no family of Cornelis) is two generations removed from Cornelis, and paints in a completely different tradition and style, initially close to Frans Floris, later in a more individual, modern style.

And sure enough, the work for sale is a rather run-of-the-mill copy after Maerten de Vos, a very good work by him from the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent, there titled the "Family of Saint Anne". It's a large oil on canvass, 135 by 170 cm, from 1585, so quite different from the copy here.

I doubt this work will fetch the estimate, if people realise that it simply is a copy (or just look at the lack of quality of course).

Unusual Adoration of the Magi by "Flemish Master" is close to Jan van Scorel

Dr. Eder, From Germany, sells on 8 December 2018 a "Flemish Master, ca. 1550" Adoration of the magi, estimated at 3,500 Euro.

The relatively large work (113 by 98cm) has a striking, unusual composition, quite remote from other Flemish or Dutch works from the same period.

A very similar work was sold at Lempertz in 2015 as "Studio of Jan van Scorel". Smaller but better, it sold for nearly 40,000 Euro. Other versions can be found in the Utrecht Museum and National Gallery of Ireland.

While the Utrecht version has the same ruin as the Lempertz one, the Ireland version has the ruin we can also see in the work for sale. Other elements here are also a lot closer to the Eder version.

Strange enough, the work for sale was at Lempertz just a few months ago, with an estimate of 8,000 to 10,000 Euro. Why the auction house now omits the attribution ("manner of Scorel") is not really clear.

The version for sale is clearly less well executed and is probably not good enough to be called a workshop copy, but it is an interesting, good work anyway, and should easily fetch the estimate.