Follower of Ambrogio Lorenzetti

Artcurial, from France, sells on 14 November 2017 as lot 443 a "Sienese School, 14th century" triptych with the Virgin an Child, estimated at 20,000 to 30,000 Euro.

The French description adds "Follower of Ambrogio Lorenzetti", which makes sense.

The Saint George and the dragon, from the top left, is clearly modeled after the larger painting by Lorenzetti. The Virgin may also be inspired by the same, but similar positions can be found with many masters of the period.

 However, the crucifixion, and certainly the Magdalen at the bottom of the cross, looks a lot more like the work of Bernardo Daddi (active 1320, died ca. 1348) as in this example from the National Gallery in Washington.

The same Magdalen can be found in a work sold at Sotheby's in 2015, which I found now through the always interesting "Nord on Art" site. This work was sold for $221,000. While many works and artists are referenced in the auction catalogue then, no link to the Daddi work is made.

Finally, while the Virgin is somewhat similar to the work of Ambrogio Lorenzetti, the closest match (and perhaps a common source of inspiration for many Sienese painters of the period) is the work of the Workshop of Giotto in the Ashmolean Museum. The position and structure of the hands, the heads, the colour scheme (minus the headscarf of the Virgin) all seem to hark back to that early example.

All in all, it is a rather damaged work of a follower of the great Sienese painters, but it is very early (circa 1350-1360?), complete, with some rare elements (the George and the Dragon), and should easily be worth the estimate.


UPDATE: sold for 54,600€ or nearly double the highest estimate!

See also this Pietro Lorenzetti, now (January 2018) for sale at Sotheby's New York with an estimate of $300,000 to $400,000.