Giovanni di ser Giovanni Guidi, lo Scheggia (San Giovanni Valdarno, near Arezzo 1406-1486 Florence)

This substantial panel belongs to a group, previously attributed variously to the Masters of Fucecchio and the Adimari Cassone, which have more recently been recognised as by Lo Scheggia, brother of Masaccio, who after the latter's death was strongly influenced by such artists as Domenico Veneziano, Paolo Uccello and Giovanni di Francesco. He was a versatile artist, but is at his best as a painter of cassone fronts and deschi da parto, receiving commissions both in his native Valdarno and in Florence, where he was employed by Lorenzo de' Medici, among others. The Sienese provenance of this cassone may not be accidental, as four spalliera panels by the artist are in the Pinacoteca Nazionale there.

The picture was acquired by 1914 by the great New York collector and philanthropist, Otto Kahn, who owned such masterpieces as Ghirlandaio's Portrait of Giovanna Tornabuoni and Carpaccio's Young Knight (both now, Madrid, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum). It was subsequently purchased by Sir Thomas Merton, presumably in or after 1950, when Dr. Alfred Scharf published his A Catalogue of Pictures and Drawings from the Collection of Sir Thomas Merton, F.R.S. at Stubbins House, Maidenhead, which is the fullest account of the collection. For a summary of Sir Thomas's career see the introduction to lots 36-39, offered in these Rooms, 7 December 2006.