Bastiano Mainardi (San Gimignano 1466-Florence 1513)

Bastiano Mainardi’s career was split between Florence and his native city of San Gimignano. He worked closely with the Ghirlandaio family workshop and in 1494 married Alessandra Bigordi, the half-sister of Benedetto, Davide and Domenico Ghirlandaio. This tondo dates to the painter’s late career in San Gimignano, circa 1505-10. Publishing it in her seminal 1995 essay on the artist (loc. cit.), Lisa Venturini listed the painting as one of a group of autograph variants produced by the artist including, among others, that in the tabernacle on the corner of via Brozzi and via Pistoiese, Florence; one offered at Christie’s, London, 8 December 1995, lot 66; and another the National Museum, Warsaw. Like many of Bastiano’s works, this painting displays his admiration for the style of Domenico Ghirlandaio. As Nicoletta Pons notes, the sarcophagus included beside the ox and the ass and the pose of the Christ Child (though here in reverse) are derived from Domenico’s 1485 Adoration in the Sassetti Chapel in Santa Trinità, Florence (N. Pons, letter of expertise, 2015). Mainardi's design was evidently successful, as it was copied by other artists more than once, including a tondo, sold Sotheby's, New York, 30 January 2014, lot 216.
This lot is accompanied by a 2015 document of expertise by Prof. Nicoletta Pons.