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Madonna and Child with Angels by http://www.wikidata.org/.well-known/genid/cb409b988fd9641de2ab3b2b6da4c4e5

http://www.wikidata.org/.well-known/genid/cb409b988fd9641de2ab3b2b6da4c4e5 · 1500-01-01

This is "Madonna and Child with Angels," painted around 1500 by a close follower of the great Florentine master Filippino Lippi. It hangs today as a beautiful and well-preserved example of the enduring Renaissance workshop tradition, but its recent history is what truly captures the imagination.

In 2007 the panel came to auction in London and ignited a bidding war. When the hammer finally fell, it had sold for £3.6 million, a record price for a work by a follower of Lippi, and more than triple its high estimate. The art market had spoken: the tender faces of the Madonna and Child, the blue of her mantle, and the soft, attentive angels were valued as objects of serious desire.

The story took a stranger turn after the sale. The new owner sent the painting for conservation, and when x-rays and infrared reflectography were carried out, they revealed another complete Madonna painted underneath the surface we see today. The artist had abandoned the first composition entirely, turning the panel over and starting fresh without priming it again. The hidden Mary was larger, seated, and in a different pose, a ghost beneath a masterpiece.

That lost image helps explain the price in a new way: the panel contains not one precious devotional work but two, painted back-to-back by the same hand in the same Florentine workshop. It is a rare glimpse into an artist literally rethinking a sacred subject, and proof that even a record-setting auction price can fail to capture everything a painting is.

Details

The hammer fell, and it was the most expensive work by this painter ever sold.
The hammer fell, and it was the most expensive work by this painter ever sold.
Look at the faces that drove the bidding.
Look at the faces that drove the bidding.
A mother and child who meet no one's gaze but each other.
A mother and child who meet no one's gaze but each other.
Under the old varnish, a centuries-old secret had been hiding.
Under the old varnish, a centuries-old secret had been hiding.
Face directed toward the Child creates a sight-line that steers the viewer's eye back to the central group.
Face directed toward the Child creates a sight-line that steers the viewer's eye back to the central group.
Transcript

In 2007 this painting made a price no one expected. It sold at auction for three point six million pounds. The hammer fell, and it was the most expensive work by this painter ever sold. Look at the faces that drove the bidding. A mother and child who meet no one's gaze but each other. Then the buyer sent the painting to a conservator for a routine cleaning. Under the old varnish, a centuries-old secret had been hiding. A second Madonna, painted directly underneath this one.