Moretti Fine Art presents in Monte-Carlo, from June 15th to 30th, an extraordinarily detailed, vibrantly coloured altarpiece depicting Saint Jerome and Saint Joseph with the priest Clemente di Antonio Andrucci as the donor by the Lucchese Renaissance painter Ansano Ciampanti and painted initially for the Lucca Cathedral of San Martino.
This notable painting reveals the stylistic suggestions that influenced the artist, also known as the Master of San Filippo. In the panel, Ansano combined the Lucchese and Florentine tradition with the Flemish one in a sophisticated unicum. The figures of the Saints, with definite contours and intense colours, emerge from the sumptuous, enamelled landscapes in the background. Thus, the painting also emphasises the remarkable qualities of Ansano, who, while conforming to the taste of his cultural environment, set an independent route in which he refined his style in a distinctive individual manner. Accordingly, this altarpiece symbolises Ansano’s extraordinary painting skills, which flourished from a broader pictorial tradition and culminated in a sophisticated iconographic artistic language, providing a delicate scenery to the characters. Immersed in a bucolic yet pastoral scenario, the analysis of the Saints and the donor, who kneels on the left side of the panel, contributed to the recent discovery of the singular attribution of the panel and the history of its commission. The archival research and the investigation of the pastoral visits supported the undoubtable attribution of the board to Ansano and its destination to the Cathedral of San Martino. Commissioned by Clemente di Antonio Andrucci of Lucca for the chaplaincy of Saint Jerome and Saint Joseph, the panel was destined for the altar of San Pietro in Vincoli in the Cathedral of San Martino and, albeit its removal from the original destination and its British interlude, the panel -and its singular history- is now presented for the first time in Monte-Carlo.
Hence, the panel’s history, the originality of the subject, and the technical aspects he operated to manage the pictorial space enhance the exceptionality of the artwork and make it one of the most impressive images in Ansano Ciampanti’s varied repertoire.