TEFAF

Flavio Gianassi presents a distinguished selection of Italian Old Master paintings at TEFAF Maastricht 2025, with a special focus on works from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance including significant artworks with notable provenance, offering insight into the historical importance and artistic legacy of these masterpieces.

 

The oldest work presented will be a Crucifix by Giovanni da Rimini, one of the most significant artists of the Rimini school, which flourished in the wake of Giotto’s influence. The Crucifix, dating from the early 14th century, has a dramatic history, having been documented in Jacques Goudstikker’s Amsterdam collection in 1929, requisitioned by the Nazis in 1940, recovered by the "Monuments Men" in 1945, and eventually returned to the Goudstikker heirs in 2006. 

 

Another highlight of the exhibition is a small devotional panel depicting The Last Communion of Saint Jerome, attributed to Botticelli’s workshop, recently presented in the Botticelli Drawings exhibition at The Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco. This work, one of three known versions, is emblematic of the Florentine Renaissance and reflects the intellectual and artistic currents of 15th-century Florence.  This picture has an exceptional provenance, tracing back to one of its earliest known owners, Sir William Neville Abdy. At the Neville Abdy sale this painting was purchased for the considerable sum of £588 by Robert and Evelyn Benson daughter of the notable collector Robert Holford.  The Benson collection was later purchased en bloc by the dealer Joseph Duveen and subsequently dispersed.

 

A glazed terracotta bust, portrait of the poet Homer, by the Florentine artist Santi Buglioni is another work with a prestigious provenance: it was commissioned in 1542 by the sophisticated Duchess of Florence Eleonora di Toledo, consort of Cosimo I de’ Medici, as a gift to her father, the powerful don Pedro de Toledo, first Viceroy of Naples, destined to adorn the loggias of the elegant palace built in Pozzuoli between 1539 and 1541. 

​