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20 - Niccolò Pisano (attributed to) - Portrait of Blessed Ringard…
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Estimate 1 500 € - 2 500 €
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Description
Niccolò Pisano (attributed to) - Portrait of Blessed Ringarda Dall'Armi Oil on panel 84 x 61 cm The panel depicts the Blessed Ringarda Dall'Armi kneeling in prayer, rigidly posed in profile to the right according to a language still deeply indebted to the late Gothic culture of Emilia. The figure, isolated against a dark background devoid of spatial references, wears a long green robe decorated with gilded floral motifs and a red veil framing her absorbed face, accentuating the meditative and devotional character of the image. The inscription 'B. RINGARDA ARMI' appears on the front. The work is closely connected to the history of the Chapel of the Ark of San Domenico, one of the most significant spaces in the entire Dominican complex in Bologna. The basilica, founded in the 13th century and rapidly becoming one of the city's main religious centres, guarded the famous monumental sepulchre of St. Dominic, the original nucleus of the Ark realised by Nicola Pisano, Niccolò dell'Arca, Michelangelo and other masters active between the 13th century and the Renaissance. Over the centuries, a complex stratification of chapels, altars, aristocratic tombs and votive devices developed around the monument, destined for the great families of the city who sought spiritual and representative prestige through a direct link with the cult of the holy founder of the Dominican Order. These families included the Dall'Armi family, to whom sources attribute the ornamentation of the chapel during the 16th century, before the subsequent demolition and transformation of the space. The presence of the portrait of Blessed Ringarda Dall'Armi inside the chapel is recorded in historical sources relating to the ancient decorations of the Ark, which mention "the portrait of Blessed Rengarda Dall'Armi painted under the Ark of St. Dominic before an Image of the B. V. Mary'. This testimony is particularly important as it directly links this panel to the original place of worship and to the family memory of the Dall'Armi family, placing the work in the context of votive images commissioned by Bolognese aristocratic families to consolidate their religious and dynastic prestige at one of the city's most sacred sites.The attribution to Niccolò Pisano appears consistent with the chronological and cultural context of the work. In fact, the painting shows features that are compatible with Emilian painting between the end of the 15th century and the first decades of the 16th century: severe linearism, accentuated spiritual frontality, miniaturistic attention to decorative elements and the persistence of late Gothic figurative models that were still widely diffused in the Bolognese convent environment. The panel is thus not only a rare testimony of the devotion to the blessed Ringarda Dall'Armi, but also an important surviving fragment of the ancient figurative apparatus of the Chapel of the Ark, which was profoundly transformed during the 16th-century and later renovations of the Basilica of San Domenico.Provenance:Formerly kept in the Chapel of the Ark of the Patriarchal Basilica of San Domenico, Bologna;Formerly in the Godefroy Brauer collection, Paris.
See original version (Italian)
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About the sale Old Masters and 19th Century Paintings and Drawings
Auction location
Auction time 12/06/2026 à 14h00
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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