Louvre acquires the two Pietro Lorenzetti panels discovered in November

The two important works by Pietro Lorenzetti (Siena, c. 1280 - 1348) found in France last November by art historian Eric Turquin and sold at auction by Tajan on December 13 have been purchased by the Louvre : they are two saints, a man and a woman, which represent an important addition to the Sienese artist’s catalog (on these pages we included them among the ten most interesting art-historical discoveries of 2023). The saint was sold for 3,034,800 euros (initial estimate 1.5-2 million euros), while the saint for 1,657,600 (it started from an estimate of 400-600,000 euros): the difference is due to the exceptional state of preservation of the male panel.

The two tablets were purchased in Paris in 1860 by magistrate François-Alfred Ramé, who cultivated a forte for archaeology and history. The two paintings were always kept by descendants (who had already sold part of their collection to Tajan in 1985) until they were offered for sale by Tajan. The auction house sold them as St. Sylvester and St. Helena, but according to the Louvre they are possibly St. Zechariah and St. Elizabeth, the parents of St. John the Baptist, which were originally most likely part of the main register of a monumental polyptych painted in the 1430s.

The paintings are characterized by remarkable technical virtuosity and a naturalism that makes the hand of Pietro Lorenzetti quite recognizable: elements emblematic of the golden period of Sienese painting, that of the first half of the 14th century. Moreover, the two tablets show the originality of the inventions of Pietro Lorenzetti, who constantly sought to renew formulas that were still traditional. Establishing himself as one of the greatest Italian painters of the 14th century, Pietro Lorenzetti painted two important works here, which therefore now become accessible to the public and will enable museum visitors to understand the artist’s importance to the history of Western painting. The French museum already had another work by Pietro Lorenzetti, anAdoration of the Magi. Nor is it new to such operations in the field of medieval Italian art: in November 2023, in fact, the museum acquired the panel with Cimabue’s Derision of Christ discovered in Compiègne. And it was only a few days ago that news broke of the purchase of a Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin masterpiece, the Basket of Strawberries. The Louvre, in short, proves to be a museum in great shape and the most active in the field of major acquisitions.

Louvre acquires the two Pietro Lorenzetti panels discovered in November

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