Matteo di Pacino, Florence documented 1359 - 1374
Saint Ivo with a supplicating donor
Tempera on panel, gold ground, shaped top, in an engaged frame
11⅜ by 5⅞ in.; 28.9 by 14.9 cm.
Private collection
Estimated for 80,000 - 120,000 USD in January 2023
Matteo di Pacino depicts a genuflecting donor, almost certainly the original patron, and Saint Ivo of Kermartin, a thirteenth-century canon lawyer and the patron saint of judges, notaries, and lawyers. Matteo took great care to render each man's highly particularized physiognomies and the almost ogival folds of their elegant attire.
Ivo of Kermartin, T.O.S.F. (17 October 1253 – 19 May 1303), was a parish priest among the poor of Louannec, the only one of his station to be canonized in the Middle Ages. He is the patron of Brittany, lawyers, and abandoned children. His feast day is 19 May. Poetically, he is referred to as "Advocate of the Poor".
In 1267 Ivo was sent to the Faculty of Law of Paris (University of Paris), where he graduated in civil law. While other students caroused, Ivo studied, prayed and visited the sick. He also refused to eat meat or drink wine. He went to Orléans in 1277 to study canon law under Peter de la Chapelle, a famous journalist who later became bishop of Toulouse and a cardinal.
On his return to Brittany, having received minor orders he was appointed an "official", the title given to an ecclesiastical judge, of the archdeanery of Rennes (1280). He protected orphans and widows, defended the poor, and rendered fair and impartial verdicts. It is said that even those on the losing side respected his decisions. Ivo also represented the helpless in other courts, paid their expenses and visited them in prison. He earned the title “Advocate of the Poor.” Although it was common to give judges “gifts,” Ivo refused bribes. He often helped many disputing parties settle out of court so they could save money.
Meanwhile, he studied Scripture, and there are strong reasons for believing the tradition held among Franciscans that he joined the Third Order of St. Francis. Ivo was ordained to the priesthood in 1284. He continued to practice law.
Ivo was soon invited by the Bishop of Tréguier to become his official, and accepted the offer in 1284. Having been ordained he was appointed to the parish of Tredrez in 1285 and eight years later to Louannec, where he died of natural causes after a life of hard work and repeated fasting. More on Ivo of Kermartin
Formerly known as the Master of the Rinuccini Chapel, he was part of the movement who, in reaction to the ravages of the Black Death in 1348, turned to a sober, stylized and spiritual mode of artistic expression quite different from the directness and naturalism introduced by Giotto (1266–1337).
Matteo is first recorded in 1359 when he was admitted into the Florentine painter’s guild, however he must have been active before then and the signed and dated 1361 altarpiece shows the refinement of a mature painter. His early work was influenced by Bernardo Daddi (ca. 1280–1348), whose emphasis on decorative elaboration is evident in the ex-Stroganoff polyptych. However, by the 1360s, he evolved to embrace the style of the dominant workshop in Florence that of Andrea and Jacopo di Cione (1325–1390), which combined a fondness for graceful line, ornate punch-work in the gold and high color and heavily contoured figures and facial features. Matteo di Pacino also worked as a miniaturist, alongside Francesco di Ser Francesco Cenni (Florence active ca.1369–1415), on choir books for Santa Croce. His fame peaked after about 1365 when he was entrusted with the completion of the frescoes for the Rinuccini Chapel whose upper tiers had been painted by the celebrated Lombard artist Giovanni da Milano (1325–1370). Matteo was Influenced by da Milano, who also worked alongside him for the Cistercian monks at Badia a Settimo; as a result, Matteo introduced Lombard naturalistic details such as wrinkles in the forehead, folds at the root of the nose and botanical still-lifes into his art. Matteo di Pacino’s career was cut off, probably by another outbreak of the plague, in 1374. More on Matteo di Pacino
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