by Jon Lackman | 22 November 2006 | Uncategorized
From the CBC: “Two paintings by Renaissance master Fra Angelico that were considered lost for 400 years have been discovered in the British home of a manuscript librarian and her heirs intend to sell them in 2007. Jean Preston, who had been a curator of manuscripts at Princeton University before retiring, died earlier in the year at age 77. Her heirs plan to put the paintings to auction in March. The works have been in the home in Oxford since Preston’s father purchased them in California for about $380 US in the 1960s … the two paintings of Dominican saints were part of an eight-panel set commissioned by Cosimo De Medici — one of the greatest art patrons of the Italian Renaissance — for the altar at the Church and Convent of San Marco in Florence in the 1430s. The eight panels were separated and scattered when Napoleon invaded Italy in the late 18th century. Over the years, the other six panels had been found, leaving these two as the last to be uncovered. How the paintings wound up in the United States before making their way to the Preston home remains a mystery.”
