Paris (AFP)

An array of works, considered as a work by the great Italian primitive painter Cimabue, who was hung between the kitchen and the living room in a house in Compiegne, north of Paris, was discovered and will be put up for sale, Turquin said on Monday. expert of the old masters.

"The Mocked Christ" is the theme of this small painting (25.8 cm by 20.3 cm), egg painting and gold background on poplar panel, probable element of a Dyptic of 1280 in which were represented on eight panels of similar size, scenes from the Passion of Christ.

Two of the scenes of this dyptic were known to this day: The Flagellation of Christ (Frick Collection, New York) and the Virgin and Child enthroned and surrounded by two angels (National Gallery, London).

An old lady reported it to the Actéon auction house in Compiègne, which had it appraised by Turquin. He was hung between his living room and his kitchen, and the family had always thought it was a simple icon. The old lady did not know where he came from.

Estimated between 4 and 6 million euros, this painting which shows Christ surrounded by a crowd of men with a snarling and grimacing expression, will be on sale in Senlis by Acteon on October 27th. This will be the first time in decades that a painting of Cimabue will be auctioned.

The infrared reflectectography revealed an excellent state of conservation, said Mr. Turquin, who felt that "the attribution is not going to make debate so much it is obvious, comparing with the other tables known to him, that it is the same hand ". Dotted executed punch, style, ornamentation against a background of gold, everything indicates, according to him.

"Cimabue is an important painter who has moved the lines", and museums, especially Italian, "dream of owning one," he observes.

Ceno Di Pepo, known as Cimabue (1272-1302), is one of the greatest figures of the pre-Renaissance. He is known at most eleven works executed on wood of which none is signed.

- "an emotion in the faces" -

Influenced by the Franciscan spirit, Cimabue broke with the somewhat rigid formalism of Byzantine painting and gave a soul to his characters, putting the human person in the center, which announces the Renaissance. "Even if the painting is austere, there is an emotion in the faces, gestures," says Eric Turquin.

Another painting of the same size, the Virgin and the Child in Throne, was presented by Turquin. This is a painting where we read on the back the first letters of the word Cimabue. This attribution would have been added in the nineteenth century, and the painting is not a Cimabue, even if the style is close.

This painting, discovered in a house in Dijon by a family who did not see the value either, was given to the auction house Cortot.

The importance of this table has been laborious and difficult. Neither Italian nor French, this painting, painted on a panel of fruit wood and made around 1350, proved to be in the hands of a great painter from Bohemia, the master of Vissy Brod, little known in the West. It should be of great interest to Czech museums.

The face of the Virgin is full of finesse and the very natural gestures of the child Jesus who holds the thumb of his mother with one hand and his foot on the other are remarkable. Under the background of black paint was found a composition enlarging the throne of the Virgin to the entire space of the painting.

This second painting will go on sale on November 30 in Dijon. His estimate is between 400,000 and 600,000 euros.

© 2019 AFP