30/11/2001
by Alex Kearney

The market for Bonifacio de’ Pitati, called Bonifacio Veronese (Verona 1487 – 1553 Venice), an artist who rarely exceeds his estimates, has just received a shot in the arm. On the 1st of November, at Sotheby’s Old Masters auction, London, a Madonna
and Child (oil on panel, 64.5 x 50 cm) attributed to the artist made a premium price of $ 113,870 (€ 128,430) against a pre-sale estimate of $ 42,700-71,170 (€ 48,170-80,280). Its illustrious provenance may hold the key to its market success, the panel was first recorded in the collection of the King of Poland’s nephew, Prince Stanislaw Poniatowski (1754-1833), one of the leading collectors of the late 18th century. Yet, while it was then believed to be a Titian, no collector, however optimistic, would make such a claim today.

With most Old Masters, the Sotheby’s result would be cheering, but in this case it is exceptional. Only two works attributed to de’ Pitati have exceeded their estimates in the past ten years. At Dorotheum, Vienna, on the 4th October 2000, a fine Madonna with Saints Francis and Hieronymous (oil on panel, 49 x 68 cm) smashed its estimate ($ 11,600-16,120, € 13,080-18,170) to make $ 22,570 (€ 25,430). Less spectacularly, a confirmed Mystical Marriage of Saint Catharine (oil on panel, 69 x 91.5 cm) made a hammer of $ 25,370 ($ 16,100-24,160, € 18,150-27,230) at Sotheby’s Amsterdam on the 8th of May 2000. A truer reflection of the artist’s market is provided by the fact that in the last ten years, only half of the affirmed Bonifacios to come on the market have actually sold at auction. The proportion of sold to unsold works by copyists and followers, tells a similar story. Of the original Bonifacios which do manage to sell, roughly half again fall short of their lower end estimates. A case in point is provided by an unusual mythological tondo, The Crowning of the Poet (oil on panel, 47 cm diam.), which Christie’s, New York offered with an estimate of $ 50,000-$ 70,000 (€ 55,800-78,100) on the 31st of May 1991. Despite its fine quality and richness in colour, it went unsold to be reintroduced by the same auction house a year later (21st of May 1992) with a revised estimate of $ 30,000-$ 40,000 (€ 33,500-44,600). It finally hammered for just $ 26,000 (€ 29,000), over $ 40,000 below its high-end estimate of the previous year.

So why doesn’t Bonifacio perform better? He was certainly a talented artist, his best work confidently takes its cue from Palma Vecchio, Titian and Giorgione, and yet it seems that Bonifacio never enjoyed the success of his more famous contemporaries. Each of his large narrative paintings for the Palazzo dei Camerlenghi, Venice, netted the artist only 10–30 ducats, a fraction of what either Titian or Giovanni Bellini could make on similar commissions. In today’s market, his failure to sign or date all but one of his surviving paintings has stymied the emergence of a more saleable commodity. The lack of contemporary documentation and the prodigious output of his studio make solid attributions all the more difficult. The status of an autograph Bonifacio is determined by perceived quality and that makes investors hesitate. This factor may help to explain why a particularly good canvas, Portrait of a Gentleman (oil on canvas, 82.5 x 97.8 cm), failed to sell at Sotheby’s, London on the 12th of July 2001. Its estimate of $ 570,400-854,100 (€ 641,350-962,060) demonstrates not only the over-confidence of Sotheby’s, but the wide discrepancy in values within the production of Bonifacio.

The prices for followers and copyists are not subject to such wide oscillations, with estimates ranging from $ 2,850-17,080 (€ 3,210-19,250), though works have hammered for as little as $ 2,130 (€ 2,400) and rarely go for more than $ 5,700 (€ 6,420). An exception was a copy of the Parable of Dives and Lazarus (oil on canvas, 120 x 197 cm), which met its lower end estimate of $ 11,400 (€ 12,840) at Sotheby’s, London on the 3rd of July 1997. The presence of two autograph versions in the collections of the Accademia, Venice and the National Gallery, London can only have helped matters. Will Sotheby’s recent Bonifacio success raise the stakes? Past examples suggest caution, but his stronger works are certainly worth a second look.