Nativity scenes attributed to Zanobi Strozzi

{{Short description|Painting series by Zanobi Strozzi}}

File:The Nativity MET DT5285 (cropped).jpg]]

File:Strozzi adoration NG 02.jpg, 19 x 47.4 cm]]

File:The Nativity MET DT5285.jpg, 7 3/8 x 17 1/8 in. (18.7 x 43.5 cm)]]

Two small paintings in London and New York are believed to come from the same predella, and are attributed to Zanobi Strozzi, a Florentine painter who was probably a pupil of Fra Angelico. They are an Adoration of the Magi in the National Gallery in London, and a Nativity (strictly an Adoration of the Child) in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. They date to about 1433–34 and are in tempera and gold on panel.Christiansen; Gordon, 422–24

Various suggestions have been made as to the authorship of the panels, and the polyptych altarpiece of which the predella formed the lowest part. The two owning museums now agree that these two panels are the only ones to survive from the same predella.Christiansen; Gordon, 422 The most likely solution is that the altarpiece had as its main panel a Virgin and Child now in the Hermitage Museum, and side panels of saints, namely: "on the left, Saints Nicholas, Lawrence, and John the Baptist (Hyde Collection, Glens Falls, New York), and, on the right, Saints Zenobius, Francis, and Anthony of Padua (Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven)."Kanter and Palladino, 242–245, with a reconstruction illustrated at 244; Christiansen (quoted); Yale. That the three top panels belong together is rather conclusively shown by the end Yale robe running over into the Hermitage panel.

There was probably at least one more panel, as the centre of the predella. This might have been a Marriage of the Virgin, or an Annunciation,Christiansen other core scenes in cycles of the Life of the Virgin. Both John the Baptist and Zenobius were patron saints of Florence, where according to tradition Zenobius had been the first bishop, and Saints Francis and Anthony were Franciscans, suggesting that the altarpiece was made for a Franciscan church in the city. The other two saints, Nicholas and Lawrence, may have been the name saints of people connected to the commission, or reflect the dedication of the original chapel or church.Kanter and Palladino, 245; Christiansen

It remains possible that Fra Angelico himself had a role in the altarpiece; possibly it was sub-contracted by him to Strozzi and perhaps others.Kanter and Palladino, 242–245