Rare Fra Angelico Crucifixion to be Auctioned at Christie's

A rare early masterpiece by Fra Angelico, the Crucifixion with the Virgin, Saint John the Baptist and the Magdalene at the Foot of the Cross, will be offered at Christie's during London Art Week from June 30 to July 7, 2023. The painting is estimated at £4–6 million and will be the highlight of the Old Masters Part I Sale on July 6, 2023. Discovered in 1996 by Francis Russell, Deputy Chairman of Christie's UK, who published it in the Burlington Magazine, the work dates between 1419 and 1426 and was originally the central panel of a devotional triptych. It was later acquired by Lord Ashburton and passed to his heirs after his death in 1864. The last Fra Angelico work at auction was Saint Dominic and the Stigmatization of Saint Francis, sold by Christie's last year for $4.7 million. Russell noted the painting exemplifies Fra Angelico's profound faith and the influence of contemporary sculpture by Brunelleschi and Ghiberti. Art historian Diane Cole Ahl observed that the features of Saint John the Baptist likely derive from Ghiberti's Sacrifice of Isaac.