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Paolo di Giovanni Fei (painter) Italian, mentioned 1369 - 1411 The Presentation of the Virgin, c. 1400 tempera on wood transferred to hardboard overall: 147 x 140.3 cm (57 7/8 x 55 1/4 in.) Samuel H. Kress Collection 1961.9.4 On View |
Object 2 of 10
Provenance
Commissioned in 1398[1] for the chapel of San Pietro in Siena Cathedral,[2] where it remained at least until 1482.[3] It is probable, however, that the altarpiece was removed only between 1580 (when a new, richly decorated marble altar was commissioned for the chapel) and 1582 (when the decoration of the new altar was completed). At this time it was then either consigned to the cathedral’s storerooms or sold.[4] Possibly the Rev. John Sanford [1777–1855], Florence and London, in the early nineteenth century; stated to have been in the collection of his son-in-law, Frederick Henry Paul Methuen, 2nd baron Methuen [1818–1891], Corsham Court, Wiltshire.[5] H.M. Clark, London, by 1928.[6] Edward Hutton [1874–1969], London.[7] (Wildenstein & Co., New York), by 1950;[8] sold February 1954 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York.[9]
[1] Milanesi 1854, 37; Borghesi and Banchi 1898, 62; Butzek 2006, 102. Payments to Paolo di Giovanni Fei “per la tavola di sancto Piero et sancto Pavolo, per sua fatiga e colori” were made, specifies Monica Butzek (2006), between 1398 and April 1399.
[2] Pietro Lorenzetti’s altarpiece of the Birth of the Virgin, also painted for the Cathedral of Siena in 1342 (see Volpe 1989, 152–154), is surmounted, like The Presentation of the Virgin discussed here, by three arches included in a heavy frame. The present appearance of these paintings is misleading, however. Fourteenth-century altarpieces were generally realized on rectangular panels, not silhouetted like these, and integrated above by triangular or trapezoidal gables partially overlapped by the integral frame. See Cämmerer George 1966, 144–165; Merzenich 2001, 43–56.
[3] Carli 1979, 85–86.
[4] On 9 September 1579, the Congrega di San Pietro, patron since 1513 of the chapel dedicated to this saint (the second altar from the entrance in the north aisle), commissioned the stonecutters Girolamo del Turco and Pietro di Benedetto da Prato to realize a new marble structure around the altar. This sculptural decoration was completed in April 1582. It is presumed that between the two dates Paolo’s panel, considered antiquated, was removed. See Butzek 2006, 197.
[5] A handwritten note on a photograph of the painting, formerly owned by Bernard Berenson (now in the Biblioteca Berenson at Villa I Tatti, Florence), suggests a provenance from the collection at Corsham Court, which the diplomat Sir Paul Methuen (1672–1757) had formed in the eighteenth century. By the mid-nineteenth century the collection had been enriched with paintings from the Sanford collection, containing several fourteenth- and fifteenth-century works, through the 1844 marriage of Sanford’s daughter, Anna Horatia Caroline Sanford (1824–1899), to Frederick H. P. Methuen. See Nicolson 1955, 207–214. The painting discussed here does not appear among those disposed of by Sanford on the occasion of two London sales: a sale by private contract under the auspices of George Yates (April 24, 1838, and days following), and a sale at Christie & Manson (March 9, 1839). It could thus have been among those acquired by Lord Methuen through his marriage. The unpublished inventories of the latter collection have still to be examined.
[6] Daily Telegraph Exhibition 1928, 162.
[7] Information given in NGA 1956.
[8] According to a handwritten note on the photograph quoted above (see note 5), the painting was with Wildenstein by October 1950.
[9] The bill of sale (copy in NGA curatorial files) is dated 10 February 1954, and was for fourteen paintings, including Presentation of the Virgin by Bartolo di Fredi; payments by the foundation continued to March 1957.
Associated Names
- Capella di San Pietro
- Clark, H. M.
- Hutton, Edward
- Kress Foundation, Samuel H. (Kress number K2045)
- Methuen, Frederick Henry Paul, 2nd baron Methuen
- Sanford, John, Rev.
- Wildenstein & Co., Inc.
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