Masolino da Panicale

Florentine, c. 1383 - 1435 or after

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Italian painter between Late Gothic and Renaissance (1383-1447)

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Shown from the knees up, a winged angel with blond hair and pale skin faces our right in profile with arms crossed at the chest in this vertical painting. A gleaming gold halo surrounds the head and curls lining the forehead and nape of the neck. The angel looks off to our right with silver-gray eyes, and wears a long gown decorated with a brick-red floral pattern against a black background. Gold, feathered wings extend from the shoulders, and the angel leans forward from the hips. The background behind the angel could be a portion of a wall made from stacked mustard-yellow horizontal bands, perhaps boards, that fills the left half. The right half is filled with swirling shades of caramel and earth brown, and both sides are partially framed with salmon-pink bands. A sliver of floor along the bottom of the painting is patterned with pine-green and burgundy-red tiles separated by cream-white bands.
Masolino da Panicale, The Archangel Gabriel, c. 1430, tempera on poplar panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.225

The Archangel Gabriel

Masolino da Panicale · c. 1430 · tempera on poplar panel ·  Accession ID  1939.1.225

Masolino da Panicale, The Virgin Annunciate, c. 1430, tempera (?) on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.226

The Virgin Annunciate

Masolino da Panicale · c. 1430 · tempera (?) on panel ·  Accession ID  1939.1.226

A winged angel with arms crossed kneels across from a young woman sitting and holding a book, both under an archway in a paneled room in this vertical painting. They both have pale, yellow-toned skin, blond hair, and flat, gold halos. They also have golden brown eyes, long, straight noses, smooth cheeks, and their pale, pink lips are closed. To our right, the woman sits in a throne-like chair with her body facing our left. Her head tilts down, and she looks toward the angel under lowered lids. Her hair is pulled back under the neck of the lapis-blue cloak she wears over a crimson-red dress. The dress and cloak are trimmed with gold, and a there is a gold starburst on the cloak over her left shoulder, closer to us. She holds her other hand up near that shoulder with her fingertips brushing her chest. With her other hand, she holds open the pages of a small book in her lap, so her fingers overlap some of the words. The entire Latin inscription would read, “virgo concipiet et pariet filium et vocabitur nomen eius emmanuel butirum et mel come dit ut fiat reprobare.” A slender, bone-white column separates her from the angel across from her, along the left edge of the painting. The angel has curly, shoulder-length hair and wears a robe with a gold, floral pattern against a burgundy-red background. Long, golden wings emerge from the shoulder blades and extend off the side of the composition. An open archway just beyond the angel is filled with streaks of flax yellow and burnt orange, possibly representing flames. Some of the walls in the room around the pair are pale olive green and other areas are darker spruce green. There are bands of coral-pink molding and inset panels of patterned mosaics. The flat ceiling of the space immediately over the pair is decorated with checkerboard panels in navy blue, hunter green, brown, and brick red. Gold lines create a ray coming from the ceiling toward the woman. At the back of the space, beyond the column separating the woman and angel, the room extends into an alcove with an arched hallway painted with gold stars against a midnight-blue background. Double doors open at the back of the alcove onto a room with a pale-yellow curtain with a mesh-like trim. We see the pair as if through a stone archway that lines the top and sides of the composition. The upper corners are filled with leafy decorations, as if carved into the stone.
Masolino da Panicale, The Annunciation, c. 1423/1424, tempera (and possibly oil glazes) on panel, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.16

The Annunciation

Masolino da Panicale · c. 1423/1424 · tempera (and possibly oil glazes) on panel ·  Accession ID  1937.1.16

Bibliography

1908

  • Toesca, Pietro. Masolino da Panicale. Bergamo, 1908.

1940

  • Longhi, Roberto. "Fatti di Masolino e di Masaccio." CdA 5 (1940): 145-191. Reprinted in Edizione delle opere complete di Roberto Longhi. 14 vols. Florence and Milan, 1956-2000. Vol. 8, 2 parts. Part 1 (1975). Fatti di Masolino e di Masaccio....

1948

  • Salmi, Mario. Masaccio. Rome, 1932. 2nd ed. Milan, 1948.

1953

  • Procacci, Ugo. "Sulla cronologia delle opere di Masaccio e di Masolino tra il 1425 e il 1428." Rassenga d'Arte 28 (1953): 3-55.

1964

  • Berti, Luciano. Masaccio. Milan, 1964. English ed. University Park, Pennsylvania, 1967.

1988

  • Berti, Luciano, et al. Masaccio. Florence, 1988.

1993

  • Joannides, Paul. Masaccio and Masolino. A Complete Catalogue. London, 1993.

2002

  • Panel Paintings of Masolino and Masaccio. The Role of Technique. Ed. Carl B. Strehlke and Cecilia Frosinini. Milan, 2002.

2003

  • Boskovits, Miklós, and David Alan Brown, et al. Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century. The Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 2003: 465.