Saint Apollonia
c. 1435
Painter, Sienese, probably 1392 - 1450
West Building Main Floor, Gallery 3
Artwork overview
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Medium
tempera on poplar panel
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 28.6 x 11.3 cm (11 1/4 x 4 7/16 in.)
framed: 31.4 x 14 x 7.8 cm (12 3/8 x 5 1/2 x 3 1/16 in.) -
Accession
1943.4.5
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Possibly in a German private collection in the nineteenth century.[1] (Robert Langton Douglas [1864-1951], London), in early 1900s;[2] sold to Dan Fellows Platt [1873-1938], Englewood, New Jersey in March 1913;[3] sold March 1939 by the trustees of the Platt estate to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[4] gift 1943 to NGA.
[1] NGA 1943.4.4 and .5 were originally the wings of a small portable triptych. The central panel, first thought to be another NGA painting by the same artist, Madonna and Child (1939.1.246), was later recognized as the Virgin and Child Crowned by Angels in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, at the top of which appear the dove of the Holy Spirit and the bust of God the Father in blessing. According to the 1986 catalogue of the Berlin collection (Gemäldegalerie Berlin. Gesamtverzeichnis der Gemälde, Berlin, 1986: 68), this painting presumably comes from the Solly collection, which was purchased for the Berlin gallery in 1821. However, since the panel is listed for the first time in the 1891 edition of the gallery's catalogue (Königliche Museen zu Berlin. Berchreibendes Verzeichnis der Gemälde, Berlin, 1891: 256) with a notation saying it was transferred into the gallery from the storerooms in 1885, possibly it was a relatively recent purchase. Like the Berlin panel, the wings of the triptych (the NGA paintings) must also have been surmounted by gables, and these parts were very likely painted, according to custom, with the figures of the angel Gabriel and the Virgin Annunciate. Fragments corresponding to this description and almost certainly identifiable as the missing pieces of the NGA panels are now in the Frick Art Museum in Pittsburgh. These panels are cited in the Frick Collection for the first time by John Pope-Hennessy, Sassetta, London, 1939: 114, 136, who also reports their alleged provenance from a French private collection. He points out, however, that these are probably the same paintings cited by Raimond van Marle, The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting, 19 vols., The Hague, 1923-1938: 9(1927):324, among Sassetta's works as "fragments of a triptych depicting the angel and the Virgin of the Annunciation in a private collection in Germany." Miklós Boskovits, author of the NGA systematic catalogue entry on the two NGA paintings, thus suspects that these and the two Frick fragments at about mid-nineteenth century (or in any case some time before 1885), were still together with the Virgin now in Berlin, in a private German collection.
[2] See Pope-Hennessy 1939: 91 n. 32, and Denys Sutton, "Robert Langton Douglas. Part 3," Apollo 109, no. 208 (June 1979): 463, 469.
[3] Acquisition date according to Dan Fellows Platt Papers, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University, NJ; box 2, folder 23, call number C0860.
F. Mason Perkins, "Alcuni dipinti senesi sconoscuti o inediti," Rassegna d'Arte 13, no. 8 (December 1913): 195, reports that NGA 1943.4.4 and 1943.4.5 were acquired "recently" by Dan Fellows Platt; in an earlier essay on this ("Dipinti italiani nella raccolta Platt," Rassegna d'Arte 11 [January 1911]: Part I, 1-6, and [September 1911]: Part 2, 145-146), he does not yet seem to know these paintings.
[4] Fern Rusk Shapley, Catalogue of the Italian Paintings, 2 vols., Washington, D.C., 1979: 1:416. See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/1798.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1915
Loan Exhibition of Italian Primitive Paintings, Fogg Museum of Art, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1915, unnumbered checklist.
Bibliography
1907
Perkins, Frederick Mason. "Sassetta." In Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker, eds. Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart. 37 vols. Leipzig, 1907-1950: 29(1935):482.
1913
Perkins, Frederick Mason. "Alcuni dipinti senesi sconoscuti o inediti." Rassegna d'Arte 13, no. 8 (December 1913): 195-197, repro.
1915
Edgell, George Harold. "The Loan Exhibitiion of Italian Paintings in the Fogg Museum, Cambridge." Art and Archaeology II, no. 1 (July 1915):13.
1923
Marle, Raimond van. The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting. 19 vols. The Hague, 1923-1938: 9(1927):340.
1931
Richter, George M. “Reivew of Lionello Venturi, Pitture italiane in America.” The Burlington Magazine 69, no. 400 (1931): 251, as by Giovanni di Paolo.
1932
Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Oxford, 1932: 512.
Misciattelli, Pietro. “La donna senese del Rinascimento.” La Diana 2, no. 4 (1932): 198.
1933
Gengaro, Maria Luisa. “Il primitivo del Quattrocento senese: Stefano di Giovanni, detto il Sassetta.” La Diana 8 (1933): 22-23.
1936
Berenson, Bernard. Pitture italiane del Rinascimento. Milan, 1936: 440.
1939
Pope-Hennessy, John. Sassetta. London, 1939: 69, 91 n. 32.
1941
Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 179, no. 506.
1942
Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 250, repro. 184, as by Sassetta.
1945
[Borenius, Tancred]. “Editorial: The New Kress Gift to the National Gallery, Washington.” The Burlington Magazine 86, no. 504 (March 1945): 56.
1957
Carli, Enzo. Il Sassetta e il Maestro dell’Osservanza. Milan, 1957: 123, pl. 169, as by Pietro di Giovanni Ambrosi.
1958
Volpe, Carlo. “Review of Enzo Carli, Il Sassetta e il Maestro dell’Osservanza (1957).” Arte Antica e Moderna (January - March 1958): 86, as by Pietro di Giovanni Ambrosi.
1959
Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 38, repro., as by Sassetta.
1963
Volpe, Carlo. “Ancora su Pietro di Giovanni d’Ambrogio.” Paragone 14, no. 165 (1963): 37, as by Pietro di Giovanni Ambrosi.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 121.
1966
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XIII-XV Century. London, 1966: 143-144, fig. 384.
1967
Zeri, Federico. "Early Italian Pictures in the Kress Collection." The Burlington Magazine 109 (1967): 477.
1968
National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 108, repro.
Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Central Italian and North Italian Schools. 3 vols. London, 1968: 1:387.
1972
Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, MA, 1972: 183, 646.
Boskovits, Miklós. “Pietro di Giovanni Ambrosi.” In Alberto Bolaffi and Umberto Allemandi, eds. Dizionario Enciclopedico Bolaffi dei pittori e degli Incisori italiani: dall’XI al XX secolo. 11 vols. Turin, 1972-1976: 9(1975):65, as by Pietro di Giovanni Ambrosi.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 318, repro.
Hovey, Walter Read. Treasures of the Frick Art Museum. Pittsburgh, 1975: 51-52.
1977
Torriti, Piero. La Pinacoteca Nazionale di Siena. I dipinti dal XII al XV secolo. Genoa, 1977: 252, 258, as by the Master of the Osservanza.
1978
Picture Gallery Berlin. Catalogue of Paintings, 13th-18th Century. Berlin, 1978: 396.
1979
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:415-416, 2:pl. 296, as by Sassetta.
Sutton, Denys. "Robert Langton Douglas. Part III." Apollo 109 (June 1979): 463 [181] fig. 33, 469 [187].
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 367, repro.
1986
Gemäldegalerie Berlin: Gesamtverzeichnis der Gemälde. Berlin, 1986: 68.
1989
Os, Hendrik W. van, J. R. J. van Asperen de Boer, C. E. de Jong-Janssen, and Charlotte Wiefhoff, eds. The Early Sienese Paintings in Holland. Translated by Michael Hoyle. Florence, 1989: 127.
1996
Gemäldegalerie Berlin: Gesamtverzeichnis. Berlin, 1996: 110.
1997
Zeri, Federico, and Andrea G. De Marchi. La Spezia, Museo Civico Amedeo Lia. Dipinti. La Spezia, 1997: 310.
1998
Apostolos-Cappadona, Diane. "Virgin/Virginity." In Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography: Themes Depicted in Works of Art. Edited by Helene E. Roberts. 2 vols. Chicago, 1998: 2:906.
Frinta, Mojmír S. Punched Decoration on Late Medieval Panel and Miniature Painting. Prague, 1998: 44.
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: 622-627, color repro.
2016
Bacchi, Andrea, and Andrea De Marchi, eds. La Galleria di Palazzo Cini. Dipinti, sculture, oggetti d'arte. Venice, 2016: 109.
Wikidata ID
Q20173572