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Sassetta

Saint Margaret, c. 1435

West Building, Main Floor - Gallery 03

Medium

tempera on poplar panel

Dimensions

overall: 28.5 x 10.6 cm (11 1/4 x 4 3/16 in.)

framed: 31.4 x 13.3 x 7.8 cm (12 3/8 x 5 1/4 x 3 1/16 in.)

Credit Line

Samuel H. Kress Collection

Accession Number

1943.4.4

Artists / Makers

Sassetta (painter) Sienese, probably 1392 - 1450

Image Use

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Provenance

Possibly in a German private collection in the nineteenth century.[1] (Robert Langton Douglas [1864-1951], London), in the 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/1872.

Associated Names

Douglas, Robert Langton
Kress Foundation, Samuel H.
Platt, Dan Fellows

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.

1932: 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. 505.

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. 385.

1967: Zeri, Federico. "Early Italian Pictures in the Kress Collection." The Burlington Magazine 109 (1967): 477.

1968: Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Central Italian and North Italian Schools. 3 vols. London, 1968: 1:387.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 108, repro.

1972: 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.

1972: Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, MA, 1972: 183, 646.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 318, repro.

1975: 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. 297, as by Sassetta.

1979: Sutton, Denys. "Robert Langton Douglas. Part III." Apollo 109 (June 1979): 463 [181] fig. 34, 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: 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.