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Home » Collection » Saint John in the Desert
  • Overview
  • Provenance
  • Exhibition History
  • Bibliography
Overview

One of Domenico Veneziano's major works is an altarpiece that he painted about 1445 for the Church of Santa Lucia dei Magnoli, in Florence. The incident illustrated in this small panel from the base of the altarpiece is John's act of exchanging his rich, worldly clothes for a rough, camel–hair coat. In the few known representations of John in the wilderness that preceded Domenico's version, the emphasis was placed either on the divine origin of the saint's animal skin or on his preaching. Domenico, however, shifted attention from mere narration to the spiritual significance of John's decision to forsake luxury in favor of a life of piety.

Rather than showing the saint in the usual manner, as a mature, bearded hermit, Domenico painted a youthful figure. Clearly classical in appearance, his saint is one of the earliest embodiments of the Renaissance preoccupation with antique models. However, a fusion of pagan and Christian ideas is suggested; the Grecian type is transformed into a religious being by the golden halo above his head. Another innovative combination of elements exists in the arrangement of this male nude in a landscape that retains artistic features from the High Gothic era of the late Middle Ages. Symbolic rather than realistic, the rugged mountains enliven the drama of John's decision by emphasizing the desolate nature of his chosen environment.

Provenance

Main altar of the church of Santa Lucia de' Magnoli, Florence, probably until the early 18th century.[1] Sacristy of the same church, by 1728.[2] Third altar on the right of the nave of the same church, by 1762 and probably until the early 1800s.[3] Bernard Berenson [1865-1959], Settignano, acquired, perhaps in London, by July 1913;[4] presented 1919 by his wife, Mary Berenson, to Carl W. Hamilton [1886-1967], New York;[5] sold 1942 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[6] gift 1943 to NGA.

[1] The altarpiece is cited as being on the main altar (erroneously, as a work of Andrea del Castagno) by Giovanni Cinelli in Francesco Bocchi, Le bellezze della città di Firenze, ed. Giovanni Cinelli, Florence, 1677 (originally 1591): 280. It was probably moved on the occasion of restoration work done in the church between 1712 and 1715 (see Walter and Elisabeth Paatz, Die Kirchen von Florenz, 6 vols., Frankfurt am Main, 1941: 2:607).

[2] Cited as being there by Filippo Baldinucci, Notizie dei professori del disegno da Cimbaue in qua, 5 vols. (originally 6 vols.), ed. F. Ranalli, Florence, 1845-1847 (originally 1728): 3:95 n. 1.

[3] The altarpiece was described there by both Giuseppe Richa, Notizie istoriche delle chiese florentine, 10 vols., Florence, 1754-1762: 10:294) and Vincenzo Follini and Modesto Rastrelli, Firenze antica e moderna, 8 vols., Florence, 1789-1802: 8:254). Among early writers, G. Lanzi (Storia pittorica della Italia, Bassano, 1795-1796: 1:58) is the only one who mentions the predella, which at that time must still have been attached to the main panel. That in 1827 the usually careful Rumohr, the first to read and transcribe the signature of Domenico Veneziano on the altarpiece, did not mention the predella, leads one to suppose that by this date it was no longer in the church. See Carl Friedrich von Rumohr, Italienische Forschungen, 3 vols., ed. by Julius Schlosser, Frankfurt am Main, 1920 (originally Berlin, 1827-1831): 387. In fact, Rumohr presumably saw the panel during his second stay in Italy, between 1816 and 1820. (See E. Sigismund, "R.C.F. Freiherr von Rumohr," in Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, ed. Ulrich Thieme, Felix Becker, and Hans Vollmer, 37 vols., Liepzig, 1907-1950: 29[1935]:202.)

[4] According to his own statements (see Bernard Berenson, Abbozzo per un autoritratto, Florence, 1949: 228-229), Berenson collected art works only for the furnishing and decoration of his house, and ceased purchasing toward the middle of the second decade of the twentieth century. The period in which he came into possession of NGA 1943.4.48 can therefore be placed between about 1900 (when he moved to Villa I Tatti near Florence) and about 1915. The 1913 date was supplied by Carl Strehlke (curator, Philadelphia Museum of Art; e-mail to David Brown, 7 April 2011, in NGA curatorial files), who kindly shared his research in Berenson records at I Tatti. In the files of temporary import licenses for which Berenson applied are both a receipt dated 24 July 1913, on printed stationary of A.L. Nicholson in London, for "Picture on Panel / 'A Saint in the Wilderness' School of Fra Angelico," and Berenson's declaration to the Soprintendenza that he brought from London: "Dipinto su tavola con cornice Fig. S. Giovannino nel deserto." Both these documents probably refer to the NGA painting.

[5] See Nicky Mariano and Kenneth Clark, Forty Years with Berenson, New York, 1966: 18, who claim that it was Mary Berenson who gave the present, and the rectification by David Alan Brown, "Berenson's Contribution to Scholarship, Taste, and Collecting," in Berenson and the Connoisseurship of Italian Painting, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1979: 22-23.

[6] Fern Rusk Shapley, Catalogue of the Italian Paintings, 2 vols., Washington, D.C., 1979: 1:159-162. Hamilton offered his painting to Samuel H. Kress in a letter dated May 1942 (copy in NGA curatorial files); the offer was accepted in the same year.

Exhibition History
1926
Loan Exhibition of Paintings, Furniture and Art Objects from the Collection of Carl W. Hamilton, Montclair Art Museum, New Jersey, 1925-1926, no. 64.
1930
Exhibition of Italian Art 1200-1900, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1930, no. 132 (no. 112 and pl. XLII in commemorative catalogue published 1931; not in souvenir catalogue).
1935
Exhibition of Italian Paintings of the Renaissance, The Century Association, New York, 1935, no. 6.
1946
Recent Additions to the Kress Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1946, no. 715.
1979
Berenson and the Connoisseurship of Italian Painting, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1979, no. 40, repro.
1990
Pittura di luce. Giovanni di Francesco e l'arte fiorentina di metà Quattrocento, Casa Buonarroti, Florence, 1990, no. 7, repro.
1992
Una scuola per Piero. Luce, colore e prospettiva nella formazione fiorentina di Piero della Francesca, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, 1992-1993, no. 11c, repro.
2004
From Filippo Lippi to Piero della Francesca: Fra Carnavale and the Making of a Renaissance Master, Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2004-2005, no. 22A, repro.
Bibliography
1944
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Masterpieces of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1944: 24, color repro.
1944
Frankfurter, Alfred M. The Kress Collection in the National Gallery. New York, 1944: 27, repro.
1945
Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1945 (reprinted 1947, 1949): 28, repro.
1951
Einstein, Lewis. Looking at Italian Pictures in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1951: 39-41, repro.
1959
Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 59, repro.
1959
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Early Italian Painting in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1959 (Booklet Number Three in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.): 28, color repro.
1960
Newton, Eric. The Arts of Man. Greenwich, Connecticut, 1960: 103-104, repro.
1960
The National Gallery of Art and Its Collections. Foreword by Perry B. Cott and notes by Otto Stelzer. National Gallery of Art, Washington (undated, 1960s): 10, as St. John in the Wilderness.
1961
Walker, John, Guy Emerson, and Charles Seymour. Art Treasures for America: An Anthology of Paintings & Sculpture in the Samuel H. Kress Collection. London, 1961:, 34-35, color repro. pl. 28
1963
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 78, repro.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 42.
1966
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 1:34, color repro.
1966
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XIII-XV Century. London, 1966: 103-104, fig. 280.
1968
European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1968: 35, repro.
1974
Pesenti, Franco Renzo. "Dismembered works of art - Italian painting." In An Illustrated Inventory of Famous Dismembered Works of Art: European Painting. Paris, 1974: 22, 36-37, repro.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 108, repro.
1979
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: I:159-162, II:pl. 114
1979
Watson, Ross. The National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1979: 22, pl.7.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 88, no. 47, color repro.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 131, repro.
1992
National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 16, repro.
1997
Fulton, Christopher. "The Boy Stripped Bare by His Elders: Art and Adolescence in Renaissance Florence." Art Journal 56, 2 (Summer 1997): 33, fig. 3.
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: 241-250, color repro.
2003
Gregori, Mina, ed. In the Light of Apollo: Italian Renaissance and Greece. 2 vols. Exh. cat. National Gallery and Alexandros Souzos Museum, Athens, 2003-2004: 1:185, 186 fig. 4.
2004
Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 22-23, no. 16, color repro.
2013
"Vasari and the National Gallery of Art." National Gallery of Art Bulletin 48 (Spring 2013): 6, repro.