Overview
Most early paintings are also mystery stories, making the art historians who study them detectives of a sort. Signatures were not routine, and the inscriptions on this large altarpiece name the saints depicted, not the artist who painted them. In this case, however, the elegant figures, pastel colors, and decorative effects have pointed experts almost unanimously to
We know that Alberti commissioned Gaddi for other works, and that in 1387 he added a codicil to his will providing funds for decorations in San Miniato. It is the inclusion of the particular saints we see here that links the National Gallery of Art’s altarpiece to the Alberti family and perhaps to that document. At left is the apostle Andrew, holding the symbol of his crucifixion and the rope that was used in place of nails to hang him on the cross. He was the patron saint of Alberti’s deceased son. Next to him, Benedict, considered the founder of western monasticism, displays the opening words of the rule that governed the Benedictine monks at San Miniato. Benedict was also Benedetto’s patron saint. Opposite stands Bernard of Clairvaux, the powerful French abbot of the Cistercian order. He was the patron of another of Benedetto’s sons. Finally, we find Catherine of Alexandria on the spiked wheel of her torture. Both Benedetto and his son Bernardo made dedications in her honor, and some medieval etymologies linked her name to catena, Latin for chain, a device that figured on the Alberti coat of arms.
Entry
This panel is the central part of a
Lionello Venturi published this triptych in 1931 under the name of Gherardo Starnina.
The present writer proposed that Agnolo Gaddi’s altarpiece might have been executed for the sacristy of the church of San Miniato al Monte (Florence),
Although the provenance from San Miniato remains a hypothesis, it still seems to me a quite plausible one that, if correct, would give us the certainty that by 1830 the triptych was still on the altar of the sacristy. An altarpiece can apparently be seen still in situ in a sketch of the sacristy’s altar wall
As for its date, the Gallery’s first catalog (1941) cautiously suggested “the last quarter of the XIVth century,” while the volume devoted to the Duveen Pictures (1941) proposed an approximate date of c. 1380.
In the course of his career, especially between the 1380s and the early 1390s, Agnolo Gaddi produced a number of polyptychs, now in part dismantled and dispersed, of which at least the surviving central panels propose a composition close to that of the triptych discussed here. I refer in particular to Madonna and Child with Eight Angels (now united with laterals that did not originally belong to it) in the Contini-Bonacossi bequest to the Uffizi, Florence;
Although successive restorations have now made it difficult to assess, the Borgo San Lorenzo panel
If such a chronological sequence of the altarpieces executed by Agnolo in the 1380s is plausible, the Gallery triptych ought to date to a period slightly preceding 1387—that is, slightly preceding the execution of the other and more important enterprise promoted by Benedetto di Nerozzo Alberti, the frescoing of the choir in Santa Croce.
Miklós Boskovits (1935–2011)
March 21, 2016
Inscription
across the bottom: AVE MARIA GRATIA PLENA DOMINUS [TECUM] (Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; from Luke 1:28); on the book held by the Redeemer in the gable: EGO SUM / A[ET] O PRINCI / PIU[M] [ET] FINIS / EGO SUM VI / A. VERITAS / [ET] VITA (I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, I am the way, the truth, and the life; from John 14:6; Revelations 22:13)
Provenance
Probably in the sacristy of the church of San Miniato al Monte, Florence, from whence the triptych may have been removed shortly after 1830.[1] Bertram Ashburnham [1797-1878], 4th earl of Ashburnham, Ashburnham Place, Battle, Sussex;[2] by inheritance to his son, Bertram Ashburnham [1840-1913], 5th earl of Ashburnham, Ashburnham Place; by inheritance to his daughter, Lady Mary Catherine Charlotte Ashburnham [1890-1953], Ashburnham Place; (Robert Langton Douglas, London);[3] purchased 19 June 1919 by(Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris);[4] sold 15 December 1936 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh;[5] gift 1937 to NGA.
Exhibition History
- 1933
- Italian Paintings of the XIV to XVI Century, Detroit Institute of Arts, 1933, no. 11, repro., as Altarpiece by Gherardo Starnina.
Bibliography
- 1931
- Venturi, Lionello. Pitture italiane in America. Milan, 1931: no. 52, repro.
- 1933
- Procacci, Ugo. "Gherardo Starnina." Rivista d’arte 15 (1933): 160.
- 1933
- Valentiner, Wilhelm R. "Die Leihausstellung frühitalienischer Malerei in Detroit." Pantheon 12 (1933): 238.
- 1933
- Valentiner, Wilhelm R., ed. The Sixteenth Loan Exhibition of Old Masters: Italian Paintings of the XIV to XVI Century. Exh. cat. Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1933: no. 11, repro.
- 1933
- Venturi, Lionello. Italian Paintings in America. Translated by Countess Vanden Heuvel and Charles Marriott. 3 vols. New York and Milan, 1933: 1:no. 63, repro.
- 1935
- Salvini, Roberto. "Per la cronologia e per il catalogo di un discepolo di Agnolo Gaddi." Bollettino d’arte 29 (1935-1936): 287.
- 1941
- Duveen Brothers. Duveen Pictures in Public Collections of America. New York, 1941: nos. 24-25, repro., as by Gherardo Starnina.
- 1941
- National Gallery of Art. Book of Illustrations. Washington, 1941: 104 (repro.), 233.
- 1941
- Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 69, no. 4.
- 1941
- Richter, George Martin. "The New National Gallery in Washington." The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 78 (June 1941): 177.
- 1942
- Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 239, repro. 106.
- 1946
- Friedmann, Herbert. The Symbolic Goldfinch. Its History and Significance in European Devotional Art. Washington, DC, 1946: 143.
- 1949
- Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 8, repro.
- 1951
- Galetti, Ugo, and Ettore Camesasca. Enciclopedia della pittura italiana. 3 vols. Milan, 1951: 3:2351 repro.
- 1960
- Labriola, Ada. "Gaddi, Agnolo." In Dizionario biografico degli italiani. Edited by Alberto Maria Ghisalberti. 82+ vols. Rome, 1960+: 51(1998):146.
- 1963
- Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Florentine School. 2 vols. London, 1963: 2:69.
- 1965
- Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 54.
- 1967
- Klesse, Brigitte. Seidenstoffe in der italienischen Malerei des 14. Jahrhunderts. Bern, 1967: 316.
- 1968
- Boskovits, Miklós. "Some Early Works of Agnolo Gaddi." The Burlington Magazine 110 (1968): 210 n. 9.
- 1968
- European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1968: 46, repro.
- 1969
- Cole, Bruce. Agnolo Gaddi. Ph.D. diss. Bryn Mawr College, 1969. Ann Arbor, MI, 1977: 73-75, 85, 208, 209.
- 1972
- Boskovits, Miklós. "Gaddi, Agnolo." In Dizionario Enciclopedico Bolaffi dei pittori e degli Incisori italiani: dall’XI al XX secolo . Edited by Alberto Bolaffi and Umberto Allemandi. 11 vols. Turin, 1972-1976: 5(1974)186.
- 1972
- Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, Mass., 1972: 77, 301, 315, 369, 378, 381, 645.
- 1973
- Fraser, Ian, Edith Whitehill Clowes, George Henry Alexander Clowes, and Carl J. Weinhardt. A Catalogue of the Clowes Collection. Indianapolis Museum of Art Bulletin. Indianapolis, 1973: 6.
- 1975
- Boskovits, Miklós. Pittura fiorentina alla vigilia del Rinascimento, 1370-1400. Florence, 1975: 118-121, 123, 216 n. 84, 234 n. 140, 304, pl. 127.
- 1975
- European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 140, repro.
- 1975
- Fremantle, Richard. Florentine Gothic Painters from Giotto to Masaccio: A Guide to Painting in and near Florence, 1300 to 1450. London, 1975: 271, fig. 553.
- 1976
- Cole, Bruce. Giotto and Florentine Painting, 1280-1375. Icon Editions. 1st ed. New York, 1976: 140, 141, pl. 52.
- 1977
- Cole, Bruce. Agnolo Gaddi. Oxford, 1977: 26-30, 40, 41, 89, pls. 81, 82.
- 1978
- Boskovits, Miklós. "Review of Agnolo Gaddi by Bruce Cole." The Art Bulletin 60 (1978): 708.
- 1979
- Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. Washington, 1979: 1:192-194; 2:pl. 134.
- 1979
- Sutton, Denys. "Robert Langton Douglas. Part III." Apollo 109 (June 1979): 447 [165] fig. 1, 452 [170].
- 1984
- Os, Hendrik W. van. Sienese Altarpieces 1215-1460. Form, Content, Function. 2 vols. Groningen, 1984-1990: 2(1990):66, fig. 48.
- 1984
- Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 73, no 16, color repro.
- 1985
- Brown, Howard Mayer. "Catalogus. A Corpus of Trecento Pictures with Musical Subject Matter, pt. 2." Imago Musicae 2 (1985): 200, 201.
- 1985
- European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 162, repro.
- 1986
- Ford, Terrence, compiler and ed. Inventory of Music Iconography, no. 1. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York 1986: 1, no. 5.
- 1986
- Ricci, Stefania. "Gaddi, Agnolo." In La Pittura in Italia. Il Duecento e il Trecento. Edited by Enrico Castelnuovo. 2 vols. Milan, 1986: 2:572.
- 1988
- Causa, Stefano. "La Sagrestia." in La Basilica di San Miniato al Monte a Firenze. Edited by Francesco Gurrieri, Luciano Berti and Claudio Leonardi. Florence, 1988: 228, 229.
- 1989
- Bellosi, Luciano. "Gaddi, Agnolo." In Dizionario della pittura e dei pittori. Edited by Enrico Castelnuovo and Bruno Toscano. 6 vols. Turin, 1989-1994: 2(1990):471.
- 1990
- Boskovits, Miklós, and Serena Padovani. Early Italian Painting 1290-1470. The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection. London, 1990: 116 n. 1.
- 1992
- Chiodo, Sonia. "Gaddi, Agnolo." In Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: Die bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker. Edited by Günter Meissner. 87+ vols. Munich and Leipzig, 1992+: 47(2005):113, 114.
- 1994
- Skaug, Erling S. Punch Marks from Giotto to Fra Angelico: Attribution, Chronology, and Workshop Relationships in Tuscan Panel Painting with Particular Consideration to Florence, c. 1330-1430. 2 vols. Oslo, 1994: 1:262, 263; 2:punch chart 8.2
- 1995
- Frosinini, Cecilia. "Agnolo Gaddi." in La Sacra Cintola nel Duomo di Prato. Prato, 1995: 226.
- 1995
- Halpine, Susana M. "An Investigation of Artists' Materials Using Amino Acid Analysis: Introduction of the One-Hour Extraction Method." Studies in the History of Art 51 (1995): 41-48, 61, repro. no. 7, 64-65 nn. 41-55.
- 1995
- Skerl Del Conte, Serena. Antonio Veneziano e Taddeo Gaddi nella Toscana della seconda metà del Trecento. Pasian di Prato (Udine), 1995: 52-54, 56, 62, 65 n. 13, 66 n. 23, repro.
- 1996
- Gold Backs: 1250-1480. Exh. cat. Matthiesen Fine Art, London. Turin, 1996: 80.
- 1996
- Symposium, Early Italian Paintings Techniques and Analysis, Maastricht, 1996: 81, repro.
- 1997
- Bakkenist, Tonnie, René Hoppenbrouwers, and Hélène Dubois, eds. Early Italian Paintings: Techniques and Analysis. Maastricht, Netherlands, 1997: 81, repro.
- 1997
- Bustin, Mary. "Recalling the Past: Evidence for the Original Construction of Madonna Enthroned with Saints and Angels by Agnolo Gaddi." Studies in the History of Art 57 (1997): 35-64, repro. no. 2.
- 1997
- Halpine, Susana M. "Analysis of Artists’ Materials Using High-Performance Liquid Chromatography." In Early Italian Paintings: Techniques and Analysis. Edited by Tonnie Bakkenist, René Hoppenbrouwers and Hélène Dubois. Maastricht, Netherlands, 1997: 22, 23.
- 1998
- Frinta, Mojmír S. Punched Decoration on Late Medieval Panel and Miniature Painting. Prague, 1998: 100, 244, 283, 290, 322, 481.
- 1998
- Labriola, Ada. “La decorazione pittorica.” In L’Oratorio di Santa Caterina: osservazioni storico-critiche in occasione del restauro. Edited by Maurizio De Vita. Florence, 1998: 52.
- 2000
- Kirsh, Andrea, and Rustin S. Levenson. Seeing Through Paintings: Physical Examination in Art Historical Studies. Materials and Meaning in the Fine Arts 1. New Haven, 2000: 108-109, color fig. 102, 103.
- 2001
- Merzenich, Christoph. Vom Schreinerwerk zum Gemälde: Florentiner Altarwerke der ersten Hälfte des Quattrocento. Berlin, 2001: 89, 189, fig. 49.
- 2003
- Weppelmann, Stefan. Spinello Aretino und die toskanische Malerei des 14. Jahrhunderts. Florence, 2003: 184.
- 2004
- Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 11, no. 6, color repro.
- 2004
- Medicus, Gustav. "Gaddi, Agnolo." In Medieval Italy: An Encyclopedia. 2 vols. Edited by Christopher Kleinhenz. New York, 2004: 1:393
- 2004
- Secrest, Meryle. Duveen: A Life in Art. New York, 2004: 438.
- 2004
- Skaug, Erling S. "Towards a Reconstruction of the Santa Maria degli Angeli Altarpiece of 1388: Agnolo Gaddi and Lorenzo Monaco?" Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz 48 (2004): 255.
- 2005
- Boskovits, Miklós, and Daniela Parenti, eds. Da Bernardo Daddi al Beato Angelico a Botticelli: dipinti fiorentini del Lindenau-Museum di Altenburg. Exh. cat. Museo di San Marco. Florence, 2005: 80.
- 2006
- Sander, Jochen. "The ‘Standard Altarpiece’ of the Gothic Period: The Polyptych." In Kult Bild: das Altar- und Andachtsbild von Duccio bis Perugino. Exh. cat. Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt am Main. Petersberg, 2006: 95, 96.
- 2008
- Löhr, Wolf-Dietrich, and Stefan Weppelmann, eds. Fantasie und Handwerk: Cennino Cennini und die Tradition der toskanischen Malerei von Giotto bis Lorenzo Monaco. Exh. cat. Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. Munich, 2008: 291.
- 2009
- Boskovits, Miklós, ed. The Alana Collection, Newark, Delaware, USA. Vol. 1 (of 2), Italian Paintings from the 13th to 15th Century. Florence, 2009: 1:4, repro. 10.
- 2009
- Damiani, Giovanna, ed. Le arti a Firenze tra gotico e Rinascimento. Exh. cat. Museo Archeologico, Aosta. Florence, 2009: 76.
- 2009
- Tartuferi, Angelo, ed. L’Oratorio di Santa Caterina all’Antella e i suoi pittori. Exh. cat. Santa Caterina dell’Antella, Bagno a Ripoli-Ponte a Ema. Florence, 2009: 159.
- 2010
- Boskovits, Miklós, and Daniela Parenti, eds. Cataloghi della Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze: Dipinti. Vol. 2, Il tardo Trecento: dalla tradizione orcagnesca agli esordi del gotico internazionale. Florence, 2010: 16.
- 2011
- Gordon, Dillian. The Italian Paintings Before 1400. National Gallery Catalogues. London, 2011: under 220, no. NG568.
- 2016
- Boskovits, Miklós. Italian Paintings of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries. The Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 2016: 121-130, color repro.
Technical Summary
This panel, along with its companions
Outlines of areas to be painted and drapery fold lines were further delineated with brushed
All three panels retain their original thickness. This one has two major splits, one running from the lower edge into the mantle of the Virgin, the other diagonally across the wing of the uppermost right-hand angel. Saint Andrew and Saint Benedict has cracks caused by the removal of the original intermediate frame. Saint Bernard and Saint Catherine has a split at the lower edge and another in the frame to the left of and above the Virgin Annunciate in the gable medallion. Worm tunneling is present in all three panels, but it is most extensive in the side planks of Saint Andrew and Saint Benedict and Madonna and Child Enthroned as well as in the gables of all three panels. There is minor