Saint Benedict Orders Saint Maurus to the Rescue of Saint Placidus

c. 1445/1450

Fra Filippo Lippi

Painter, Florentine, c. 1406 - 1469

Two men are situated inside a coral-red building that fills the left two-thirds of this composition, and two men are shown in a body of water in a landscape to our right in this horizontal painting. The building recedes sharply into the space of the landscape without seeming to be part of it, and the men in the water seem a little too large in relation to the pool, trees, and the building to our left. The men all have pale skin and wear ivory-white robes. The red, arched building spans the entire height of the painting. Inside, a bearded man with a halo sits on a bench facing our right in profile as he holds up his right hand toward the cleanshaven man kneeling in front of him. Short, gold rays emanate from the younger man’s shoulders as he looks up at the older man with his hands tucked into his voluminous sleeves. In the landscape to our right, the two people both have blond hair and halos. One, either a man or a younger boy, seems to kneel in the pool, filling a pitcher with water. He turns to look toward the man standing behind him, who leans over and touches his shoulders. Trees with triangular canopies of dark green leaves have thin, spindly trunks placed regularly across the background with a few on the grassy ground closer to us.

Media Options

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On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 4

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    tempera on panel

  • Credit Line

    Samuel H. Kress Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 40 x 69.5 cm (15 3/4 x 27 3/8 in.)
    framed: 49.5 x 79.4 x 6 cm (19 1/2 x 31 1/4 x 2 3/8 in.)

  • Accession

    1952.5.10

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Part of a predella, possibly that of the main altarpiece of the church of San Bernardo in Arezzo, which was subsequently removed from the altar and dismembered, but remained in the adjacent monastery of the Olivetans until at least 1767.[1] probably Michele Cavaleri, Milan, by the mid-nineteenth century or later;[2] acquired 1873 by Enrico (Henri) Cernuschi [1821-1896], Paris and Menton.[3] Édouard Aynard [1837-1913], Lyons, by 1900;[4] (his sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 1-4 December 1913, 1st day, no. 52); Hoentschel.[5] Mme Douine, Château de la Boissière, Seine-et-Oise; (Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York); sold December 1942 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[6] gift 1952 to NGA.
[1] In an important essay, Jeffrey Ruda ("Style and Patronage in the 1440s: Two Altarpieces of the Coronation of the Virgin by Filippo Lippi," MittKIF 28 [1984]: 384) succeeded in identifying the altar panel, then still in its original frame and considered a single piece, in a 1767 inventory of the monastery of San Bernardo (Archivio di Stato, Florence, Compagnie Religiose Soppresse in Arezzo, B. XLVIII, no. 10, f. 190r.). In 1782 the Olivetans were transferred to the monastery of Santa Maria in Grado, also in Arezzo, and three years later their new house was suppressed and its belongings dispersed. The Coronation probably remained in the city in private hands, perhaps until 1842 when it was purchased by Pope Gregory XVI from the Aretine merchant Carlo Baldesci (see Jeffrey Ruda, Fra Filippo Lippi. Life and Work with a Complete Catalogue, London, 1993: 418). Robert Oertel, Fra Filippo Lippi, Vienna, 1942: 67, and other scholars linked the execution of the altar panel to the death of Gregorio Marsuppin (represented knealing on the other side), who commissioned the painting. Gregorio, a famous jurist, died in 1444; this date can be considered a probable terminus post quem for the commission.
[2] That the painting came from the Cavaleri collection is only a hypothesis. Apparently no complete list has ever been published of the paintings in that collection. A. Mazzoleni (Il Museo Cavaleri, Milan, 1870) and Giuseppe Ferrari (Il Museo Cavaleri, Milan, 1871) limit themselves to citing just some of the works, for the most part Lombard, and referring to the presence of Tuscan paintings. A Milanese lawyer, Michele Cavaleri began collecting around 1845 and from 1870 on opened to the public what by then had come to be called the Cavaleri Museum. The owner hoped that the collection would be purchased by the city of Milan, but when negotiations fell through, he sold the entire collection to Enrico Cernuschi on 13 April 1873 (see Alessandra Mottola Molfino, "Collezionismo e mercato artistico a Milano," Zenale e Leonardo. Tradizione e rinnovamento della pittura lombarda, Milan, 1982: 247-248).
[3] On the provenance from the Cernuschi collection see Fern Rusk Shapley, Catalogue of the Italian Paintings, 2 vols., Washington, D.C., 1979: 1:264, and the Getty Provenance Index. As Cernuschi otherwise collected mainly objects of Asian art (see Caroline Gyss-Vermande, "Cernuschi, Henri," in Dictionary of Art, 1996: 6:345), one may surmise that he obtained his early Italian paintings from the Cavaleri collection; see note 2. Lippi's panel is not listed in the sale catalogue for the collection (Catalogue des tableaux anciens des écoles primitives..., Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 25-26 May 1900). It seems likely that the painting was sold privately sometime earlier, probaby after the collector's death in 1896.
[4] On this collection, see Jean-François Garmier, "Le Goût du moyen-âge chez les collectionneurs lyonnais du XIXe siècle," RArt 47 (1980): 59, 64 n. 153.
[5] According to annotated copies of the Aynard sale catalogue and a newspaper account of the sale (copies in NGA curatorial files), in one of which the name is also spelled Hoentchell. A letter of 17 April 1979 from Jean-François Garmier spells the name Hohentchell (in NGA curatorial files). It is possible the buyer was Georges Hoentschel (1855-1915), a collector in Paris, who made other purchases at the Aynard sale.
[6] The sales agreement for eleven paintings, including "Scenes from the Life of St. Benoit" by Fra Filippo Lippi, between Wildenstein & Co. and the Kress Foundation is dated 31 December 1942 (copy in NGA curatorial files). See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/1804.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1946

  • Recent Additions to the Kress Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1946, no. 804.

Bibliography

1909

  • Berenson, Bernard. The Florentine Painters of the Renaissance, 3rd ed. London, 1909: 151.

1913

  • “La Collection Édouard Aynard.” La Chronique des Arts et de la curiosité 35 (22 November 1913): 279, 287.

1914

  • Bode, Wilhelm von. “Der Versteiherung der Sammlung Edouard Aynard in Paris.” Kunstmarkt 11 (1914): 122.

1923

  • Marle, Raimond van. The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting. 19 vols. The Hague, 1923-1938: 10(1928):459 n. 2.

1932

  • Berenson, Bernard. “Quadri senza casa: il Quattrocento fiorentino – 1” Dedalo 12, no. 7 (1932): 539, 540, repro.

1940

  • Paatz, Walter, and Elisabeth Paatz. Die Kirchen von Florenz: ein kunstgeschichtliches Handbuch. 6 vols. Frankfurt am Main, 1940-1954: 4:353 n. 26.

1942

  • Oertel, Robert. Fra Filippo Lippi. Vienna, 1942: 66, 68, pl. 51.

1944

  • Frankfurter, Alfred M. The Kress Collection in the National Gallery. New York, 1944: 29, repro.

1945

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1945 (reprinted 1947, 1949): 33, repro.

1946

  • Comstock, Helen. “Installation of Recent Additions to the Kress Collection.” Connoissuer 118 (September 1946): 38.

1947

  • Italian Paintings. Exh. cat. Wildenstein and Company, New York, 1947: n.p. [5].

1949

  • Pittaluga, Mary. Fra Filippo Lippi. Florence, 1949: 194, fig. 53.

1951

  • Frankfurter, Alfred. "Washington: Celebration Evaluation." Art News 50 (April, 1951): 89.

1952

  • Frankfurter, Alfred M. "Interpreting Masterpieces: Twenty-four Paintings from the Kress Collection." Art News Annual 16 (1952): 89, repro. 86

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Great Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1952: 20, color repro.

1954

  • Ferguson, George. Signs and Symbols in Christian Art. New York, 1954: fig. 60.

1957

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): pl. 15.

1959

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 53, repro.

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: 29, repro., color repro. pl. 25.

1963

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 299, repro.

  • Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Florentine School. 2 vols. London, 1963: 1:114.

  • Zeri, Federico. “La mostra ‘L’arte in Valdelsa’ a Certaldo.” Bollettino d’Arte 48 (1963): 249.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 76.

1966

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 1:28, color repro.

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XIII-XV Century. London, 1966: 107-108, fig. 290, 292.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 67, repro.

1970

  • Berenson, Bernard. "Fra Angelico, Fra Filippo and theri Chronology." In Bernard Berenson. Homeless Paintings of the Renaissance. Ed. Hanna Kiel. London and Bloomington, IN, 1970: 168, fig. 295, frontispiece.

1971

  • Zeri, Federico, with Elizabeth Gardner. Italian Paintings. A Catalogue of the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Florentine School. New York, 1971: 87-88.

1972

  • Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, MA, 1972: 107, 646.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 196, repro.

  • Marchini, Giuseppe. Filippo Lippi. Milan, 1975: 14, 26, 97-98, 166, 168, 205, cat. 25, pl. 46.

1979

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:264-265; 2:pl. 180.

1980

  • Garmier, Jean-François. "Le Goût du moyen-âge chez les collectionneurs lyonnais du XIXe siècle." Revue de l'Art 47 (1980): 59, 64 n. 153.

  • Verdon, Timothy. Monastic Themes in Renaissance Art: A Walking Tour of Italian Paintings and Sculpture in the National Gallery. Washington, 1980: n.p. [15-16], repro.

  • Wohl, Hellmut. The Paintings of Domenico Veneziano. Oxford, 1980: 18.

1982

  • Ruda, Jeffery. Filippo Lippi Studies: Naturalism, Style, and Iconography in Early Renaissance Art. New York, 1982: 127 n. 8.

1983

  • Rowlands, Eliot W. “Filippo Lippi’s Stay in Padua and Its Impact on His Art.” Ph.D. diss., Rutgers University, 1983: 195 n. 361.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 86, no. 43, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 230, repro.

1986

  • Tozzini Cellai, Valeria. L’arte del Rinascimento: Filippo Lippi. Prato, 1986: 168-169, no. 40.

1991

  • Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 6, color repro.

1993

  • Ruda, Jeffrey. Fra Filippo Lippi: Life and Work with a Complete Catalogue. London, 1993: 177-182, 413-414, 446, 487, pls. 100, 101, 251.

1997

  • Mannini, Maria Pia, and Marco Fagioli. Filippo Lippi: Catalogo completo. Florence, 1997: 105-106, 107, cat. 27.

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: 410-415, color repro.

Wikidata ID

Q3946834

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