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Home>Collection>Madonna and Child with Saint Anthony Abbot and Saint Sigismund

Provenance

Left altar of the church of the former Hospital of San Bartolommeo, Rapolano (Siena), by 1865;[1] Ireneo Magi, mayor of Rapolano, by 1910;[2] (Elia Volpi [1858-1938], Florence), by March 1925; (Robert Langton Douglas [1864-1951], London);[3] Arthur Sachs [1880-1975], New York, by February 1931;[4] sold March 1943 through (Jacques Seligmann & Co., New York) and (Moses & Singer) to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[5] gift 1952 to NGA.

[1] The panel was described there by Francesco Brogi (Inventario generale degli oggetti d'arte della Provincia di Siena, 2nd ed., Siena, 1897 [originally 1865]); however, its size leads one to suspect that it was originally destined for the main altar of a church. The fact that it was cut and reframed strongly suggests it provenance from a different altar, and the absence of Saint Bartholomew among those depicted makes it likely that it was painted for a different church.

The Ospedale dei Poveri di San Bartolomeo, already in existance in 1297, was suppressed around 1760; its possessions were put up for sale and the church given to the Ospedale della Scala in Siena (see Enzo Lecchini and Sandro Rossolini, Un popolo, un castello. Storia delle Serre di Rapolano, Siena, 1993: 479-483). It cannot be excluded that the painting came to Rapolano only after this date, through the Spedale della Scala.

[2] There is some confusion concerning the exact whereabouts and ownership of NGA 1952.5.17 in the early years of the 20th century. There is no reason to doubt that Edward Hutton (Sienna and Southern Tuscany, London, 1910: 200) did in fact find it "after much search...in the Syndic's house." The syndic (or rather mayor) was at that time Ireneo Magi, and indeed both Pietro Rossi, "Neroccio di Bartolommeo Landi e la sua più grande tavola," Rassegna d'Arte Senese 5 (1909): 23, and Luigi Dami, "Neroccio di Bartolomeo Landi," Rassegna d'Arte Senese 13, no. 9 (September 1913): 161, name him as the owner. The latter also specifies that Joseph Breck, "Una pittura di Neroccio a Rapolano (Siena)," L'Arte15 (1912): 67, erroneously describes the panel at the Pievania delle Serre. Incorrectly, then, Robert Langton Douglas, A History of Siena, London, 1902: 385, no. 1, states that it was "in the possession of Sig. Mazzi," followed by Jules Destrée, Notes sur les primitives italiens: Sur Quelques peintures de Sienne, Brussels and Florence, 1903: 98, and incorrectly Bernard Berenson, The Central Italian Painters of the Renaissance, 2nd rev. ed., London and New York, 1909: 207, followed at first by Edward Hutton (in Joseph Archer Crowe and Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle, A New History of Painting in Italy, from the II to the XVI Century, 3rd ed., ed. Hutton, 3 vols., London and New York, 1908-1909: 3(1909):115 n. 6) and by Tancred Borenius (in Crowe and Cavalcaselle, A New History of Painting in Italy ..., 2nd ed., ed. Langton Douglas and Tancred Borenius, 6 vols., London, 1903-1914: 5(1914):159 n. 6), as well as by Lionello Venturi (Pitture italiane in America, Milan, 1931: pl. 236, note) and others, who claim that it is, or was, in the Pievania della Serre di Rapolano. It is also uncertain when the painting actually left the chapel of San Bartolomeo, where Magi apparently was patron of the left altar. Alfredo Liberti, "Rapolano," Bullettino Senese di Storia Patria, n.s. I (1930): 316, still believed it preserved in the chapel, and according to A. Rondini, Siena e la sua provincial. Guida annuario, Sancasciano, 1931: 702, it remained there "fino a poco tempo fa" ("until very recently"). Possibly it was removed in 1909; indeed Rossi 1909: 23, writes that the altarpiece "trovasi nella cappella di S. Bartolomeo del Sr. I. Magi" ("is located in Mr. I. Magi's chapel of Saint Bartholomew").

[3] According to a handwritten note on a photograph of the painting in the Frick Art Reference Library in New York, the panel was privately owned in Rapolano when, in March 1925, it was purchased by Elia Volpi. It seems to have been sold through Robert Langton Douglas (see Denys Sutton, "Robert Langton Douglas. Part III," Apollo CIX, no. 208 [June 1979]: 463, 465).

[4] See Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 26 (April 1931): 105: "List of accessions and loans, February 6 to March 5...Lent by Arthur Sachs." Later ("Francesco dio Giorgio, Neroccio: Two Madonnas and an Altarpiece," The Burlington Magazine 75 [December 1939]: 235) John Pope-Hennessy mentions the painting as being in the Sachs collection.

[5] The painting is recorded as being with the dealer Jacques Seligman in New York by Shapley 1966, 155, and in Germain Seligman, Merchants of Art: 1880-1960, Eighty Years of Professional Collecting, New York, 1961: pl. 86. According to Seligmann files, the firm did not own the picture but acted for Sachs in its sale. (Seligmann Papers, Archives of American Art, Series 2.1, Collectors Files, Box 204, folder 1, copy in NGA curatorial files). The bill of sale to the Kress Foundation for two paintings, dated 25 March 1943 and including Neroccio's "The Rapolano Altarpiece: Madonna with Anthony Abbot and Hermengildus," is on Moses & Singer letterhead and indicates that the sale is from "Mr. Arthur Sachs c/o Moses & Singer" (copy in NGA curatorial files). See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/1366.

Exhibition History

1931
Loan for display with permanent collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1931-1934.
1946
Recent Additions to the Kress Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1946, no. 813.

Bibliography

1897
Brogi, Francesco. Inventario generale degli oggetti d’arte della Provincia di Siena. 2nd ed. Siena, 1897 [1862-1885]: 460.
1902
Douglas, Robert Langton. A History of Siena. London, 1902: 385 n. 1.
1903
Crowe, Joseph Archer, and Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle. A History of Painting in Italy. 6 vols. Ed. Robert Langton Douglas (vols. 1-4) and Tancred Borenius (vols. 5-6). London, 1903-1914: 5(1914):159 n. 6.
1903
Destrée, Jules. Notes sur les primitifs italiens: Sur quelques peintures de Sienne. Brussels and Florence, 1903: 98.
1908
Crowe, Joseph Archer, and Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle. A New History of Painting in Italy from the Second to the Sixteenth Century. 3 vols. Ed. Edward Hutton. London and New York, 1908-1909: 3(1909):115 n. 6.
1909
Berenson, Bernard. The Central Italian Painters of the Renaissance. New York, 1909: 207.
1909
Rossi, Pietro. “Neroccio di Bartolomeo Landi e la sua più grande tavola.” Rassegna d’arte senese 5 (1909): 23 n.
1910
Hutton, Edward. Siena and Southern Tuscany. London, 1910: 200.
1912
Breck, Joseph. “Una pittura di Neroccio a Rapolano (Siena).” L’Arte 15 (1912): 67-68, repro.
1913
Dami, Luigi. “Neroccio di Bartolomeo Landi.” Rassegna d’arte 13, no. 9 (September 1913): 161.
1923
Marle, Raimond van. The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting. 19 vols. The Hague, 1923-1938: 16(1937):308.
1930
Liberti, Alfredo. “Rapolano.” Bullettino senese di storia patria, N.S. 1 (1930): 316.
1931
“List of Accessions and Loans, February 6 to March 5…Lent by Arthur Sachs.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 26 (April 1931): 105.
1931
Rondini, A. Siena e la sua provincia. Guida annuario. San Casciano, 1931: 702.
1932
Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: A List of the Principal Artists and Their Works with an Index of Places. Oxford, 1932: 390.
1932
Edgell, George Harold. A History of Sienese Painting. New York, 1932: 248, fig. 365.
1933
Venturi, Lionello. Italian Paintings in America. Translated by Countess Vanden Heuvel and Charles Marriott. 3 vols. New York and Milan, 1933: 2:pl. 310.
1936
Berenson, Bernard. Pitture italiane del rinascimento. Milan, 1936: 335.
1939
Pope-Hennessy, John. “Francesco di Giorgio, Neroccio: Two Madonnas and an Altarpiece.” The Burlington Magazine 75 (December 1939): 235.
1944
Frankfurter, Alfred M. The Kress Collection in the National Gallery. New York, 1944: 22, repro., as Madonna and Child with St. Anthony Abbot and St. Hermengildus.
1944
Pope-Hennessy, John. “The Development of Realistic Painting in Siena-II.” The Burlington Magazine 84, no. 495 (June 1944): 144.
1945
Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1945 (reprinted 1947, 1949): 52, repro., as Madonna and Child with Saints.
1946
Douglas, Robert Langton. "Recent Additions to the Kress Collection." The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 88 (1946): 81.
1948
Weller, Allen. “Review of John Pope-Hennessy, Sienese Quattrocento Painting (1947).” College Art Journal 7, no. 3 (1948): 246.
1959
Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 82, repro., as Madonna and Child with Saints.
1961
Coor, Gertrude. Neroccio de' Landi, 1447-1500. Princeton, 1961: 9, 67 n. 221, 96-97, 99, 104, 122, 192, 195, fig. 72.
1961
Seligman, Germain. Merchants of Art: 1880-1960, Eighty Years of Professional Collecting. New York, 1961: repro. pl. 86.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 96.
1966
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XIII-XV Century. London, 1966: 155-156, fig. 421.
1967
Szabó, George. “Emperor Sigismund with St. Sigismund and St. Ladislaus: Notes on a Fifteenth-Century Austrian Drawing.” Master Drawings 5, no. 1 (1967): 27, fig. 5.
1968
Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Central Italian and North Italian Schools. 3 vols. London, 1968: 1:293.
1968
National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 85, repro.
1972
Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, MA, 1972: 148, 646.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 254, repro.
1979
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:344-345; 2:pl. 251.
1979
Sutton, Denys. "Robert Langton Douglas. Part III." Apollo 109 (June 1979): 463 [181] fig. 36, 465 [183].
1983
Pope-Hennessy, John. “Die Maler von Siena.” Du 5 (1983): 95.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 80, no. 32, color repro.
1985
Cole, Bruce. Sienese Painting in the Age of the Renaissance. Bloomington, IN, 1985: 112-114.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 292, repro.
1988
Wheeler, Marion. His Face: Images of Christ in Art, New York, 1988: no. 12, repro.
1993
Maccherini, Michele. “Neroccio di Bartolomeo de’ Landi.” In Luciano Bellosi, ed. Francesco di Giorgio e il Rinascimento a Siena 1450-1500. Exh. cat. Chiesa di Sant’Agostino, Siena, 1993: 527.
1994
Kanter, Laurence. Italian Paintings in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. I. 13th-15th Century. Boston, 1994: 199.
1996
Gardner, Genetta. “Neroccio de’ Landi.” In Jane Turner, ed. The Dictionary of Art. 34 vols. New York and London, 1996: 18:698.
1998
Apostolos-Cappadona, Diane. "Virgin/Virginity." In Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography: Themes Depicted in Works of Art. Ed. Helene E. Roberts. 2 vols. Chicago, 1998: 2:905.
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: 540-543, color repro.
2008
Del Bravo, Carlo. “Significati d’opere di Neroccio.” Artista (2008): 28.
2015
Sallay, Dóra. Corpus of Sienese Paintings in Hungary 1420-1510. Florence, 2015: 165 n. 15, 179.

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