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Master of the Osservanza (Sano di Pietro?)

The Death of Saint Anthony, c. 1430/1435

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 3

Medium

tempera on poplar panel

Dimensions

painted surface: 36.2 x 38.1 cm (14 1/4 x 15 in.)
overall size: 37.5 x 39.4 cm (14 3/4 x 15 1/2 in.)

framed: 52.1 x 54 x 7.6 cm (20 1/2 x 21 1/4 x 3 in.)

Credit Line

Samuel H. Kress Collection

Accession Number

1952.5.73

Artists / Makers

Master of the Osservanza (painter) Sienese, active late 1420s - early 1440s

Sano di Pietro (painter) Sienese, 1405 - 1481

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Provenance

Private collection, Rome; (Sestieri's, Rome); (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Florence); sold July 1948 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[1] gift 1952 to NGA.

[1] The Kress Foundation made an offer to Contini Bonacossi on 7 June 1948 for a group of twenty-eight paintings, including The Death of Saint Anthony; the offer was accepted on 11 July 1948 (see copies of correspondence in NGA curatorial files, see also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/2141).

Associated Names

Contini Bonacossi, Alessandro, Count
Kress Foundation, Samuel H.
Sestieri's

Exhibition History

1988: Painting in Renaissance Siena, 1420-1500, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1988-1989, no. 10h, repro., as The Funeral of Saint Anthony by the Master of the Osservanza.

2005: Masterpieces in Miniature: Italian Manuscript Illumination from the J. Paul Getty Museum, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2005-2006, not in brochure.

2010: Da Jacopo della Quercia a Donatello. Le Arti a Siena nel Primo Rinascimento, Complesso Museale Santa Maria della Scala, Siena, 2010, no. C.34h, repro.

Bibliography

1951: Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1945-1951. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1951: 46, repro., as The Obsequies of St. Anthony Abbot by Master of the Osservanza Altarpiece.

1956: Pope-Hennessy, John. "Rethinking Sassetta." The Burlington Magazine98 (October 1956): 365, 368, no. 29, 369-370.

1959: Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 42, repro., as by Sassetta.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 120, as by Sassetta and Assistant.

1966: Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XIII-XV Century. London, 1966: 141-143, fig. 382.

1968: Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Central Italian and North Italian Schools. 3 vols. London, 1968: 1:254.

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

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 320, repro., as by Sassetta and Assistant.

1979: Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:319-323; 2:pl. 233, as Master of the Osservanza Triptych.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 80, no. 29, color repro.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 368, repro.

1993: Gagliardi, Jacques. La conquête de la peinture: L’Europe des ateliers du XIIIe au XVe siècle. Paris, 1993: 402.

2003: Boskovits, Miklós, David Alan Brown, et al. Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century. The Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 2003: 481-495, color repro., as by Master of the Osservanza (Sano di Pietro).

2012: Bellosi, Luciano. "Considerazioni introduttive al problema dell'identificazione tra il "Maestro dell'Osservanza" e Sano di Pietro." In Gabriele Fattorini et. al., eds. Sano di Pietro: Qualità, devozione e pratica nella pittura senese del Quattrocento. Giornate di studio nel sesto centenario della nascita. Siena 5 dicembre 2005 – Asciano 6 dicembre 2005. Milan, 2012: 44.

2012: De Marchi, Andrea. "Sano di Pietro prima della Pala dei Gesuati e il "Maestro dell'Osservanza": aporie di una doppia identità." In Gabriele Fattorini et. al., eds. Sano di Pietro: Qualità, devozione e pratica nella pittura senese del Quattrocento. Giornate di studio nel sesto centenario della nascita. Siena 5 dicembre 2005 – Asciano 6 dicembre 2005. Milan, 2012: 62-65, figs. 37-38.

2023: Kondziella, Martha. Sodoma: Die Tafel- und Leinwanbilder. Merzhausen, 2023: 167-168, fig. 135.