The Death of Saint Anthony

c. 1430/1435

Master of the Osservanza

Painter, Sienese, active late 1420s - early 1440s

Sano di Pietro

Painter, Sienese, 1405 - 1481

Sixteen men and boys stand around a man lying on a bed, Saint Anthony, in this square painting. A seventeenth mourner kneels on our side of the bed and faces Saint Anthony. Some of the onlookers have their hair cut into rings around their heads, and others’ heads are covered by hoods. They all have pale skin tinged with green, and they wear robes in shades of black, smoky purple, brown, or cream white. A man at the foot of the bed wears a sky-blue robe edged with golden orange down the front as he reads from an open book. Two boys to the left wear white and black and hold tall candles, and a third man, wearing black, holds a cross on a high staff. Others hold candlesticks, walking sticks, books, or stand with hands clasped. Saint Anthony has a long white beard and wears a black hood and muted pink and black robe. One hand rests by his side, and the other rests on his chest. His eyes are closed, and his head is surrounded by a gold and red halo. The bed is draped with a vivid crimson-red cloth. The walls of the room are parchment white striped with mauve pink and black on the upper half. Arched windows and doorways open onto rooms and a courtyard with trees beyond this space. The floor is rose pink.

Media Options

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On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 3

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    tempera on poplar panel

  • Credit Line

    Samuel H. Kress Collection

  • 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.)

  • Accession

    1952.5.73

Artwork history & notes

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

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 Magazine_98 (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

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

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

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.

  • 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.

Wikidata ID

Q20173456

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