Grifo di Tancredi

Italian, active 1271 - 1303 (or possibly 1328)

Explore Selected Works

Grifo di Tancredi, Saint James Major, c. 1310, tempera on panel, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.2.c

Saint James Major

Grifo di Tancredi · c. 1310 · tempera on panel ·  Accession ID  1937.1.2.c

Grifo di Tancredi, Saint Peter, c. 1310, tempera on panel, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.2.a

Saint Peter

Grifo di Tancredi · c. 1310 · tempera on panel ·  Accession ID  1937.1.2.a

Shown from the waist up, a pale-skinned man with long, honey-blond hair and beard faces us in front of a gold background in this vertical painting. The man has a long face and nose, with closed peach-colored lips, which turn slightly down at the corners. Almond-shaped, hazel-brown eyes under arched brows stare over our left shoulder. His rose-pink robe is covered by a spruce-blue mantle that drapes over the left shoulder, on our right, and wraps around the waist. The robe and mantle are trimmed with gold. His right hand, on our left, is raised with the index and middle fingers extended up. The other hand holds an open book so the pages face us. The top edge of the pages is burnt orange, and the left and right edges are moss green. The side facing us is inscribed in gold letters, “ECO SUM LUX MUNDI.” A halo incised into the gold background surrounds the man’s head, and clusters of five dots in dark red, blue, and black are placed at the top and to either side within the halo. The panel on which this is painted has a five-sided, angular arch on top that frames the man’s head. A border within the frame has a pattern of gray circles and scarlet-red diamonds against a navy-blue band. The border follows the contours of the panel but runs behind the man’s body, as if he stands in front of it. The panel is framed with dark wood.
Grifo di Tancredi, Christ Blessing, c. 1310, tempera on panel, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.2.b

Christ Blessing

Grifo di Tancredi · c. 1310 · tempera on panel ·  Accession ID  1937.1.2.b

Bibliography

1960

  • Dizionario biografico degli italiani. Edited by Alberto Maria Ghisalberti. 79+ vols. Rome, 1960+: 59(2002):387-399.

1992

  • Chiodo, Sonia. "Grifo di Tancredi." In Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: die bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker Edited by Günther Meissner. 83+ vols, Munich and Leipzig, 1983+: 62(2009):129-131.

1999

  • Bagemihl, Rolf. “Some Thoughts About Grifo di Tancredi of Florence and a Little-Known Panel at Volterra.” Arte Cristiana 87 (1999): 413-426.

2016

  • Boskovits, Miklós. Italian Paintings of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries. The Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 2016: 176.