Saint Apollonia Destroys a Pagan Idol

c. 1442/1445

Giovanni d'Alemagna

Painter, German, Venetian, 1400 - 1450

A woman climbs a ladder propped against a tall base of a white stone sculpture with a sledgehammer over one shoulder in this vertical, arched painting. The statue stands in a narrow town square hemmed in with buildings on each side. About a dozen people look on from the ground and from a balcony to our right. All the people have pale skin and wear dresses, robes, or cloaks in topaz blue, red, harvest yellow, or black. The base of the statue is twice as tall as any of the onlookers, and the statue atop is life sized. The base has eagles standing astride garlands, with flame-like leaves flaring above their heads. The statue is of a nude male with chin-length hair. He holds a gold staff in one hand and what appears to be a branch in the other. The woman climbing the ladder wears a carnation-pink dress, a gold crown, and has a gold, disk-like halo. Two more women brace the foot of the ladder, and another stands nearby. The three-story building behind them has a white façade with a carved, pink entablature across the top of the first level. More women and men gather to our right in front of a terracotta-orange building with a wide, arch opening on the ground level. Four women look down from a balcony on the second level. The face of that building is carved over the door to read, “EVSEBIV.” A tree grows beyond an enclosing wall at the far side of the square, between the buildings, beneath an azure-blue sky.

Media Options

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On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 13

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    tempera on poplar panel

  • Credit Line

    Samuel H. Kress Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 59.4 x 34.7 cm (23 3/8 x 13 11/16 in.)
    framed: 63.8 x 40.8 x 5.4 cm (25 1/8 x 16 1/16 x 2 1/8 in.)

  • Accession

    1939.1.7

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Rome), by July 1926;[1] purchased April 1927 by Samuel H. Kress [1863-1955], New York;[2] gift 1939 to NGA.
[1] The expertise for this painting is dated 16 July 1926, issued by Georg Gronau (copy in NGA curatorial files) in all probability at the request of Count Contini Bonacossi, who began to sell painting to Samuel H. Kress around that time; see Dizionario biografico degli italiani, Rome, 1983: 28:524.
[2] The bill of sale for eight paintings, including "A panel representing Scene from the Life of St. Catherine by Antonio Vivarini," is dated 6 April 1927 (copy in NGA curatorial files. See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/1800).

Associated Names

Bibliography

1940

  • Suida, Wilhelm. "Die Sammlung Kress: New York." Pantheon 26 (1940): 274.

1941

  • Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 212, no. 118, as Saint Catherine Casting Down a Pagan Idol.

1942

  • Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 241, repro. 206, as St. Catherine Casting Down a Pagan Idol.

1946

  • Longhi, Roberto. Viatico per cinque secoli di pittura veneziana. Florence, 1946: 50-51, pl. 26, as by Antonio Vivarini.

  • Pallucchini, Rodolfo. I capolavori dei musei veneti. Catalogo illustrato della mostra. Venice, 1946: 58, as by Antonio Vivarini.

  • Kunstschätze der Lombardei: 500 vor Christus – 1800 nach Christus. Exh. cat. Kunsthaus, Zurich, 1948: 229, as by Antonio Vivarini.

1948

  • Fiocco, Giuseppe. "Le pitture venete del castello di Konopiste." Arte Veneta 2 (1948): 25-27, fig. 26, as by the Master of the Martyrs (Dello Dello?).

1953

  • Coletti, Luigi. La pittura veneta del Quattrocento. Novara, 1953: XXVIII, pl. 50b, as Workshop of Domenico Veneziano.

1954

  • Godfrey, Frederick M. Early Italian Painters, 1415-1495. London, 1954: 12, pl. 17.

1955

  • Ottino della Chiesa, Angela. Accademia Carrara. Bergamo, 1955: 48, as Antonio Vivarini (?).

1956

  • Pallucchini, Rodolfo. La pittura veneta del Quattrocento. Il gotico internazionale e gli Inizi del Rianscimento. Lectures, University of Bologna, 1955-1956: 250-251, as by Antonio Vivarini.

1957

  • Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Venetian School. 2 vols. London, 1957: 1:200, as by Antonio Vivarini.

  • Martini, Alberto. “Spigolature venete.” Arte Veneta 11 (1957): 53, as by Antonio Vivarini.

1959

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 127, repro., as Saint Catherine Casting Down a Pagan Idol.

  • Röthlisberger, Marcel. “Studi su Jacopo Bellini.” Saggi e memorie di Storia dell’Arte 2 (1958-1959): 70-71, as by Antonio Vivarini.

  • Fiocco, Giuseppe. L’Arte di Andrea Mantegna. Venice, 1959: 36-38, pl. 43, as by the Master of the Martyrs (Dello Dello?).

1961

  • Zeri, Federico. Due dipinti, la filologia e un nome. Turin, 1961: 30 n. 1.

  • Pallucchini, Rodolfo. I Vivarini (Antonio, Bartolomeo, Alvise). Venice, 1961: 98-99, pl. 26, as by Antonio Vivarini.

1963

  • Marini, Remigio. “I Vivarini e il vivarinismo.” Emporium 138 (November 1963): 196, 207 n. 8.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 136, as Saint Catherine Casting Down a Pagan Idol.

1966

  • D’Arcais, Francesca. Antonio Vivarini. I Maestri del colore. Milan, 1966: pl. 8, as by Antonio Vivarini.

  • Fiocco, Giuseppe. “Il mito di Dello Delli.” In Arte in Europa. Scritti di storia dell’arte in onore di Edoardo Arslan. 2 vols. Milan, 1966: 1:343-344, 345-356, 349 nn. 7, 11, as by the Master of the Martyrs (Dello Delli?).

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 124, repro., as Saint Catherine Casting Down a Pagan Idol.

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XV-XVI Century. London, 1968: 31, fig. 70.

1971

  • Zeri, Frederico. "Un 'San Gerolamo' firmato di Giovanni d'Alemagna." In Studi di storia dell'arte in onore di Antonio Morassi. Venice, 1971: 47-48.

1972

  • Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, MA, 1972: 210, 645.

1975

  • Bisogni, Fabio. "The Martyrdoms of St. Apollonia in Four Quattrocento Panels." Studies in the History of Art 7 (1975): 41-47, color repro.

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 368, repro., as Saint Catherine Casting Down a Pagan Idol.

1976

  • Zeri, Federico. Italian Paintings in the Walters Art Gallery. 2 vols. Baltimore, 1976: 238, 239.

  • Passamani, Bruno. Guida al Museo civico di Bassano. Bassano, 1975: 39, as by Antonio Vivarini.

1978

  • Delaney, Bradley J. “Antonio Vivarini and the Florentine Tradition.” Commentari 29 (1978): 89-90, as by Antonio Vivarini.

1979

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. Washington, 1979: 1:537-538; 2:pl. 374, as Attributed to Antonio Vivarini, Saint Apollonia Destroys an Idol.

  • Rossi, Francesco. La Galleria dell’Accademia in Bergamo. Rome, 1979: 27, as by Antonio Vivarini.

  • Magagnato, Licisco. Il Museo Civico di Bassano del Grappa. Vicenza, 1979: 116.

1980

  • Wohl, Hellmut. The Paintings of Domenico Veneziano. Oxford, 1980: 142-143, pl. 175.

1982

  • Steer, John. Alvise Vivarini: His Art and Influence. Cambridge, 1982: 654.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 426, repro.

1987

  • Borngässer, Barbara. “Die Apsisdekoration der alten Kathedrale zu Salamanca und die Gebrüder Delli aus Florenz.” Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorichen Institutes von Florenz 31, nos. 2-3 (1987): 282, as Circle of Antonio Vivarini.

1988

  • Boskovits, Miklós, ed. Arte in Lombardia tra Gotico e Rinascimento. Exh. cat. Palazzo Reale, Milan, 1988: 272, 274, 275.

1989

  • Merkel, Ettore. “Venezia, 1430-1450.” In Mauro Lucco, ed. La pittura nel Veneto. Il Quattrocento. 2 vols. Milan, 1989-1990: 1(1989):71-72, fig. 88, as by Antonio Vivarini.

1990

  • Degenhart, Bernhard, and Annegrit Schmitt. Corpus der italienischen Zeichnungen 1300 -1450. Berlin, 1990: part 2, 6:369, fig. 357, as by Antonio Vivarini.

1991

  • Chastel, André. “Il ritorno degli dei: idoli e Rinascimento.” FMR 85 (1991): 101, repro.

1992

  • De Marchi, Andrea. Gentile da Fabriano: Un viaggio nella pittura italiana alla fine del gotico. Milan, 1992: 219 n. 7.

  • Fortini Brown, Patricia. “The Antiquarianism of Jacopo Bellini.” Artibus et Historiae 26 (1992): 77-78, 84 n. 48, fig. 15, as by Antonio Vivarini.

1996

  • Castelfranchi Vegas, Liana. L’arte del Quattrocento in Italia e in Europa. Milan, 1996: 286, as by Antonio Vivarini.

1997

  • Morel, Philippe, Daniel Arasse, and Mario D’Onofrio. L’Art italien. Paris, 1997: 297, pl. 323, as by Antonio Vivarini.

1999

  • Hills, Paul. Venetian Colour: Marble, Mosaic, Painting and Glass 1250-1550. New Haven and London, 1999: 97-98, fig. 120.

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: 316-323, color repro.

  • Gregori, Mina, ed. In the Light of Apollo: Italian Renaissance and Greece. 2 vols. Exh. cat. National Gallery and Alexandros Souzos Museum, Athens, 2003-2004: 1:133, fig. 2, as by Antonio Vivarini.

  • Holgate, Ian. “Giovanni d’Alemagna, Antonio Vivarini and the Early History of the Ovetari Chapel.” Artibus et Historiae 24 (2003): 15-22, fig. 10.

2011

  • Casu, Stefano G. The Pittas Collection: Early Italian Painting (1200-1530). Florence, 2011: 74.

2014

  • Cavalli, Carlo. “La Madonna in trono con Gesù Bambino nella chiesa di San Tomaso Becket a Padova.” In Carlo Cavalli and Andrea Nante, eds. La Madonna in trono con Gesù Bambino di Antonio Vivarini e Giovanni d’Alemagna. Storia e restauro. Exh. cat. Museo Diocesano, Padua, 2014: 39, fig. 11, as Giovanni d’Alemagna (?).

  • Favaron, Elisabetta. “Appunti sulle iscrizioni dipinte.” In Carlo Cavalli and Andrea Nante, eds. La Madonna in trono con Gesù Bambino di Antonio Vivarini e Giovanni d’Alemagna. Storia e restauro. Exh. cat. Museo Diocesano, Padua, 2014: 61, fig. 6, as Giovanni d’Alemagna (?).

2016

  • Gelao, Clara, Franca Lugato, and Giovanni Valagussa, eds. I Vivarini: Lo splendore della pittura tra Gotico e Rinascimento. Exh. cat. Palazzo Sarcinelli, Conegliano, 2016: 133.

2018

  • Valagussa, Giovanni, ed. Accademia Carrara, Bergamo. Dipinti italiani del Trecento e del Quattrocento: Catalogo completo. Milan, 2018: 225-227, fig. 2.

  • De Marchi, Andrea. "Chiarezza di Antonio Vivarini narratore." In Mattia Vinco. Antonio Vivarini in San Zanipolo a Venezia. Florence, 2018: 5.

2019

  • Spicer, Joaneath. "The Abduction of Helen: A Monumental Series Celebrating the Wedding of Caterina Corner in 1468." The Journal of the Walters Art Museum 74 (2019): n. 172.

2023

  • Müller, Rebecca. Die Vivarini: Bildproduktion in Venedig 1440 bis 1505. Regensburg, 2023: 13, 61, 338 n. 144, 348, 366-367, 430, figs. 11, 174.

Inscriptions

upper right on balcony parapet: EVSEBIV[S]

Wikidata ID

Q20173613

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