Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata

c. 1445/1450

Domenico Veneziano

Artist, Florentine, c. 1410 - 1461

In a landscape with chiseled, rocky mountains beyond a grassy meadow and stream, two men wearing dove-gray robes react to a flame-red cross in the sky in this nearly square painting. Both men have pale skin and their hair has been cut into a ring around each head. Their loose robes are cinched at the waist, and both have bare feet. The man to our left, with hands raised, kneels with his body angled to our right, facing the red cross in the sky, in the upper right corner of the painting. He has gray or blond hair and a flat gold halo edged with red. Five thin gold lines emanate from the red cross to touch the man’s hands, feet, and the right side of his chest. There is a red spot where one gold ray touches the palm of his right hand, closer to us. The second man, to our right, sits and leans back on one hand and holds his other hand to his brow as he looks up at the cross. He has dark hair. A small book with yellow pages and a red cover sits on the grass nearby. In the background, each of the three tall, pointed mountains nearly touch the top edge of the composition, and each is a different color, with icy, pale blue to our left, shell pink at the center, and light laurel green to our right. A stream running in front of the mountains turns a corner and comes our way in the lower right corner of the panel. The green meadow has a line of dark pine green trees and bushes behind the kneeling man and along the bottom left edge of the panel, near us. Wisps of white clouds float in the violet-purple sky above.

Media Options

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On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 4

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    tempera on poplar panel

  • Credit Line

    Samuel H. Kress Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 27.5 x 30.5 cm (10 13/16 x 12 in.)
    framed: 40.6 x 44.5 x 5.1 cm (16 x 17 1/2 x 2 in.)

  • Accession

    1939.1.140

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Main altar of the church of Santa Lucia de' Magnoli, Florence, probably until the early 18th century.[1] Sacristy of the same church, by 1728.[2] Third altar on the right of the nave of the same church, by 1762 and probably until the early 1800s.[3] Possibly Osvald Sirén [1879-1977], Stockholm; purchased 6 May 1921 by (Julius Böhler, Munich);[4] sold 17 September 1921 to (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Rome and Florence);[5] purchased December 1933 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[6] gift 1939 to NGA.
[1] The altarpiece is cited as being on the main altar (erroneously, as a work of Andrea del Castagno) by Giovanni Cinelli in Francesco Bocchi, Le bellezze della città di Firenze, ed. Giovanni Cinelli, Florence, 1677 (originally 1591): 280, reprinted Bologna, 1973. It was probably moved on the occasion of restoration work done in the church between 1712 and 1715 (see W. and E. Paatz, Die Kirchen von Florenz, Frankfurt am Main, 1941: 2:607).
[2] Cited as being there by Filippo Baldinucci, Notizie dei professori del disegno da Cimbaue in qua, ed. F. Ranalli, 5 vols., Florence, 1845-1847 (originally 6 vols., 1681-1728): 3:95 n. 1.
[3] The altarpiece was described there by both Giuseppe Richa, Notizie istoriche della chiese fiorentine), 10 vols., Florence, 1754-1762: 10(1762): 294, and Vincenzo Follini and Modesto Rastrelli, Firenze antica e moderna, 8 vols., Florence, 1789-1802: 8(1801):254). Among early writers, Luigi Lanzi (Storia pittorica della Italia, 3 vols., Bassano, 1795-1796: 1(1975):58) is the only one who mentions the predella, which at that time must still have been attached to the main panel. The fact that in 1827 the usually careful Rumohr, the first to read and transcribe the signature of Domenico Veneziano on the altarpiece, did not mention the predella, leads one to suppose that by this date it was no longer in the church. See Carl Friedrich von Rumohr, Italienische Forschungen, 3 vols., ed. by J. von Schlosser, Frankfurt am Main, 1920 (originally Berlin, 1827-1831): 387. In fact, Rumohr presumably saw the panel during his second stay in Italy, between 1816 and 1820. (See E. Sigismund, "R.C.F. Freiherr von Rumohr," in Ulrich Thieme, Felix Becker, and Hans Vollmer, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 vols. Leipzig, 1907-1950: 29[1935]:202, reprinted 1970-1971.)
[4] According to the Getty Provenance Index, the NGA painting is probably the same painting as a "Picture of Two Saints. Stigmatizing of St. Francis in a hilly mountain landscape," listed in the Böhler records as acquired from Sirén on that date. Roberto Longhi ("Un frammento della pala di Domenico Veneziano per Santa Lucia de'Magnole," L'Arte 28 [1925]: 31-35, reprinted in Edizione delle opera complete di Roberto Longhi, 14 vols., Florence and Milan, 1956-2000: 2[1967]) and other writers of the 1920s indicate the painting as belonging to Böhler. It was presumably also for Böhler that Georg Gronau wrote his expertise, dated 10 August 1921 (copy in NGA curatorial files), recognizing the authorship of Domenico Veneziano.
[5] A. Chiapelli, "Una nuova opera di Domenico Veneziano," L'Arte 27 (1924): 93 note 6, is wrong in stating that the panel was "recently acquired by Longhi in Germany"; Longhi himself (1925: 31) states clearly that the purchaser was, on his advice, Count Contini Bonacossi. Contini lent the picture to the 1930 exhibition in London.
[6] The bill of sale for the painting is dated 27 December 1933 (copy in NGA curatorial files). See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/1819.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1930

  • Exhibition of Italian Art 1200-1900, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1930, no. 128 (no. 111 and pl. XLII in commemorative catalogue published 1931; no. 29 in souvenir catalogue).

1935

  • Exhibition of Italian Paintings of the Renaissance, The Century Association, New York, 1935, no. 5.

1936

  • The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition of the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition, Cleveland Museum of Art, 1936, no. 149, repro.

1992

  • Una scuola per Piero. Luce, colore e prospettiva nella formazione fiorentina di Piero della Francesca, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, 1992-1993, no. 11b, repro.

Bibliography

1941

  • Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 57, no. 251.

1942

  • Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 244, repro. 98.

1945

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1945 (reprinted 1947, 1949): 29, repro.

1959

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 58, repro.

1961

  • Walker, John, Guy Emerson, and Charles Seymour. Art Treasures for America: An Anthology of Paintings & Sculpture in the Samuel H. Kress Collection. London, 1961: 34-35, color repro. pl. 29.

1963

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 298, repro.

  • Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Florentine School. 2 vols. London, 1963: 1:62.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 42.

1966

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XIII-XV Century. London, 1966: 103, fig. 279.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 35, repro.

1973

  • Finley, David Edward. A Standard of Excellence: Andrew W. Mellon Founds the National Gallery of Art at Washington. Washington, 1973: 79.

1974

  • Pesenti, Franco Renzo. "Dismembered works of art - Italian painting." In An Illustrated Inventory of Famous Dismembered Works of Art: European Painting. Paris, 1974: 22, 36-37, repro.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 108, repro.

1979

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:158; 2:pl. 113.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 90, no. 50, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 131, repro.

1990

  • De Marchi, Andrea. “Domenico Veneziano.” In Luciano Bellosi, ed. Pittura di luce. Giovanni di Francesco e l’arte fiorentina di metà Quattrocento. Exh. cat. Casa Buonarroti, Florence, 1990: 67.

1992

  • Pons, Nicoletta. "Domenico Veneziano." In Saur. Allgemeines Künstler-Lexikon. Die Bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker. Munich and Leipzig, 119 vols. Munich and Leipzig, 1992-2023: 28(2001):408.

1993

  • Gagliardi, Jacques. La conquête de la peinture: L’Europe des ateliers du XIIIe au XVe siècle. Paris, 1993: 374-375.

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: 241-250, color repro.

2010

  • Rowley, Neville. “Pittura di luce: La manière claire dans la peinture du Quattrocento.” Ph.D. Diss., Université Paris-Sorbonne, 2010: 61, 217, fig. 79.

2012

  • Natali, Antonio, Enrica Neri Lusanna, and Angelo Tartuferi, eds. Bagliori dorati: Il Gotico Internazionale a Firenze 1375-1440. Exh. cat. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, 2012: 308.

2013

  • "Vasari and the National Gallery of Art." National Gallery of Art Bulletin 48 (Spring 2013): 6, repro.

2016

  • Paolucci, Antonio, et al, eds. Piero della Francesca: Indagine su un mito. Exh. cat. Museo San Domenico, Forlì, 2016: 84.

2017

  • Valeri, Stefano. Quattrocento pittorico centroitaliano. Fra Carnevale, tre camerinesi e un Piero della Francesca. Rome, 2017: 101-102, fig. 42.

2020

  • Zaninelli, Fulvia. "The Interesting Case of Alessandro Contini Bonacossi (1878-1955) and Wilhelm von Bode (1845-1929)." In Florence, Berlin and Beyond. Late Nineteenth-Century Art Markets and Their Social Networks, ed. Lynn Catterson. Leiden, Boston, 2020: 262.

Wikidata ID

Q3947109

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