14th C. Paintings St. Anthony Abbot and St. Andrew
Attributed to a follower of Pietro Lorenzetti? (1280-1348)
Both St. Anthony Abbot and St. Andrew, egg-gilded tempera panels dating to the late fourteenth to early fifteenth centuries, are unsigned with no credible documentation or other mode of inscription. The task of attributing an artist to these paintings is thus left to the fate of close examinations and extensive comparisons.
Stylistic similarities link these Renaissance treasures to a follower of the Sienese artist, Pietro Lorenzetti (1280-1348). As one of the more notable Renaissance painters of Trecento Siena, it seems striking that only four surviving works can be positively linked to Pietro Lorenzetti. One of these, the Arezzo Polyptych, consists of multiple panels hinged together into one large altarpiece. It is clear that St. Anthony and St. Andrew originally filled panels in a similar polyptych. The original altarpiece would have included several other portraits of various saints flanking a larger central image, possibly a Madonna and Child or a Crucifixion.
As styles changed and demand transformed, many of these altarpieces were dismembered and the individual parts were sold into the art market. Outdated Gothic architectural details and linear Byzantine styles were seen as second-rate as the Italian Renaissance progressed. It is easy to account for the separation of the altarpiece that has left St. Anthony and St. Andrew silently awaiting proper accreditation. Most likely, before these panels were dispersed individually, they were reframed in contemporary mountings, as the current frames are not original. Rather, they are adorned with the same punched floral detail repeated throughout the painting. Although made to mirror the artistic quality of the panels, the hardware constructing these frames is more modern and shows no evidence of being previously mounted to a larger piece.
One panel depicts the image of St. Anthony Abbot (St. Anthony the Great). St. Anthony was born in Egypt in 250 C.E. into a wealthy family. At the age of 20, he was orphaned and became the heir of his parents' estate. Taking God's word to heart, he gave all his belongings to the poor and began a life of devotion. He lived in the solitude of a cave in the middle of the desert for more than 50 years, and today is also referred to as the Father of Orthodox Monasticism.
St. Anthony can be identified by the t-shaped, "Tao" cross he grasps in his left hand (also known as St. Anthony's Cross). Many interpretations of this distinctly shaped cross stand valid. One analysis reads it as a "T," the first letter of Theos, the Greek word for God, another as a crutch symbolizing the duty of monks to aid the crippled and sick. More simply, it could be an indicator of the saint's great age and the many journeys he endured. Painted here with a long white beard, he conveys an air of dignity and concrete authority. The hooded cloak softens his bold presence as he has submissively devoted his entire life to living the word of God as a hermit.
The other panel depicts the image of St. Andrew the Apostle. A fisherman with his brother, Simon Peter, St. Andrew was among Christ's twelve apostles. It is this devotion to Christ that is the later cause of his persecution. He is identified in this painting by the large, X-shaped cross he holds over his right shoulder. In 60 C.E., St. Andrew was crucified on a similarly shaped cross. Feeling unworthy of a death fit only for the son of God, he insisted on being hung upside down bound by ropes, prolonging his tortured death. Today, with an X-shaped cross on its flag, he is the patron saint of Scotland.
The uniqueness of these panels lies in the combination of a gold leaf iconic background associated with Gothic art, and the well-developed painterly style connected to the Renaissance. The blending of a flat iconic style with a dimensionally realistic display representing the human form marks this transition into the Italian Renaissance. The combining of these two styles is reflected in artworks produced in Siena at the close of the fourteenth century.
This period is also marked by the vital aftermaths of the Black Death, which cut short the lives of a number of highly talented painters whose technical expertise was lost to younger Sienese painters (Norman, 161). Faced with economic uncertainty, a limited number of master teachers, and an abundance of commissions, artists were forced to share studio space. This overlapping resulted in joint effort by painters to complete large commissions, such as a polyptych altarpiece. The draperies depicted in these two panels are handled differently enough to hypothesize such a collaboration of multiple artists.
The St. Anthony panel shows solid, singletoned draperies that have replaced the overly linear chiaroscuro seen in earlier portraits of saints. This technique allows for the impression of a figure that has actual weight, giving volume to the body concealed beneath the heavy wool fabric. This displays the skill and ability of the artist to realistically depict a human body. In contrast, the drapery of St. Andrew, although much more elaborate, does not display a complete Renaissance-like handling of the human body. The dramatic shading of the fabric alludes to a more linear style, as opposed to the more painterly style seen in the drapery of St. Anthony. While the attempt to portray an elaborate and rich fabric is noted, the figural weight is not mastered as it is in the Saint Anthony portrait. Instead, the figure's body is lost underneath the dramatic folds, and the lights and darks of the fabric create weight. This dissimilarity of draperies can be explained as the work of different artists possessing different levels of skill.
The variation in styles continues into the beards and hair of both saints. St. Andrew, with single, precisely isolated strands of hair assembled into a linear, almost patterned form to create the beard, clearly shows an earlier style. A less defined, painterly style of softer organic forms characteristic of the newly emerging Renaissance style is seen in St. Anthony's beard, which is developed by the careful blending of colors. The face of a portrait is often the most important element of stylistic detail when discussing a possible attribution. Long, thin noses with narrow nostrils are two characteristics introduced by Lorenzetti. This stylistic detail is seen on the faces of both St. Anthony and St. Andrew. Another facial detail is the presence of a single upturning crease that continues the line of the upper eyelid (Maginnis, 193). This characteristic is visible on the face of St. Anthony, though not on the face of Saint Andrew.
The painterly style, solid presence of figures, and certain facial features all point towards an attribution of Pietro Lorenzetti. However, the overall composition is unlike most other works attributed to Lorenzetti, as he was notorious for being overly concerned with unifying the entire structure of these multi-part altarpieces. Another example by Lorenzetti, Birth of the Virgin, is a strong example of the emphasis he placed on unification for a comprehensible, visibly pleasing result. This altarpiece, although a triptych, employs architectural details in order to link the three panels visually into one unified space. The advanced technical skill needed to create one cohesive open space using visual allusions is not visible in the panels of either St. Anthony or St. Andrew.
The paintings St. Anthony Abbot and St. Andrew contain many features that reflect the prominence and importance of Pietro Lorenzetti's style, but as the paintings have been attributed to late-fourteenth or early-fifteenth century, they are probably not directly linked to the hand of Lorenzetti, who died in 1348. As one of the more notable painters of the Sienese school, Lorenzetti's influence carried on long after his death. Thus, many paintings not of his hand were carried out in the Lorenzetti manner.
The highly advanced painterly style and delicacy displayed on the hands and face of the two saints, as well as the facial features and the style of drapery are all reminiscent of Lorenzetti's style. The isolated panels of these two saints display no cohesive architectural elements, creating a disjointed altarpiece that suggests it was not completed by master Pietro, but rather by one of his followers. The later date of both of these panels therefore attribute the paintings to a follower of Pietro Lorenzetti in the Sienese School.
Terese Carlozzi and Mary Melone
Works Cited
Bellosi, Luciano, Duccio: The Maestà (Milan: Thames and Hudson, 1999).
Carli, Enzo, Sienese Painting (New York: Scala Books, 1982).
Christiansen, Keith, "14th Century Italian Altarpieces," The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 40 (1982): 3-56.
Maginnis, Hayden B. J., "Pietro Lorenzetti: A Chronology," The Art Bulletin 66 (1984): 183-211.
Norman, Diana, Painting in Late Medieval and Renaissance Siena, 1260-1555 (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2003).
Provenance
Both panels: Contini Bonacossi, Florence, from whom acquired by Kress in 1939 |
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