Sienese or Neapolitan School, mid-14th century

The following condition report has been provided by Karen Thomas of Thomas Art Conservation LLC., 336 West 37th Street, Suite 830, New York, NY 10018, 212-564-4024, info@thomasartconservation.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The paint layer is irregularly worn, unsurprising in a panel of this age and construction: some passages, particularly the pink and blue garments of St. John, and the carnations of the attendant figures, are in quite good condition while others, notably the red glazing of the Magdalen's robe, are much worn and somewhat re-established with perfunctory strokes of restoration. Small losses are present throughout, notably in the face of the kneeling Franciscan saint. Scattered filling and retouching are also present, as are small surface accretions. Abrasion to the gilding of this small panel is most pronounced within the fine punched border and haloes. Filling and regilding are evident throughout the background, notably between the figures. The prominent horizontal craquelure is raised in areas but appears to be stable; it is typical of the movement of the wooden panel. The varnish appears to be a recently applied natural resin. A very slight amount of retouching could help to reestablish the forms in key areas. The softwood panel preserves its original assembly, consisting of a single board with four lateral wooden strips added to form the engaged frame. Traces of hinges at the proper right suggest the possibility that the panel was once the left half of a diptych. The reverse of the panel is painted with a quatrefoil design which shows losses, fine flaking along the wood grain, and tenting of the paint film – these areas would benefit from consolidation. Abrasion, mechanical damages, and soiling are observable on the reverse.
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This intimate scene of the Crucifixion, previously unpublished, was almost certainly intended for private devotion within the domestic sphere.  The marks along the left edge may be traces left by hinges, suggesting the panel once formed the right wing of a portable diptych.  This Crucifixion scene would likely have been accompanied by a Madonna and Child at left.  Despite the distinctive brushwork and punch decoration, details of the painting’s authorship remain somewhat elusive, and scholarly opinion regarding its city of origin is divided.

In a private communication with the present owner, Everett Fahy proposed an attribution to Naddo Ceccarelli, a Sienese painter active circa 1330 to 1360.¹ Once considered a retardataire follower of Simone Martini, Ceccarelli is now recognized as playing a more formative role in the development of Sienese painting in the second half of the 14th century.² The elaborately decorated border certainly recalls Ceccarelli’s ornamental style, as does the impressive tempera coloration in the drapery, particularly the rose hues in the mantle of Saint John the Evangelist.  Andrea De Marchi also judges this panel to be Sienese, though dating to later in the century, and proposes it to be the work of Paolo di Giovanni Fei, active between 1369 and 1411.³  De Marchi notes that the punch work does not appear to be in keeping with the Siensese figures and suggests the gold and punch work may have been modified at a later stage.  At a time when the dominant tradition among his Sienese contemporaries was in imitation of Simone Martini, Fei was highly sought-after for his refreshingly ‘modern’ and vivacious style.  The faces of the Virgin and of Christ in this painting are remarkably similar to those in another Crucifixion by Fei, listed by Federico Zeri as on the art market in Rome in 1983-1984.⁴ 

Laurence Kanter disagrees that the panel is Sienese, proposing instead that its author may be Umbrian.⁵  Kanter suggests the artist may have been active in Assisi, noting the influence of Pietro Lorenzetti and Giotto.  Kanter observes similarities between this panel and a group of paintings published by Miklòs Boskovits as “Master of the Pomposa Chapterhouse”, though he does not believe it to be by the same hand.⁶   That master painted the cycle of frescos decorating the chapterhouse of the abbey at Pomposa, near Ferrara after which he takes his name.  Smaller works by the artist include a tentatively attributed Madonna and Child, dating to circa 1310-1315, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. no. 47.143) and a Crucifixion, dating to circa 1320, in the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection, Madrid (inv. no. 260.1930.23).  Both Kanter and Gaudenz Freuler assert that the decorative border is like no other punch work found in Sienese painting of the period.

In his decoration of the border, the artist appears to have used two punches: a round ended tool, creating a small, concave circle, and a fine, sharp, nail-like tool, used to create the multitude of dots, within which spiraling tendrils and leaves are formed in negative space.  As Freuler indicates, this form of ‘pointillist’ decoration, imitating the work of a goldsmith, is a style more prevalent in southern workshops, particularly in Naples.⁸  According to Freuler, the painting appears to combine stylistic traditions typical of 1340s Siena, in the following of Simone Martini, with that of the late following of Giotto in Naples.  Frueler suggests the artist was indeed Neapolitan, working in the ambit of the Master of the Capella Leonessa and the Master of Giovanni Barrile and both he and Kanter date the panel between the 1340 to 1350.

 

We are grateful Andrea De Marchi and Gaudenz Freuler for independently suggesting attributions on the basis of photographs and to Laurence Kanter, on the basis of firsthand inspection.

 

1.  Private oral communication with the present owner.
2.  C. De Benedictis, “Naddo Ceccarelli”, in Commentari, XXV, 1974, pp. 139-154.
3.  Private written communication, dated 11 October 2014, on the basis of photographs.
4.  Fondazione Zeri, Fototeca Archive, entry no. 6142.
5.  Private written communication, dated 8 and 10 October 2014, on the basis of firsthand inspection.
6.  M. Boskovits and S. Padovani, The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection: Early Italian Painting, 1290–1470, London 1990, pp. 154-156.
7.  C. De Benedictis, in Mostra di opere d'arte restaurate nelle province di Siena e Grosseto, Siena 1979, pp. 36, 70.
8.  Private written communication, dated 24 November 2014, on the basis of photographs.