帕奇諾‧迪‧博納桂達

Bertolaso, Genoa, 1927;

With Julius Böhler, Munich, by January 1929;

From whom acquired by Georg Hartmann (1870–1954), Frankfurt-am-Main, 24 March 1938 (as the St. Cecilia Master);

Thence by inheritance to his wife, Frau Hanny Finsterlin, Frankfurt-am-Main;

Thence by descent.

Memorie della sagrestia di S. Procolo, c. 45, in Conventi Soppressi, 78, vol. 352, March 1740, Archivio di Stato, Florence, in Offner 1956, sect. III, vol. VI, p. 159 (as Giotto);

G. Richa, Notizie istoriche delle chiese Fiorentine, vol. I, Florence 1754, pp. 239 and 242–43 (as Ambrogio Lorenzetti);

V. Follini and M. Rastrelli, Firenze Antica e Moderna Illustrata, vol. V, Florence 1794, p. 141 (as Ambrogio Lorenzetti);

G. de Nicola, 'Il soggiorno fiorentino di Ambrogio Lorenzetti', in Bollettino d'Arte del Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione, vol. I, series II, 1922, p. 52 (as Ambrogio Lorenzetti); 

R. Offner, A critical and historical corpus of Florentine painting. The fourteenth century, sect. III, vol. I, New York 1931, p. 114, reproduced Add.Plate I (as 'Remoter following of the St. Cecilia Master');

R. Longhi, 'Giudizio sul Duecento' e Ricerche sul Trecento nell'Italia Centrale, 1939–70, in Edizione delle Opere complete di Roberto Longhi, vol. 7, Florence 1974, pp. 50–51, cat. no. 127 (as Pacino di Bonaguida, wrongly identifying the scenes as from the life of Saint Zenobius);

W. and E. Paatz, Die Kirchen von Florenz, vol. IV, Frankfurt-am-Main 1952, pp. 692–93 (as Ambrogio Lorenzetti);

G. Kaftal, Saints in Italian Art. Iconography of the saints in Tuscan painting, Florence 1952 (1986 ed.), p. 860, cat. no. 256(AI), reproduced p. 859, fig. 971 (as Pacino di Bonaguida);

R. Offner, A critical and historical corpus of Florentine painting. The fourteenth century, sect. III, vol. VI, New York 1956, pp. 153–60, reproduced plate XLIV (as Pacino di Bonaguida and workshop).

The support consists of a single plank of softwood. The reverse has been affected by woodworm in the past. There is a narrow insert approx 12x1cm into the reverse at the upper left (as you look from behind) corresponding to a diagonal split visible from the front (to the upper right as you look from the front), the insert presumably there to provide additional support. The panel itself is flat and otherwise unencumbered. The paint surface is exceptionally well preserved. Other than a few minor scratches there are a few minor restored paint losses, by far the most notable being on the lower left corner of the sarcophagus (approx 1 X 0.8cm) and to the centre of the canopy and into the gold above. The gilding is well preserved, though a little worn upper left.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This panel once formed part of a predella made up of seven scenes from the life of Saint Proculus for an altarpiece, presumed to date to circa 1315–20, in the titular church in Florence, which belonged to the Benedictines of Badia.¹ The literary source for the sequence is the text of the fourteenth-century legendist Petrus Calo, found in the Acta Sanctorum, although there is some confusion over at least three saints of the same name.² The saint represented here is presumed to be Saint Proculus, Bishop of Terni or Bologna, who was beheaded in 542.

The first panel from the predella, which depicts Saint Proculus celebrating Mass, was presumed lost until it appeared on the Paris art market in 1992.³ The two subsequent scenes are in the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard, showing Saint Proculus stopping a doe in the wilderness, and Saint Proculus milking the doe to quench the thirst of his companions (figs 1 and 2).⁴ Another panel, recorded as in a private collection, Bergamo, depicts the Flagellation of Saint Proculus, and a fifth, formerly part of the Cinelli collection, Florence, represents the Beheading of Saint Proculus.⁵ The sixth panel, which pictures Saint Proculus healing a child’s hand, is still untraced. Whereas the other scenes from the predella represent episodes from the saint’s life, the present work records a posthumous episode: reportedly forty days after its death, a child placed under Saint Proculus' tomb was restored to life.⁶ Pacino depicts the moments before and after the child's resurrection – we see him pictured both beneath the tomb and in front of it, alongside the figures united in supplication and gratitude.

Each of the extant panels is framed by a plain border with four diagonal corners, as seen in the present work. Richa (see under literature) records that the altarpiece was probably dismembered in 1622.⁷ Its original structure can only be conjectured on the basis of these predella paintings: the polyptych above presumably had seven corresponding compartments, perhaps representing a Madonna with three saints either side. The lost panel, Saint Proculus healing a child’s hand, would originally have been placed in the centre of the predella, and was quite possibly wider than the others to allow for this formation. The original Madonna panel is recorded up until 1792, but has since vanished. Three half-length panels however, presumed to be some of those which formerly flanked the Madonna, are now in the Galleria dell' Accademia, Florence – they represent Saint John the Evangelist and two Bishop saints, most likely identifiable as Saint Nicholas and Saint Proculus himself.⁸

A contemporary of Giotto, Pacino spent his entire career in Florence, not only as a panel painter but also as a well-known and successful illuminator. He is first mentioned in 1303 in connection with the painter Tambo di Serraglio, with whom he dissolved a partnership established the previous year, and he is last documented in his enrolment for the Florentine guild, the Arte dei Medici e Speziali, in about 1330. Pacino’s only signed work is an altarpiece which depicts the Crucifixion with Saints Nicholas, Bartholomew, Florentius and Luke, originally the main altar of the church of San Firenze (now in the Galleria dell' Accademia, Florence).⁹

Richard Offner was first responsible for the reconstruction of Pacino’s career and œuvre, with the San Firenze altarpiece at its centre. Pacino’s debt to the work of artists such as Giotto and the St. Cecilia Master had previously led to the misattribution of the present work and many other paintings to these artists (including by Offner himself; see under literature). Offner, however, came to identify Pacino as the innovator of a stylistic trend found in Florentine painting in the first half of the fourteenth century, which he termed the ‘miniaturist tendency.’ This approach is characterised by the clear organisation of the painted surface into multiple small-scale scenes, across which narrative runs fluidly and comprehensibly in a vernacular, but no less expressive, manner. As both a prolific illuminator of manuscripts and painter of altarpieces, it is not surprising that Pacino’s facility for this popular ‘miniaturist’ style should have permeated all his works, not least the present painting and the Saint Proculus predella as a whole.

This panel was formerly owned by Georg Hartmann, industrialist, typographer, patron and collector. Hartmann’s tastes were eclectic, ranging from Northern medieval sculptures and paintings to the work of contemporary artists, such as Max Beckmann, whom Hartmann secretly commissioned in 1941 to paint a series of the Apocalyspe, despite the condemnation of the artist’s work by the Nazis. Today, parts of Hartmann’s acclaimed collection are found in museums around the world such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Städel Museum, Frankfurt. Hartmann’s legacy is still felt in Frankfurt’s wider context, particularly in his tireless and passionate efforts to support the city’s reconstruction after the war, including the Goethe-Haus, for which he was awarded Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1953.

1. This ownership accounts for Pacino’s depiction of figures in the present work, and the other panels, in Benedictine habits.
2. See Acta sanctorum Julii ex Latinis & Graecis aliarumque gentium antiquis monumentis..., vol. I, Antwerp 1719, pp. 41-55, especially pp. 53-55 (Ex Mss. Petri Calo, Dominicani);
3. Anonymous sale, Paris, Audap-Solanet, Godeau-Veillet, 11 December 1992, lot 39, for 710,000 Francs.
4. Inv. nos 1943.110 and 1943.111, respectively. See E.P. Bowron, European paintings before 1900 in the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard 1990, p. 123, reproduced p. 281, figs 478 and 479.
5. See Kaftal 1986, p. 860, cat. nos 256(A5) and 256(A6), reproduced p. 859, figs 969 and 970.
6. The same miracle is related in the life of Saint Herculanus, Bishop of Perugia, and some other bishop saints.
7. For a more detailed history of the altarpiece, see Offner 1956, pp. 158-59, note N.2.
8. Inv. nos 8698–8700; see R. Offner, A critical and historical corpus of Florentine painting. The fourteenth century, sect. III, vol. II, pt. II, New York 1930, reproduced Add.Plates IV–IV³.
9. Inv. no. 8568. It bears the inscription, signature and date: SIMON PRESPITERO S. Florentia PINGI FECIT HOC OPUS A PACINO BONAGUIDE Anno Domini MCCCX […]. See G. Bonsanti, The Galleria della Accademia, Florence, Florence 1987, pp. 55 and 66, reproduced in colour p. 55.