Bartolo di Fredi

Commissioned for the church of Sant Agostino, San Gimignano, between 1380 and 1388, and remained there until at least 1783;
From there removed and dismantled, this panel presumably moved to the house of Malenotti, San Gimignano, 1835;
Possibly collection of the provost of the collegiate of San Gimignano, Malenotti, San Gimigano;
Private Scottish collection;
By whom sold, London, Phillips, 4 July 2000, lot 35;
Private English collection.

G. Vasari, Lives of the most eminent painters, sculptors and architects, Florence 1550, New York 1979 edition, vol. I, p. 284;
G. della Valle, Lettere senesi, vol. II, Rome 1785, pp. 197 - 198;
L. Kanter, "A Massacre of the Innocents in the Walters Art Gallery", in The Journal of the Walters Art Gallery, 41, 1983, pp. 21 - 27;
G. Freuler in, La miniatora senese degli anni 1370 - 1420, C. De Benedictis et al. ed., Milan 2002, pp. 184 - 185
G. Freuler in, La collezione Salini: Dipinti, sculture e oreficerie dei secoli XII, XIII, XIV, e XV, L. Bellosi ed., Florence 2009, pp. 210 - 215.

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. This modestly-sized panel from an altarpiece in very good condition overall. The gold ground is extremely well preserved with some small areas of re-gilding to the right of the figure near the bottom. The paint layers are in an excellent state of preservation and display a normal agerelated craquelure with minor pinpoint losses at the edges of cracks. Minimal retouching compensates for a handful of small scattered losses and a loss between the ladder rungs. The wood panel support, which has been trimmed and thinned, displays a mild convex lateral warp.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

This wonderful Saint Lawrence, carrying a palm frond and the grill upon which he was martyred, is one of ten saints that would have formed the lateral pilasters of a vast and elaborate altarpiece.  Six of the figures survive today: Saints Anthony Abbot, Nicholas of Tolentino, Bartholomew and Martin (united in a private collection); a Saint Stephen (location unknown); and the present Saint Lawrence (shown together, fig 1).  Gaudenz Freuler, who first attributed the paintings to Bartolo di Fredi, was able to identify them as elements from an altarpiece commissioned for the church of Sant’Agostino in the Tuscan town of San Gimignano (see Literature).   Building on earlier suggestions by Laurence Kanter, Freuler offers a hypothetical reconstruction of the magnificent altarpiece (fig 2), comprising some eleven separate elements, and now including the pilasters.¹  The central panel was the spectacular Presentation at the Temple, now in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (inv. no. MI 394), above that was the Massacre of the Innocents, in the Walters Art Gallery, Boston (inv. no. 37.1018) and below, in the predella, an Adoration of the Shepherds, in the Salini collection, Asciano.  Flanking the Massacre was a Saint Gregory, in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (inv. no. 15.953) and a Saint Augustine in the Lanckoronski collection, Vienna.  This Saint Lawrence would have crowned the pilaster at right, with Saint Stephen, in almost identically decorated robes, facing him at left.

Freuler applied a process of elimination in order to determine from which altarpiece the saints originated.  The presence of Saints Anthony Abbot and Nicholas of Tolentino, dressed in the black robes of the Augustinians, suggest the altarpiece was commissioned by the Order of Saint Augustine.²   Since Saint Anthony Abbot is included as a smaller figure in the pilaster, Freuler was able to disregard any recorded altarpieces in which that saint features among the larger, central panels.  Having excluded a number of possibilities in this manner, Freuler was able to narrow his search until he settled upon an altarpiece described by Giorgio Vasari in the church of Sant’Agostino, San Gimingano, signed by Bartolo di Fredi and dated 1388.³  

At this moment in Bartolo di Fredi’s career, the artist’s creativity and quality of execution was at its very peak.  Stylistically, this Saint Lawrence is entirely in keeping with other works produced around this date.  If we compare the figure to Bartolo di Fredi’s Saint Thomas Aquinas in the fresco decorating the Palazzo Pubblico, Siena, we find striking parallels.⁴  Saint Thomas Aquinas, dating to circa 1390, has the same round, broad crown, the same long nose, downturned mouth and curlicue ears and the same solemn expression.  Similarly, the face of the equally beautiful Saint Stephen, from the same Sant’Agostino altarpiece, can be compared directly with that of a blond young lady in Bartolo di Fredi’s Return of the Virgin scene now in the Museo Civico d'Arte Sacra, Montalcino.⁵  The latter panel formed part of the artist’s Coronation of the Virgin altarpiece for the church of San Francesco at Montalcino which is also signed and dated 1388.

We are grateful to Gaudenz Freuler for endorsing the attribution on the basis of firsthand inspection.

1.  L. Kanter, under Literature, op. cit., pp. 21 – 27; G. Freuler, under Literature, op. cit., pp. 214 – 215.
2.  Ibid., p. 212.
3.  G. Vasari, Lives of the most eminent painters, sculptors and architects, Florence 1550, New York 1979 edition, vol. I, p. 284.
4.  Information kindly provided by Gaudenz Freuler in a private written communication with the department, dated 6 November 2014; G. Freuler, under Literature, pp. 185-186.
5.  Ibid.