Master of the Pietà

Fritz August von Kaulbach Collection, Munich, until 1929;
His sale, Munich, Hugo Helbing, 29-30 October 1929, lot 154 (as Sienese School, circa 1350);
With Julius Böhler, Munich;
Private collection, Europe.

M. Meiss, 'Italian Primitives at Konopištĕ', in The Art Bulletin, vol. 28, no. 1, March 1946, pp. 7-8, 12, reproduced fig. 12;
G. Freuler, Manifestatori delle cose miracolose: arte italiana del '300 e '400 da collezioni in Svizzera e nel Liechtenstein, Einsiedeln 1991, pp. 58-59, cat. no. 14, reproduced in color.

The following condition report is provided by Sarah Walden, who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting is on a poplar panel with an integral frame. The back has a patterned priming and seems to have been reinforced early in the life of the picture, perhaps when it was connected to or separated from other panels as a diptych or triptych, but the frame is an integral part of the painting. The fine tooling and gilded decoration in the upper part of the panel is beautifully preserved, and the gold ground throughout is almost completely unworn with an even craquelure. The Madonna in the circle above – once looking perhaps across to an Annunciation angel in a putative further panel - is finely intact, with just minimal retouching at the outline of her blue drapery and a touch or two in the shell gold details of her robe. In the Crucifixion the figure of Christ Himself is very beautifully intact, with the delicate tempera brushwork finely preserved in the body and in the detail of the loin cloth as well. There is retouching on the left of His hair (which is rather dark), and a little minor strengthening around the outline of the hair and along the edges of His chest. The other figures also have finely intact modelling in the heads, and in general retouching has been largely confined to the side edges. In particular the lower left corner has a wider patch of retouching including the lowest part of the Magdalen's red drapery. A few minor touches in the figures often strengthening the outlines can be seen under ultra violet light, for instance along the outline of the arm of St John, and in the arm of the Magdalen around the cross. There is a little touch on the cheek of the Madonna and in the shell gold at the borders of her robes. The initials on the board at the top of the cross have been worn. These are minutiae however in such a remarkably finely intact painting, especially from this early period. This report was not done under laboratory conditions
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This intimate Crucifixion was published by Millard Meiss in his 1946 article and was among the first paintings to be identified as by the Master of the Pietà.  Meiss assembled a group of seven paintings, ascribing them to the same anonymous hand and giving an eighth to his workshop.  The group included two panels portraying the Pietà: one in the Musée du Petit Palais, Avignon (inv. no. 20438) and the other in the Institute of Arts, Detroit (inv. no. 35.11-35.12); then the earliest known Sienese treatments of the subject, their author was thus christened the “Master of the Pietà.”¹  Despite this moniker, the Crucifixion was the subject most frequently depicted by the artist; Meiss listed five treatments of the theme, to which we can now add the Crucifixion with the Two Thieves, the Madonna, Saint John and Mary Magdalene published by Cristina de Benedictis in 2001 and offered in this same sale as lot 17.²

Meiss identified the present panel as forming the right hand wing of a diptych, uniting it with a Madonna and Child enthroned with saints, formerly in the Foresti collection, Milan.³  Not only are the panels of identical size and shape, but indeed the tondo in the cusp of the present painting, showing the Madonna Annunciate, is matched in the Foresti panel by the Archangel Gabriel, his right side shown in profile in order to face her.  Freuler notes the pose of the Madonna as being derived from Simone Martini’s full length figure in the San Ansano altarpiece, now in the Uffizi, Florence (inv. no. 451-453); her torso facing forwards, she turns her head over her right shoulder with a lowered gaze to face the Archangel.⁴   The diptych’s composition and construction recalls that of a similar diptych in Konopištĕ Castle near Prague and their small-scale suggests both were intended for private devotion.⁵ 

The panel is beautifully painted, capturing the moment in which the Madonna, overcome with anguish, collapses and is caught by her pious companions.  The artist masterfully conveys the emotion and drama of the scene and the figures at the foot of the cross and angels surrounding the body of Christ are each endowed with a singular expression of personal grief.  The drapery is convincingly represented and elegantly arranged: the mantle of Saint John the Evangelist is draped loosely over his shoulder, falling in deep heavy folds from his clasped hands while Christ’s cloth is folded over itself at the waist, falling in tight creases denoting the fine, translucent fabric.   

Scholarship remains divided as to the chronology of this artist’s oeuvre.  The master’s earlier works, such as the Crucifixion in a private collection also published by Freuler, adhere stylistically to models from the 1350s, showing an intensity of emotion and drama reminiscent of Lippo Memmi.  The present panel, however, belongs to the group of panels assigned to the latter part of his career; while still drawing heavily from models by Simone Martini, these later works, likely dating between the 1360 and 1375, show a greater affinity with Luca di Tommé and the brothers, Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti.⁶   The later typology of this Crucifixion corresponds with paintings by Luca di Tommé executed in the late 1360s, thus suggesting a date of circa 1370 for the present work.⁷

 

1.  See M. Meiss under Literature, op. cit. p. 8, reproduced figs. 14 and 15 respectively.
2.  See G. Freuler under Literature, op. cit., p. 58; C. De Benedictis “Il Maestro della Pietà. Iconografia e Devozione” in Opera e giorni. Studi su mille anni di arte europea dedicati a Max Seidel, edited by K. Bergdolt and G. Bonsanti, Venice 2001, pp. 163-166. reproduced fig. 1.
3.  M. Meiss, op. cit., p. 7, reproduced fig. 12.
4.  G. Freuler, op. cit., p. 58.
5. M. Meiss, op. cit., reproduced fig. 5.
6.  G. Freuler, op. cit., pp. 55-57, cat. no. 13, reproduced.
7.  Ibid., p. 59.