Lot 21: - Luca di Tommé , Active in Siena 1356 - after 1389 San Bernardo degli Uberti; Spandrels : The Prophets Hosea and Jeremiah tempera on panel, gold ground

tempera on panel, gold ground

measurements note overall: 101.5 by 49.5 cm.; 40 by 19 1/2 in.

B. Berenson, The Central Italian Painters of the Renaissance, New York and London 1909, p. 141 (as Bartolo di Fredi);
M. Meiss, "Notes on Three Linked Sienese Styles," in Art Bulletin, XLV, 1, March 1963, p. 48, note 12 (as by the so-called "Sienese Master of the Magdalen Legend," a follower of Luca di Tommè);
B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Central Italian and North Italian Schools, vol. I, London and New York 1968, p. 30 (as Bartolo di Fredi);
C. De Benedictis, La pittura senese, 1330-1370, Florence 1979, p. 67, note 80;
S. D'Argenio in M. Gregori, ed., La Fondazione Roberto Longhi a Firenze, Milan 1980, p. 242, cited under no. 22;
G. Chelazzi Dini, in Il Gotico a Siena, exhibition catalogue, Siena 1982, p. 278, cited under no. 103;
C. Volpe, Early Italian Paintings and Works of Art, 1300-1480, exhibition catalogue (Matthiesen Fine Art Ltd), London 1983, p. 29;
S.A. Fehm, Jr., Luca di Tommè: A Sienese Fourteenth-Century Painter, Carbondale, Illinois 1986, pp. 26, 35, note 21 (as 'Workshop of Luca di Tommè');
G. Freuler, "L'Eredità di Pietro Lorenzetti verso il 1350: novità per Biagio di Goro, Niccolò di Ser Sozzo e Luca di Tommè," in Nuovi studi, 4, 1997, pp. 20, 23-26, 31, notes 41, 47-48, 56, reproduced figs. 30 (reconstruction of altarpiece), 31, 32, 34;
P. Palladino, in Art and Devotion in Siena after 1350: Luca di Tommè and Niccolò di Buonaccorso, exhibition catalogue, 1997-1998, pp. 40/43, 46, reproduced p. 42, figs. 39-41.

Probably commissioned by the Arte della Lana, or Wool Merchants Guild, for the Vallombrosan Church of San Michele in Siena;
Henri Chalandon, La Grange Blanche, Parcieux, near Trévoux, by 1907;
Chalandon family, from whom acquired directly by the present owners probably in the mid 1950s.

The dowel marks located on the left hand side of this panel indicate that it would have originally occupied a position on the extreme right side of the central register of the San Michele polyptych, with the panel depciting Saint John the Baptist (Getty Museum, Los Angeles) to its left. Saint Bernardo degli Uberti came from the noble Uberti family of Florence, and became a monk in the Vallombrosan Order. He entered the monastery of San Salvio, and subsequently rose to be Abbot or General-Superior of the Congregation. Later, having served as a papal legate he was created a Cardinal by Pope Urban II in 1097. His cardinal's hat can be seen in the background of the painting just below the spandrels. He also served as Bishop of Parma, and is depicted in the present panel with the cope, mitre and crozier of his office worn above the habit of the Vallombrosan Order. As a result of his support for Pope Gregory VII, he was reputedly dragged physically from his altar and driven into exile in 1104 by the supporters of the anti-pope Maginulf (Sylvester IV). He did not return to Parma until two years later in 1106, but was subsequently exiled again in 1127 for opposing the proclamation of the Emperor Conrad II. He died in Parma on 4 December 1133. Read full article