Lot 20: - Luca di Tommé , Active in Siena 1356 - after 1389 St Michael; Spandrels : The Prophets Malachi and Samuel tempera on panel, gold ground

tempera on panel, gold ground

measurements note 114.4 by 47.8 cm.; 45 by 18 3/4 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 the exhibition catalogue Art and Devotion in Siena after 1350: Luca di Tommè and Niccolò di Buonaccorso, San Diego, California, Timken Museum of Art, 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.

This panel, togther with its two companions, would originally have formed part of the central register of the original polyptych. If this was intended, as Zeri and others have convincingly proposed, for the Vallombrosan church of San Michele in Siena, then this panel would have occupied a place of honour immediately to the left hand side of the register's central panel, which was in all probability the Madonna and Child. Dowel marks on both sides of this panel, and on the right hand side of that of Saint Giovanni Gualberto vindicate Freuler's reconstruction of the San Michele altarpiece (see introduction) and show that the latter panel occupied the place to the left of Saint Michael at the end of the central register. The archangel Michael was the guardian saint of the Hebrew nation, and was adopted by Christianity as a saint - a purely honorific title - and figurehead of the Church militant. According to the angelology of the Pseudo -Dionsysius the Areopagite there was much debate among the early Fathers of the Church as to his place in the celestial hierarchy; to Greek tradition he was the 'Archangel' or 'Archistrategos' , Prince of all Angels, to others (St. Bonaventure) the Prince of Seraphim, the first of the nine angelic orders, and to others still (St. Thomas Aquinas) he was Prince of the last and lowest choir, the angels. In the Roman Catholic church he held four principal offices. He was the Christian angel of death, carrying the souls of the deceased to heaven where they are weighed in his scales. He is the special patron of the Chosen People in the Old Testament and is guardian of the church. In this role he was particularly revered by the military orders of knights in the Middle Ages. Lastly, he was the principal antagonist of Satan and the fallen angels. In Christian legend he visited the Emperor Constantine the Great at Constantinople, and appeared, sword in hand, over the mausoleum of Hadrian in Rome in answer to the prayers of Pope Gregory the Great against the plague. In honour of this the Pope called the mausoleum the Castel Sant'Angelo, the name by which it is still known today. Luca di Tommè's depiction of the Archangel follows the traditional iconographic type of the handsome and eternally youthful angelic warrior, fully armed with sword and shield, though the last lacks the traditional inscription: 'Quis ut Deus'. His wings, which represent swiftness, distinguish him from other militant Christian saints such as Saint George. The sword is emblematic of his power and with it the orb represents justice, indicating his role as judge of souls. The magnificence of his armour - a technical tour de force on the part of Luca di Tommè - reflects both his enlightenment and his rank as Prince of Angels. Read full article