Lot 121: Workshop of Pietro di Giovanni d'Ambrogio (or Ambrosi) , Siena 1410 - 1449 Saint Bernardino of Siena tempera on panel, gold ground, in an engaged frame

tempera on panel, gold ground, in an engaged frame

measurements note 43.9 by 25.5 cm.; 17 1/4 by 10 in.

Charles Loeser, Torri Gattaia, Florence;
From whose collection posthumously sold ("The Property of the late Charles Loeser removed from Torri Gattaia, Florence"), London, Sotheby's, 9 December 1959, lot 35 (as Pietro di Giovanni Ambrosi).

PROPERTY FROM THE WETZLAR COLLECTION
A label on the reverse states that the painting was traditionally attributed to Sassetta, with whom Pietro di Giovanni d'Ambrogio most likely trained. Saint Bernardino was the patron saint of the city of Siena and representations of the saint grew enormously in popularity, particularly after the saint's death in 1444 and his canonization in 1450. Dr. Gaudenz Freuler, to whom we are grateful, has pointed out that this picture most likely post-dates 1450 for the saint is shown with a halo, instead of the rays of a Blessed (as adopted before the date of his canonization).υ1 Pietro di Giovanni and his workshop produced a number of paintings of this subject, two of which are dated: his most famous example is that in the Museo Civico, Lucignano, which is signed and dated 1448 and shows the saint (with rays instead of a halo) trampling on mitres.υ2 Dr. Freuler has pointed out that the flower motif visible on Saint Bernardino's halo is exactly the same as that on the bishop's mitre and collar of Saint Augustine in Pietro di Giovanni's triptych of the Nativity in Asciano, Museo d'Arte Sacra.υ3 The fact that the tooling is identical is proof that this picture was produced within Pietro di Giovanni's workshop and this probably took place shortly after the artist's death, circa 1450. 1. See G. Freuler, "Sienese Quattrocento painting in the service of spiritual propaganda", in Italian altarpieces 1250-1550, Form and Function, Oxford 1994, pp. 82 ff..
2. Reproduced in B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Central Italian and North Italian Schools, vol. II, London 1968, reproduced fig. 572.
3. Reproduced in Berenson, op. cit., fig. 567.