Crucifixion

Siena, circa 1350

Tempera and gold leaf on wood panel

H. 22 in (55.8 cm); W. 10 1/2 in (26.8 cm)

Provenance

Stehli collection, Zurich

Exhibitions

Lugano-Castagnola, Thyssen-Bornemisza Foundation, “Manifestatori delle Cose Miracolose”. Arte Italiana del ’300 e ‘400 da collezioni in Svizzera e nel Liechtenstein, 7 April-30 June 1991, no. 13.

Literature

Berenson, B., Central and North Italian Schools, I, London, 1968, p. 437.

De Benedictis, C., La Pittura Senese 1330-1370, Florence, 1979, p. 28, p. 92.

Boucher de Lapparent, D., in L’Art gothique siennois, enluminure, peinture, orfèvrerie, sculpture, exhib. cat. (Avignon, Musée du Petit Palais, 26 June-2 October 1983), Florence, 1983, p. 251.

Freuler, G., “Manifestatori delle Cose Miracolose”. Arte Italiana del ’300 e ‘400 da collezioni in Svizzera e nel Liechtenstein, exhib. cat. (Lugano-Castagnola, Thyssen-Bornemisza Foundation, 7 April-30 June 1991), Lugano, 1991, pp. 55-57, no. 13.

Study

Set on a rocky ground, the scene of the Crucifixion is divided in two groups of figures on either side of the Cross. On the left, the group immersed in the tragic drama is composed around the holy women who support the swooning Virgin. Saint John leans in their direction while behind them Mary Magdalen raises her arms in despair before the body of Christ. In the background, astride his horse, Longinus seems to be wiping his tears. On the right, the group of spectators startled or touched by the scene is dominated by the figure of the converted centurion who contemplates the body of Christ from his white horse. At his feet, two Pharisees also observe the unfolding drama. The medallion frame above the Cross represents the Pelican who nourishes her offspring with her own blood, a symbol of Christ’s sacrifice.

The Master of the Pietà was a creation of Millard Meiss, who gave this name to an anonymous Sienese painter based on his two most distinctive works: a Pietà from the Campana collection, now housed in the Musée du Petit Palais in Avignon,¹ and a shutter of a triptych representing the same subject in the Detroit Institute of Arts. Meiss assembled nine paintings under this conventional name.²

Scholars have generally followed Meiss in recognising and identifying the Master of the Pietà, and all agree that he was active in the third quarter of the Trecento. He is regarded either as a representative of the Lorenzetti school or as a painter influenced by Luca di Tommè, whose art was one of the finest expressions of the Lorenzetti style in Siena.

After its initial placement by Berenson³ within the late oeuvre of Ugolino Lorenzetti (now identified as Bartolomeo Bulgarini), this Crucifixion was first attributed to the Master of the Pietà by Cristina De Benedictis.⁴ Writing a catalogue entry on the artist for the Avignon exhibition of 1983, Denise Boucher de Lapparent expressed reservations about attributing this panel to him, but without firmly rejecting the attribution or providing her motives.⁵ In 1991, on the other hand, the attribution to the Master of the Pietà was reasserted by Gaudenz Freuler in the catalogue of the exhibition in Lugano.⁶

Out of the ten or so accepted works by the artist that have come down to us, most of them form a relatively homogeneous group: panels with pointed, very ornamented gables adorned with a lobed trefoil or a small tondo. This is the design adopted in the diptych now in the National Gallery in Prague. As Denise Boucher de Lapparent has pointed out, it may be that the painter—a precise and painstaking artist—specialised in the execution of small-scale works (panels for private devotion, easily movable), and that his output of such paintings may have increased after 1350.

Master of the Pietà, Diptych: The Virgin and Child. Prague, Nàrodni Galerie.

Master of the Pietà, Diptych: The Crucifixion. Prague, Nàrodni Galerie.

At the same time, the Crucifixion now in the National Museum in Cracow, clearly the pinnacle of a polyptych, shows that the artist worked on at least one large-scale work. This last painting supports our confidence in attributing the Crucifixion formerly in the Stehli collection to the Master of the Pietà. Apart from the same compositional arrangement based on the two distinct groups of figures, divided by the Cross, there are a number of stylistic elements and certain motifs that are very similar. While the group of the Virgin and holy women is probably closer to the panel of the diptych in Prague, the panel in Cracow reveals the same search for the creation of a more complex space, framed by the men on horses in the background. The particularly elegant design of the white horse on the right is very close indeed in each of these works, and one is also struck by the parallel conception of the two male figures in the lower right foreground of the composition.

Master of the Pietà, Crucifixion, circa 1350–1360. Cracow, Muzeum Narodowe.

Boucher De Lapparent, D., « Le Maître de la Pietà », in L’art Gothique Siennois, enluminure, peinture, orfèvrerie, sculpture, exhib. cat.. (Avignon, musée du Petit Palais, June 26th–October 2nd, 1983), Florence, 1983, pp. 252–253, nº93 ; Laclotte, M. and Moench, E., Peintures italiennes. Musée du Petit Palais. Avignon, Paris, 2005, p. 142.

Meiss, M., « Italian Primitives at Konopiste », The Art Bulletin, XXVIII, 1946, pp. 1–16.

Berenson, B., Central and North Italian Schools, I, London, 1968, p. 437.

De Benedictis, C., La pittura Senese, 1330–1370, Florence, 1979, p. 28, p. 92.

Boucher De Lapparent, D., « Le Maître de la Pietà », in L’art Gothique Siennois, enluminure, peinture, orfèvrerie, sculpture, cat. exh. (Avignon, musée du Petit Palais, June 26th–October 2nd, 1983), Florence, 1983, p. 251.

Freuler, G., Manifestori delle Cose Miracolose. Arte Italiana del ’300 e ‘400 da Collezioni in Svizzera e nel Liechtenstein, exhib. cat. (Lugano-Castagnola, Fondation Thyssen-Bornemisza, April 7th–June 30th, 1991), Lugano, 1991, pp. 55–57, nº13.