![Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints and Angels, and Saints Anthony Abbot and Venantius [entire triptych]](http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/ci/AL18g_S_82NDN_VOihJ86abutqt8UYPSBS_jVpKsC8_-tNbjDUKnvxfPDGAHLIJ6AkU9SduqdhdYW7SX)
Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints and Angels, and Saints Anthony Abbot and Venantius [entire triptych]
Allegretto Nuzi1354
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
Washington, DC, United States
The creation of works of art during the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance was often a collaborative process. This triptych was painted by two artists:Puccio di Simone (Florentine, active c. 1330 - 1360), who painted the center and right-hand panels, andAllegretto Nuzi (Umbrian, active from c. 1340; died 1373), who painted the left-hand panel. The partnership of these two artists is a bit unusual, since they were not based in the same city. Allegretto was from Fabriano in the Marches region along the Adriatic coast. Puccio was regarded among the best artists in Florence—perhaps that is why he was called in to help with this altarpiece that was made for a church in Allegretto’s hometown. The church was dedicated to Saint Anthony Abbot, who appears here twice, in the left-hand wing and again as one of the four saints gathered with the angels at the throne of the Virgin and Child.
It is not difficult to see the difference in style between the two painters. Allegretto’s Anthony is serious—even the colors are sober. Puccio, on the other hand, has a sunnier palette. Notice how Mary who, per tradition, points to her son as the way of salvation, also seems to be chucking his plump, little chin.
Learn more about artistic collaborations during this period from other works in the National Gallery of Art. Huge commissions—like Duccio’s_Maestà_altarpiece in Siena’s cathedral (seeThe Calling of the Apostles Peter and AndrewandThe Nativity with the Prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel)—absolutely required the participation of workshop assistants. Collaborations between independent masters was also fairly common, especially within families. Brothers-in-lawSimone Martini (Sienese, active from 1315; died 1344)andLippo Memmi (Sienese, active 1317/1347)worked together and so did the brothersJacopo di Cione (Florentine, c. 1340 - c. 1400?), Andrea, andNardo di Cione (Florentine, active from c. 1340; died 1365/1366).
- Title: Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints and Angels, and Saints Anthony Abbot and Venantius [entire triptych]
- Creator: Puccio di Simone and Allegretto Nuzi
- Date Created: 1354
- Provenance: Probably commissioned for the high altar of the demolished church of Sant’Antonio Abate fuori Porta Pisana, Fabriano;[1] apparently by the early years of the nineteenth century it was no longer in this church, presumably having passed into a local private collection.[2] Joseph Russell Bailey [1840-1906], 1st Baron Glanusk, Glanusk Park, Breconshire, Wales; by inheritance to his son, Joseph Henry Russell Bailey [1864-1928], 2nd Baron Glanusk, Glanusk Park; sold in 1915.[3] (sale, Sotheby’s, London, 25 July 1916, no. 137, Attributed to Allegretto Nuzi); purchased by Walter Dowdeswell[4] for (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris); Carl W. Hamilton [1886-1967], New York, in the early 1920s; (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris), by 1929;[5] sold 15 December 1936 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh;[6] gift 1937 to NGA. [1] The church, recorded for the first time in 1313, was officiated by the regular canons of Saint Augustine of Saint-Antoine de Vienne, a Hospitaler company founded by Gaston de Dauphiné in 1095 and transformed by Pope Boniface VIII into a religious order in 1297. It enjoyed a very rapid diffusion throughout Europe (see Italo Ruffino, “Canonici regolari di S. Agostino di S. Antonio di Vienne,” in _Dizionario degli istituti di Perfezione_ 2 [1973]: 134-141; Adalbert Mischlewski, _Grundzüge der Geschichte des Antoniterordens bis zur Ausgang des 15. Jahrhunderts_, Bonn, 1976). Romualdo Sassi (_Le chiese di Fabriano. Brevi cenni storico – artistici_, Fabriano, 1961: 11-12) recalls that the church of Sant’Antonio Abate in Fabriano had three altars, of which presumably the high altar was dedicated to the Madonna and one other to the titular saint. In the late eighteenth century, following the decline of the order, the church was transferred to the hospital, which had used it as a mortuary when the city was struck by an epidemic in 1818. By this time the building must already have been stripped of its movable works of art, even though Amico Ricci (_Memorie storiche delle arti e degli artisti della Marca di Ancona_, Macerata, 1834: 88) records the continuing presence in the sacristy of the panel of _Saint Anthony Abbot with a Group of Devotees_ now in the Pinacoteca of Fabriano and unanimously attributed to Puccio di Simone (see Fabio Marcelli, _Pinacoteca Civica “Bruno Molajoli”_, Fano, 1997: 26). The church, as Sassi reports, was demolished in 1834. Richard Offner (_A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting. Sec. III, vol. V, The Fourteenth Century. Bernardo Daddi and his circle_, Brattleboro, 1947; 2nd edition by Miklós Boskovits, assisted by Ada Labriola and Martina Ingedaay Rodio, Florence, 2001: 394-399, n. 5) presents the reasons that suggest the provenance of the Washington triptych from the church in Fabriano. [2] This is suggested by the fact that during the Napoleonic occupation of the Marche (1797-1811) many churches, especially those of religious orders, were expropriated and stripped of their works of art, and by the fact that Luigi Lanzi (_Storia pittorica della Italia dal Risorgimento delle Belle Arti fin presso al fine del XVIII secolo (1808)_, ed. Martino Capucci, Florence, 1968: 266), who records the presence in the church of frescoes signed by Allegretto and dated 136[?] , does not mention the presence of the triptych. The same argument _ex silentio_ can be adduced from Ricci (1834, 88), who claims that even the frescoes formerly situated in the cloister annexed to the church had been lost and similarly fails to mention the triptych: had it been present, it surely would not have escaped his attention. [3] This information was gleaned by Duveen Brothers, and included in the prospectus they supplied to Andrew Mellon (in NGA curatorial files). [4] Walter Dowdeswell was the agent for Duveen Brothers at this time (see Edward Fowles, _Memories of Duveen Brothers_, London, 1976: 64, and passim). The Duveen Brothers “X-Book” entry for the triptych (the painting was their number X 170) begins with “Purchased from Sotheby’s 25/7/1916” (Duveen Brothers Records, accession number 960015, Research Library, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles: reel 422; see also reel 45, box 133, folder 5; copies in NGA curatorial files). A copy of the sale catalogue in the Frick Art Reference Library, New York (copy in NGA curatorial files), is annotated with Dowdeswell’s name as the buyer. [5] The “American oil millionaire” Carl W. Hamilton decided in c. 1920 to furnish his New York apartment with works of art furnished by the Duveen Brothers; a few years later, however, he returned most of his collection to Duveen (see Fowles 1976, 98-99, 127-130; Maryle Secrest, _Duveen. A Life in Art_, New York, 2004: 181-184, 368). Joseph Duveen, head of the firm, had the triptych again by at least 19 January 1929, when he responded to a letter originally sent to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and then on to Hamilton, stating, “The correspondence has been sent to me because Mr. Hamilton no longer possesses the Triptych, which is now in my private collection . . ." (Duveen Brothers Records, reel 125, box 270, folder 3). [6] The original bill of sale is in Records of The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, subject files, box 2, NGA archives; copy in NGA curatorial files.
- Rights: CC0
- Medium: tempera on panel
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