Lot Essay
Once thought to be by Allegretto Nuzi (1315-1373), considered the founder of the Fabriano school of painters, this predella panel was first identified by Bernard Berenson in 1930 as a work by Martino di Bartolomeo di Biagio (op. cit.), one of the most successful and prolific Sienese painters active in the first quarter of the fifteenth century. The panel evidently formed a section of a predella from a dispersed altarpiece, which included a Martyrdom of Saint Stephen (La Spezia, Museo Civico Amedeo Lia) that was exhibited alongside the present work in 1917 (loc. cit). That both these panels were historically associated with Nuzi, while other works by the artist have been given to Spinello Aretino, illustrates the fact that Martino has been ‘valued as of a rank with the best of that time in Italy’ (Berenson, op. cit., 1969).
The son of the Sienese goldsmith Bartolomeo di Biagio, Martino probably trained with Taddeo di Bartolo and was first inscribed in the ‘Breve dei Pittori senesi’ in 1389. By 1393, Martino was living in Pisa, where he remained for over a decade. During this period he was also employed in Lucca, where he illuminated the choir-books for the cathedral in the mid-1390s. He worked on a series of frescoes (signed and dated 1398) in San Giovanni Battista at Cascina, outside Pisa, and collaborated with Giovanni di Pietro da Napoli for the polyptych, executed in 1402, for the Pisan church of Santa Chiara. At this juncture in his career, Martino’s work displayed the influence of Spinello Aretino, Antonio Veneziano and Piero di Puccio, artists who had all been employed at various points over the previous two decades for the fresco decoration of the Campo Santo at Pisa. When Martino returned to Siena, sometime after 1405, he was recognised as one of the major painters in the city and was given commissions in both the cathedral and the Palazzo Pubblico. The modelling of the figures, rocky landscape setting and insistent linear quality are redolent of Taddeo di Bartolo, Martino's teacher and principal rival in Siena. Andrea de Marchi (op. cit.) has tentatively suggested that both this predella and the panel from the Lia collection were executed during the artist's years in Pisa.
The daughter of a Christian king of Brittany, Ursula was betrothed to Prince Etherius, the son of a pagan king of England. Among the conditions of their marriage was that Etherius should be baptised a Christian and that he accompany Ursula on a pilgrimage to Rome, a journey they began by boat up the Rhine. In addition, for this pilgrimage, Ursula was to be provided with ten virgin companions, and that both she and her companions should each have one thousand attendants. On their return from Rome, Ursula, her husband and the eleven thousand virgins were massacred by the Huns outside the besieged city of Cologne. This predella shows the moment Saint Ursula is killed by an arrow after refusing the barbarian leader’s proposal of marriage.
We are grateful to Professore Emanuele Zappasodi for confirming the attribution on the basis of photographs.
The son of the Sienese goldsmith Bartolomeo di Biagio, Martino probably trained with Taddeo di Bartolo and was first inscribed in the ‘Breve dei Pittori senesi’ in 1389. By 1393, Martino was living in Pisa, where he remained for over a decade. During this period he was also employed in Lucca, where he illuminated the choir-books for the cathedral in the mid-1390s. He worked on a series of frescoes (signed and dated 1398) in San Giovanni Battista at Cascina, outside Pisa, and collaborated with Giovanni di Pietro da Napoli for the polyptych, executed in 1402, for the Pisan church of Santa Chiara. At this juncture in his career, Martino’s work displayed the influence of Spinello Aretino, Antonio Veneziano and Piero di Puccio, artists who had all been employed at various points over the previous two decades for the fresco decoration of the Campo Santo at Pisa. When Martino returned to Siena, sometime after 1405, he was recognised as one of the major painters in the city and was given commissions in both the cathedral and the Palazzo Pubblico. The modelling of the figures, rocky landscape setting and insistent linear quality are redolent of Taddeo di Bartolo, Martino's teacher and principal rival in Siena. Andrea de Marchi (op. cit.) has tentatively suggested that both this predella and the panel from the Lia collection were executed during the artist's years in Pisa.
The daughter of a Christian king of Brittany, Ursula was betrothed to Prince Etherius, the son of a pagan king of England. Among the conditions of their marriage was that Etherius should be baptised a Christian and that he accompany Ursula on a pilgrimage to Rome, a journey they began by boat up the Rhine. In addition, for this pilgrimage, Ursula was to be provided with ten virgin companions, and that both she and her companions should each have one thousand attendants. On their return from Rome, Ursula, her husband and the eleven thousand virgins were massacred by the Huns outside the besieged city of Cologne. This predella shows the moment Saint Ursula is killed by an arrow after refusing the barbarian leader’s proposal of marriage.
We are grateful to Professore Emanuele Zappasodi for confirming the attribution on the basis of photographs.