拍品专文
Apart from a signed polyptych of 1307 by Giuliano da Rimini in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, this work is the only full- scale altarpiece of the Riminese trecento outside Italy. The relative inaccessibility of Carlton Towers has meant, however, that its Riminese origin was only recognized in the early 1980s and despite subsequent publications by Boskovits, who established the early provenance recorded above, and Tambini, it was not until the polyptych's inclusion in the 1995-6 Rimini exhibition, cited above, that its place in the development of the Riminese school was fully recognized.
As Daniele Benati observed in his full entry in the exhibition catalogue, the picture is of importance for the evidence this offers of the first phase of the Riminese school. Following Boskovits he stresses its connection with the key picture for the identification of Giuliano's personality, the Boston polyptych of 1307 (C. Volpi, La Pittura Riminese del Trecento, Milan, 1965, no. 1, pls. 1-7), pointing to parallels in the figures of both Saints John and Saint Catherine of Alexandria, and in the design of the halos of Christ and the Virgin in the central compartment. Benati also observes that the composition of the Coronation is conformable with that of a fresco of the subject at Fermo, generally given to Giuliano and dated about 1310. Benati further argues that by comparison with the earlier works referred to above, the polyptych is cast in the same 'matrice giottesca assisiate' as the series of frescoes in the Capella di San Nicolò at Tolentino, the major extant decorative scheme of the Riminese school, which are now considered to be by both Giuliano and his relation Giovanni da Rimini, and do indeed imply a familiarity with the murals of Giotto and his contemporaries at Assisi.
Benati notes parallels with a number of smaller panels attributed to Giovanni da Rimini, who had an instinctive sympathy for Byzantine taste. He compares the type of the Baptist with the Redeemer on the top of the great Crucifix in the Church of S. Francesco at Mercatello (C. Volpi, op. cit., no. 13, pls. 30-3) and other details with the dyptych, now divided between the Galleria Nazionale, Rome and Alnwick Castle (D. Benati, in the exhibition catalogue, Il Trecento Riminese, 1995-6, nos. 13 and 14), a triptych in the Museo Correr, Venice, and other works. Benati also compares elements of the upper series with prototypes by Giovanni, relating the Crucifixion to a fresco of 1310-20 at Jesi, variously attributed to Giovanni and to Giuliano. He concludes by observing that the polyptych reveals an admixture of Giuliano's style with a 'sensibilità' and figurative taste close to that of Giovanni, and noting that, in view of their family connection, the two may have worked in the some bottega.
Something of the impact the polyptych must have made when it was delivered is suggested by the evident dependence upon the Lamentation of the right hand panel of Pietro da Rimini's exquisite panel of the subject at Berlin, no. 265 (Benati, loc. cit., no. 18): while the iconography had been substantially established in the compartment of Giovanni's panel at Rome referred to above, the dependence of the Berlin panel, which is dated c. 1325-30 by Benati, is placed beyond reasonable doubt by the three rocky hills of the landscape, whose counterparts in the present polyptych have a specific pictorial function - to echo the gable of the panel while balancing the groups of figures in the Mocking of Christ on the left wing.
As Daniele Benati observed in his full entry in the exhibition catalogue, the picture is of importance for the evidence this offers of the first phase of the Riminese school. Following Boskovits he stresses its connection with the key picture for the identification of Giuliano's personality, the Boston polyptych of 1307 (C. Volpi, La Pittura Riminese del Trecento, Milan, 1965, no. 1, pls. 1-7), pointing to parallels in the figures of both Saints John and Saint Catherine of Alexandria, and in the design of the halos of Christ and the Virgin in the central compartment. Benati also observes that the composition of the Coronation is conformable with that of a fresco of the subject at Fermo, generally given to Giuliano and dated about 1310. Benati further argues that by comparison with the earlier works referred to above, the polyptych is cast in the same 'matrice giottesca assisiate' as the series of frescoes in the Capella di San Nicolò at Tolentino, the major extant decorative scheme of the Riminese school, which are now considered to be by both Giuliano and his relation Giovanni da Rimini, and do indeed imply a familiarity with the murals of Giotto and his contemporaries at Assisi.
Benati notes parallels with a number of smaller panels attributed to Giovanni da Rimini, who had an instinctive sympathy for Byzantine taste. He compares the type of the Baptist with the Redeemer on the top of the great Crucifix in the Church of S. Francesco at Mercatello (C. Volpi, op. cit., no. 13, pls. 30-3) and other details with the dyptych, now divided between the Galleria Nazionale, Rome and Alnwick Castle (D. Benati, in the exhibition catalogue, Il Trecento Riminese, 1995-6, nos. 13 and 14), a triptych in the Museo Correr, Venice, and other works. Benati also compares elements of the upper series with prototypes by Giovanni, relating the Crucifixion to a fresco of 1310-20 at Jesi, variously attributed to Giovanni and to Giuliano. He concludes by observing that the polyptych reveals an admixture of Giuliano's style with a 'sensibilità' and figurative taste close to that of Giovanni, and noting that, in view of their family connection, the two may have worked in the some bottega.
Something of the impact the polyptych must have made when it was delivered is suggested by the evident dependence upon the Lamentation of the right hand panel of Pietro da Rimini's exquisite panel of the subject at Berlin, no. 265 (Benati, loc. cit., no. 18): while the iconography had been substantially established in the compartment of Giovanni's panel at Rome referred to above, the dependence of the Berlin panel, which is dated c. 1325-30 by Benati, is placed beyond reasonable doubt by the three rocky hills of the landscape, whose counterparts in the present polyptych have a specific pictorial function - to echo the gable of the panel while balancing the groups of figures in the Mocking of Christ on the left wing.