Lot Essay
This picture was the key section of the main panel of a now dismembered altarpiece, executed circa 1490-6, formerly attributed to Giacomo Pacchiarotto (1474-1540) but given to Orioli along with almost the entire body of Pacchiarotto's oeuvre as a result of recent analysis of the stylistic and documentary material pertaining to these two artists. In two articles in Prospettiva, (Da Giacomo Pacchiarotti a Pietro Orioli, XXIX, 1982, pp. 72-8; and Pietro Orioli e il monumento "urbinate" della pittura senese del quattrocento, XXX, 1982, pp. 30-43). Alessandro Angelini suggested that the previous assignment of work to Pacchiarotto, often in an ad hoc fashion, had its source in his reputation as a political celebrity in his own time rather than on a rational basis founded on his artistic ability (op. cit., XXIX, 1982, p. 77, note 23). Historians who had assessed his work as charming though retardataire efforts of the early 16th Century have now correctly reassigned these paintings to Pietro Orioli allowing him to be seen as one of the most original and influential painters active in Siena in the last two decades of the 15th Century (L. Kanter, op. cit.).
The reassessment and reconstruction of Orioli's artistic oeuvre has been aided by the discovery of documents of payment circa 1489 relating to the fresco in the Baptistry of the Duomo of Christ washing the feet of the Apostles, and to the architectural view in the Sala della Pace in the Palazzo Pubblico, Siena (1492), and extending to his additions to Francesco di Giorgio's monochrome frescoes in the Bichi Chapel, Sant'Agostino, Siena (1490-3). Given this evidence, it is now possible to reattribute to this previously ill-defined artist a number of paintings which can be directly compared to the present work on stylistic grounds. These include the Ascension in the Pinacoteca, Siena (Inv. no. 422), the Nativity in the National Gallery, London (Inv. no. 1894), and the Visitation with Saints John the Baptist, Anthony Abbot, Anthony of Padua, Nicholas, Dominic and Leonard also in the Pinacoteca, Siena (Inv. no. 436). However, the majority of documentary evidence on Orioli relates to his presence in the lay company of San Girolamo sotto l'Ospedale from 1481 until his death, perhaps from the plague, at the age of 36 in 1496 (Coor, op. cit.). Orioli rose to the position of Prior within this company, whose regulations dictated that its members' art was to be dedicated to the glorification of God and the Virgin. Known and praised by the contemporary chronicler Sigismondo Tizio in his Historiarum Senensium for his moral virtue and religious spirit as well as for his excellent qualities as a painter (IV. f. 428; see G. Milanese, Documenti per la storia dell'arte Senese, 1854, II, p. 391), Tizio's account of the elaborate funeral procession and ceromony held in Orioli's honor in 1496 (see E. Romagnoli, Biografia cronologica de bellartisti Senesi, V, ed. 1976, p. 311) clearly demonstrate the high regard in which this artist was held by his peers.
Orioli probably trained with Matteo di Giovanni, however, his interest in architectural structure also reveals a dependance on the style of Francesco di Giorgio and ultimately, with the works now restored to him for the series executed for the Piccolomini, the influence of Luca Signorelli, and the Umbrian artists around Perugino. Furthermore the present work together with such paintings as the Nativity and the Ascension attest to his awareness of contemporary developments in Florence. The composition of the present work was, however, probably inspired by Girolamo da Cremona's Assumption manuscript miniature of 1468 in the Piccolomini Library, Siena (Coor, op. cit.) in which the Madonna is also, unusually, shown standing.
The reconstruction of the Assumption altarpiece was first begun by Gertrude Coor who correctly noted that this work anticipated the Ascension altarpiece in the Pinacoteca, Siena (Fig.1). The tall and narrow shape of the present painting, together with its large size and iconography, indicate that it was originally in the center of a large altarpiece of similar format to that work, a style which was very popular in the Sienese school in the second half of the fifteenth through to the early 16th century. On this basis she proposed a reconstruction based on the Ascension, with the central panel flanked by angels grouped in arcs to either side, observed from below by compact groups of prophets and characters from the Old Testament, with a predella panel below and probably with additional saints and prophets painted within the pilasters of the architectural frame.
Coors started to piece together various fragments cut from the original altarpiece linking them to the same altar through similarities in subject, form, color, and technique. The pieces now recognised as forming part of the Assumption altarpiece are set against a light blue background of sky, have translucent halos of gold dots and employ a rich and varied color scheme in the garments. Today these fragments are scattered in private collections and museums worldwide: two panels, depicting Saint John the Baptist and three Saints (15¼ x 13¾in.) in the collection of Mrs James A. Murnaghan, Dublin, which went to the right of the Madonna, and, King David, Moses and two Saints (16 x 15in.) in the Anthony Post collection, London, which went to her left, reveal the tail end of the rays eminating from the Madonna allow their position to be quite accurately pinpointed slightly higher than the corresponding figures in the Ascension altarpiece. Two panels with three angels each (14 x 17¼in.), which can be placed to either side of the Madonna but above the prophets, are in the Samuel Kress collection and are now in the El Paso Museum of Art, Texas. A further fragment of an angel playing a Lute (12¾ x 8½in.) is in the Baltimore Museum of Art, MD. This work, which includes the scroll of a Saint's crozier, can be placed just above the line where Saints and Prophets might logically have knelt in awe below the ascending Madonna. Vertova also speculates that an additional fragment, once in the Sir Kenneth Muir Mackenzie collection, London, (the source from which the panel now owned by Anthony Post eminated) depicting a small Saint Onuphrius kneeling in a landscape, might be identified with one of these adoring Saints (op. cit., p. 162). At the base of the original panel was a single plank predella which has been cut into several pieces: in the center directly below the present work was a Crucifixion (15 x 10 5/8in.) now in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, MD. To either side of this were scenes from the Life of Christ; at the far left, the Nativity, formerly in the G. Stenman collection, Stockholm, followed by the Baptism (15 x 10 5/8in.) in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. To the right of the Crucifixion was the Resurrection (15 x 10 5/8in.) also in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, and after this the Descent of the Holy Ghost (15 x 16in.) formerly in the collection of Count Vittorio Cini, Venice. Although Coor and Vertova believe these fragments to have come from the Assumption altarpiece, Kanter (op. cit., p. 339, note 1) argues that the iconography of these fragments deem it more likely that it was associated with the Ascension altar in Siena. Though acknowledging that a more suitable scheme would have been based on the Life of the Virgin, Vertova (op.cit., p. 162) notes that the combination of these scenes with the present subject would not have been without precedent and in taking Coor's work a step further, in estimating the overall size of the altarpiece at 3½ yards in height and 84in. in width, she notes that this would allow for two additional predella scenes. She believes that these might logically depict scenes from the Life of the Virgin thus making the predella more iconographically complete. Vertova speculates that these fragments might depict the Annunciation to the far left and the Dormition of the Virgin on the far right. Three small panels of Saints Francis, Jerome, and Anthony of Padua, now in the Courtauld Institute, London, may have come from a pilaster of the frame set in a similar way to the Nativity altarpiece in the National Gallery, London.
The reassessment and reconstruction of Orioli's artistic oeuvre has been aided by the discovery of documents of payment circa 1489 relating to the fresco in the Baptistry of the Duomo of Christ washing the feet of the Apostles, and to the architectural view in the Sala della Pace in the Palazzo Pubblico, Siena (1492), and extending to his additions to Francesco di Giorgio's monochrome frescoes in the Bichi Chapel, Sant'Agostino, Siena (1490-3). Given this evidence, it is now possible to reattribute to this previously ill-defined artist a number of paintings which can be directly compared to the present work on stylistic grounds. These include the Ascension in the Pinacoteca, Siena (Inv. no. 422), the Nativity in the National Gallery, London (Inv. no. 1894), and the Visitation with Saints John the Baptist, Anthony Abbot, Anthony of Padua, Nicholas, Dominic and Leonard also in the Pinacoteca, Siena (Inv. no. 436). However, the majority of documentary evidence on Orioli relates to his presence in the lay company of San Girolamo sotto l'Ospedale from 1481 until his death, perhaps from the plague, at the age of 36 in 1496 (Coor, op. cit.). Orioli rose to the position of Prior within this company, whose regulations dictated that its members' art was to be dedicated to the glorification of God and the Virgin. Known and praised by the contemporary chronicler Sigismondo Tizio in his Historiarum Senensium for his moral virtue and religious spirit as well as for his excellent qualities as a painter (IV. f. 428; see G. Milanese, Documenti per la storia dell'arte Senese, 1854, II, p. 391), Tizio's account of the elaborate funeral procession and ceromony held in Orioli's honor in 1496 (see E. Romagnoli, Biografia cronologica de bellartisti Senesi, V, ed. 1976, p. 311) clearly demonstrate the high regard in which this artist was held by his peers.
Orioli probably trained with Matteo di Giovanni, however, his interest in architectural structure also reveals a dependance on the style of Francesco di Giorgio and ultimately, with the works now restored to him for the series executed for the Piccolomini, the influence of Luca Signorelli, and the Umbrian artists around Perugino. Furthermore the present work together with such paintings as the Nativity and the Ascension attest to his awareness of contemporary developments in Florence. The composition of the present work was, however, probably inspired by Girolamo da Cremona's Assumption manuscript miniature of 1468 in the Piccolomini Library, Siena (Coor, op. cit.) in which the Madonna is also, unusually, shown standing.
The reconstruction of the Assumption altarpiece was first begun by Gertrude Coor who correctly noted that this work anticipated the Ascension altarpiece in the Pinacoteca, Siena (Fig.1). The tall and narrow shape of the present painting, together with its large size and iconography, indicate that it was originally in the center of a large altarpiece of similar format to that work, a style which was very popular in the Sienese school in the second half of the fifteenth through to the early 16th century. On this basis she proposed a reconstruction based on the Ascension, with the central panel flanked by angels grouped in arcs to either side, observed from below by compact groups of prophets and characters from the Old Testament, with a predella panel below and probably with additional saints and prophets painted within the pilasters of the architectural frame.
Coors started to piece together various fragments cut from the original altarpiece linking them to the same altar through similarities in subject, form, color, and technique. The pieces now recognised as forming part of the Assumption altarpiece are set against a light blue background of sky, have translucent halos of gold dots and employ a rich and varied color scheme in the garments. Today these fragments are scattered in private collections and museums worldwide: two panels, depicting Saint John the Baptist and three Saints (15¼ x 13¾in.) in the collection of Mrs James A. Murnaghan, Dublin, which went to the right of the Madonna, and, King David, Moses and two Saints (16 x 15in.) in the Anthony Post collection, London, which went to her left, reveal the tail end of the rays eminating from the Madonna allow their position to be quite accurately pinpointed slightly higher than the corresponding figures in the Ascension altarpiece. Two panels with three angels each (14 x 17¼in.), which can be placed to either side of the Madonna but above the prophets, are in the Samuel Kress collection and are now in the El Paso Museum of Art, Texas. A further fragment of an angel playing a Lute (12¾ x 8½in.) is in the Baltimore Museum of Art, MD. This work, which includes the scroll of a Saint's crozier, can be placed just above the line where Saints and Prophets might logically have knelt in awe below the ascending Madonna. Vertova also speculates that an additional fragment, once in the Sir Kenneth Muir Mackenzie collection, London, (the source from which the panel now owned by Anthony Post eminated) depicting a small Saint Onuphrius kneeling in a landscape, might be identified with one of these adoring Saints (op. cit., p. 162). At the base of the original panel was a single plank predella which has been cut into several pieces: in the center directly below the present work was a Crucifixion (15 x 10 5/8in.) now in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, MD. To either side of this were scenes from the Life of Christ; at the far left, the Nativity, formerly in the G. Stenman collection, Stockholm, followed by the Baptism (15 x 10 5/8in.) in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. To the right of the Crucifixion was the Resurrection (15 x 10 5/8in.) also in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, and after this the Descent of the Holy Ghost (15 x 16in.) formerly in the collection of Count Vittorio Cini, Venice. Although Coor and Vertova believe these fragments to have come from the Assumption altarpiece, Kanter (op. cit., p. 339, note 1) argues that the iconography of these fragments deem it more likely that it was associated with the Ascension altar in Siena. Though acknowledging that a more suitable scheme would have been based on the Life of the Virgin, Vertova (op.cit., p. 162) notes that the combination of these scenes with the present subject would not have been without precedent and in taking Coor's work a step further, in estimating the overall size of the altarpiece at 3½ yards in height and 84in. in width, she notes that this would allow for two additional predella scenes. She believes that these might logically depict scenes from the Life of the Virgin thus making the predella more iconographically complete. Vertova speculates that these fragments might depict the Annunciation to the far left and the Dormition of the Virgin on the far right. Three small panels of Saints Francis, Jerome, and Anthony of Padua, now in the Courtauld Institute, London, may have come from a pilaster of the frame set in a similar way to the Nativity altarpiece in the National Gallery, London.