Head of Saint Leonard

The identity of the tonsured saint in the habit of a deacon as Saint Leonard emerges from his attribute of medieval hand-shackles, which refer to an account of his legend, which narrates how Saint Leonard had delivered one of his servants from the chains, after which he was a patron for the imprisoned.

The rediscovery of this fragment is a fascinating addition to the knowledge of early Sienese fresco painting in the following of Duccio. Few fragments from early Sienese frescoes survive outside of public collections; the National Gallery in London holds three fresco fragments by Ambrogio and Pietro Lorenzetti and their workshops, which were detached from the walls of San Francesco in Siena. The archaic byzantine patterns visible on the collar and over the shoulders of the saint’s chasuble, are convincing indications that the saint was painted by an artist active in the first decades of the 14^th Century. The Saint Leonard under discussion was likely detached in the late 19^th Century from the walls of a no longer extant church in the region of Siena.

The present fragment predates the Lorenzetti fragments in London and was thought to be by the Sienese painter and father of Lippo Memmi, Memmo di Filippuccio, or a painter in his orbit (oral communication based on a photograph by Mario Scalini, former Soprintendente of Siena, March 2020). While this opinion cannot be fully sustained, it nevertheless aims in the right direction, to Sienese early Trecento painting during the time of Duccio and his artistic heirs, such as Segna di Bonaventura (active 1298; died 1326/31) and Ugolino di Nerio (active 1317-27). The typology and artistic formulae created by these masters ultimately derive from Duccio’s principles, but the present Saint Leonard visibly lacks the tension and expressiveness discernible in the works of these painters; his face is softer than those discernible in Segna di Bonaventura’s and Ugolino’s creations. Compelling stylistic comparisons can however be drawn with Segna’s Virgin and Child in the Pieve dei SS Stefano e Degna in Castiglione d’ Orcia, which displays the same strong outlines of the face, with vigorously drawn eyebrows, eyelids, and a prominent long thin nose. Segna’s workshop was presumably well-acquainted with fresco painting, although no murals by Segna are known. However his two sons Niccolò and Francesco would go on to complete fresco cycles in various churches in Siena (San Martino, Santa Maria dei Servi) and in the wider region.

We are grateful to Dr. Gaudenz Freuler for the preparation of this catalogue entry.