Saint Helena

This Saint Helena formed the left wing of a now-dispersed triptych, first reconstructed by Everett Fahy (as cited in Christie’s, Paris, 24 June 2004, lot 55) and subsequently discussed by Andrea De Marchi (op. cit.). The central panel (Madonna and Child with Two Angels, private collection) and the right wing (Saint Simeon, Faringdon Collection, Buscot Park, Oxfordshire) share a largely continuous marble parapet and mountainous landscape, which, along with their nearly identical height, matching arched tops, and unified compositional structure, strongly support their common origin. De Marchi, who hypothesizes that these panels may originally have formed part of a polyptych, dates the ensemble to after 1507, the period in which Bernardino’s style shifted toward greater monumentality and a cooler, more translucent palette (De Marchi, op. cit., pp. 147-148).

The œuvre of Bernardino Zaganelli is now better understood, and increasingly distinguished from that of his brother Francesco, with whom he occasionally collaborated. Initially close to the circle of Ercole de' Roberti, Bernardino’s paintings gradually softened toward the classicizing spirit of Perugino. In the present panel, the crisp, angular folds of the saint’s vermilion and green draperies recall the more sculptural handling associated with his brother Francesco, yet the gentle modelling of Helena’s flesh, the restrained gilding of her diadem, and the delicate rendering of the donor’s jeweled headdress are characteristic of Bernardino’s later work (De Marchi, op. cit., p. 148).