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Lot Essay
An important and early representation of Umbrian School painting, this remarkable triptych was painted by an anonymous artist working in Spoleto in the early fourteenth century and is notable for remaining complete. A corpus of work by the Master of Fossa was first assembled by Roberto Longhi in the 1950s. He named the Master of Fossa after a tabernacle formerly from the church of Santa Maria ad Cryptas in Fossa, near L’Aquila. At that time, Longhi coined a separate name for the author of the present work: the Master of the Böhler Triptych, in reference to its provenance in the first half of the twentieth century, when it was in the possession of the dealer Julius Böhler in Munich (loc. cit.). The triptych had previously been regarded by scholars to have been of Riminese or Bolognese origins. Longhi was the first to return it to the environs of Spoleto.
Filippo Todini would subsequently identify Longhi’s Master of Fossa and Master of the Böhler Triptych as one and the same, although the present triptych would continue on occasion to be associated with similar Umbrian hands, including the Master of the Poldi Pezzoli Diptych (Mauro Natale, loc. cit.). After recent extensive study by Alessandro Delpriori and Lorenzo Sbaraglio, both of whom date the triptych to circa 1325-30, the attribution to the Master of Fossa is now largely unchallenged and has been recently endorsed by Mauro Natale.
Most authors, regardless of how they have attributed the triptych, have noted the assimilation of earlier Sienese precedents into the master’s Umbrian aesthetic, agreeing on a tangible stylistic relationship with the narrative fresco cycles of Pietro Lorenzetti and Simone Martini. Longhi, in particular, observed a greater subtlety and definition of sentiment in the artist’s hand than in that of other Umbrian masters. A distinct sensitivity to nature is discernible in the depiction of the landscape in the Agony in the Garden; Sbaraglio draws comparisons with the undulating mountains in Simone Martini’s fresco scene of St Martin Renouncing Earthly Weapons (Cappella di San Martino, Lower Basilica di San Francesco, Assisi).
The triptych was most likely commissioned for private devotion. It depicts the Passion of Christ across eight distinct scenes; no particular emphasis is given to the Crucifixion itself, and Delpriori has commented on the tendency of the Spoleto masters to place greater primacy on narrative than on one central image. Yet they did not bind themselves to a conventional reading of the narrative from left to right, and the current triptych presents no exception. In the nineteenth century, the wings were detached and possibly joined together independently of the central panel; the work was restored to its triptych format in the early 1900s.
We are grateful to Prof. Mauro Natale for endorsing the attribution on the basis of photographs.
Filippo Todini would subsequently identify Longhi’s Master of Fossa and Master of the Böhler Triptych as one and the same, although the present triptych would continue on occasion to be associated with similar Umbrian hands, including the Master of the Poldi Pezzoli Diptych (Mauro Natale, loc. cit.). After recent extensive study by Alessandro Delpriori and Lorenzo Sbaraglio, both of whom date the triptych to circa 1325-30, the attribution to the Master of Fossa is now largely unchallenged and has been recently endorsed by Mauro Natale.
Most authors, regardless of how they have attributed the triptych, have noted the assimilation of earlier Sienese precedents into the master’s Umbrian aesthetic, agreeing on a tangible stylistic relationship with the narrative fresco cycles of Pietro Lorenzetti and Simone Martini. Longhi, in particular, observed a greater subtlety and definition of sentiment in the artist’s hand than in that of other Umbrian masters. A distinct sensitivity to nature is discernible in the depiction of the landscape in the Agony in the Garden; Sbaraglio draws comparisons with the undulating mountains in Simone Martini’s fresco scene of St Martin Renouncing Earthly Weapons (Cappella di San Martino, Lower Basilica di San Francesco, Assisi).
The triptych was most likely commissioned for private devotion. It depicts the Passion of Christ across eight distinct scenes; no particular emphasis is given to the Crucifixion itself, and Delpriori has commented on the tendency of the Spoleto masters to place greater primacy on narrative than on one central image. Yet they did not bind themselves to a conventional reading of the narrative from left to right, and the current triptych presents no exception. In the nineteenth century, the wings were detached and possibly joined together independently of the central panel; the work was restored to its triptych format in the early 1900s.
We are grateful to Prof. Mauro Natale for endorsing the attribution on the basis of photographs.