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Lot Essay
Matteo di Giovanni’s depiction of Saint Augustine once formed part of one of the artist’s most important altarpieces, formerly in the church of Sant’Agostino, Siena. The principal panel of the altarpiece was The Massacre of the Innocents now in Santa Maria della Scala, Siena, which is signed and dated, PVS·MATEI·IOHANNIS·/ESENIS·MCCCCLXXXII (1482, fig. 1). The present saint is a fragment of the lunette that once sat atop the Massacre and has since been divided into three pieces and dispersed across various collections. At its center was The Madonna and Child with two angels (Keresztény Múzeum, Esztergom; fig. 2), at right was a Saint Francis, whose sleeve is just visible at the right edge of the Esztergom panel (private collection; fig. 3); and at left was the present Saint Augustine.
John Pope-Hennessy was first to propose the reconstruction of the altarpiece in 1960 (op. cit.) while conducting a separate search for the original home of a predella panel by Matteo di Giovanni. Noting that the artist’s very similar Massacre of the Innocents for the church of Santa Maria dei Servi, Siena (now in the Museo Nazionale del Capodimonte, Naples), had been surmounted by a lunette, he suggested that the Sant’Agostino panel might have been conceived in a similar manner. Pope-Hennessy indicated a passage in Emilio Romagnoli’s 1835 biography of Matteo di Giovanni (op. cit.), in which he described a lunette in the dormitory of the convent attached to Sant’Agostino:
‘Nel fondo del Dormitorio è ancora una tavola in figura di mezzo archio, che probabilmente era sommità d’alta tavola assai più grande da altare. In campo d’oro vi è M.V. sedente col Bambino in braccio con due angeli dai lati, oltre S. Agostino e S. Bernardino, figure poco meno che naturale.’
‘At the end of the dormitory there is still a panel in the shape of a half arch, which was probably the summit of another rather larger altar panel. Against a background of gold M.V. [Virgin Mary] is seated with the Child in her arms with two angels to the sides, in addition Saint Augustine and Saint Bernard, figures that are little less than natural.’
Though Romagnoli mistook the figure of Saint Francis at right for that of Saint Bernard, he was undoubtedly referring to the lunette from which the present painting was cut. On the basis of Romagnoli’s account, Pope-Hennessy united the Esztergom panel with the Saint Francis and later with the present Saint Augustine, which he identified from its entry the 1930 exhibition catalogue (see Exhibited). The painting was loaned to the exhibition by Lord Allendale, in whose collection it had traditionally hung next to Giorgione's Adoration of the Shepherds, now in the National Gallery, Washington, DC (fig. 3). According to Dóra Sallay, the lunette had already been removed to the dormitory by the seventeenth century and was evidently still intact by the time Romagnoli described it in 1835; it is not known, however, when or indeed how it came to leave the convent, nor when it was divided into three sections. The Massacre of the Innocents, meanwhile, remained in its original location in the church of Sant’Agostino until its recent removal to the museum.
The harmonious simplicity of the lunette, with its tranquil figures placed against a celestial gold background, must have presented a stark contrast to the tangled frenzy of violence in the scene of the Massacre below. In the upper left corner of this fragment, the curving diagonal of the decoratively tooled border (which continues across the upper section of the Madonna and Child and across the upper right corner of the Saint Francis) reflects the original, semi-circular form of the panel. Saint Augustine hunches slightly to accommodate the sloping edge of the lunette as it narrows toward the corner, his pose mirrored by that of Saint Francis at right. Both figures would originally have been represented as kneeling, allowing the artist to make best use of the space, but were later cut to bust length and made up into rectangles in order to better serve as stand-alone objects.
The precise context of the commission and dedication of the altarpiece are no longer clear. As Dóra Sallay outlines in her essay surrounding the Massacre of the Innocents (op. cit., p.161-162), the altar itself was founded in 1463 by the widow, Andreoccia di Bandino di ser Luca, in remembrance of her first husband, Checco di Jacobo. The altar was to be dedicated to Saint Francis of Assisi, but in the intervening decades changed instead to that of the Innocents (op. cit., p. 162). It was at this time, by 1482, that Matteo di Giovanni’s altarpiece was installed. The reason for the shift is not known, Sallay suggests it may have been due to increased interest in the cult of the Innocents, but, as Pope-Hennessy rightly points out, the church was home to important relics of the Holy Innocents which was likely a relevant factor (op. cit., p. 64, note 12). The altar’s initial Franciscan dedication and its placement within the church of Sant’Agostino no doubt account for the inclusion of those saints in the altarpiece’s lunette.
John Pope-Hennessy was first to propose the reconstruction of the altarpiece in 1960 (op. cit.) while conducting a separate search for the original home of a predella panel by Matteo di Giovanni. Noting that the artist’s very similar Massacre of the Innocents for the church of Santa Maria dei Servi, Siena (now in the Museo Nazionale del Capodimonte, Naples), had been surmounted by a lunette, he suggested that the Sant’Agostino panel might have been conceived in a similar manner. Pope-Hennessy indicated a passage in Emilio Romagnoli’s 1835 biography of Matteo di Giovanni (op. cit.), in which he described a lunette in the dormitory of the convent attached to Sant’Agostino:
‘Nel fondo del Dormitorio è ancora una tavola in figura di mezzo archio, che probabilmente era sommità d’alta tavola assai più grande da altare. In campo d’oro vi è M.V. sedente col Bambino in braccio con due angeli dai lati, oltre S. Agostino e S. Bernardino, figure poco meno che naturale.’
‘At the end of the dormitory there is still a panel in the shape of a half arch, which was probably the summit of another rather larger altar panel. Against a background of gold M.V. [Virgin Mary] is seated with the Child in her arms with two angels to the sides, in addition Saint Augustine and Saint Bernard, figures that are little less than natural.’
Though Romagnoli mistook the figure of Saint Francis at right for that of Saint Bernard, he was undoubtedly referring to the lunette from which the present painting was cut. On the basis of Romagnoli’s account, Pope-Hennessy united the Esztergom panel with the Saint Francis and later with the present Saint Augustine, which he identified from its entry the 1930 exhibition catalogue (see Exhibited). The painting was loaned to the exhibition by Lord Allendale, in whose collection it had traditionally hung next to Giorgione's Adoration of the Shepherds, now in the National Gallery, Washington, DC (fig. 3). According to Dóra Sallay, the lunette had already been removed to the dormitory by the seventeenth century and was evidently still intact by the time Romagnoli described it in 1835; it is not known, however, when or indeed how it came to leave the convent, nor when it was divided into three sections. The Massacre of the Innocents, meanwhile, remained in its original location in the church of Sant’Agostino until its recent removal to the museum.
The harmonious simplicity of the lunette, with its tranquil figures placed against a celestial gold background, must have presented a stark contrast to the tangled frenzy of violence in the scene of the Massacre below. In the upper left corner of this fragment, the curving diagonal of the decoratively tooled border (which continues across the upper section of the Madonna and Child and across the upper right corner of the Saint Francis) reflects the original, semi-circular form of the panel. Saint Augustine hunches slightly to accommodate the sloping edge of the lunette as it narrows toward the corner, his pose mirrored by that of Saint Francis at right. Both figures would originally have been represented as kneeling, allowing the artist to make best use of the space, but were later cut to bust length and made up into rectangles in order to better serve as stand-alone objects.
The precise context of the commission and dedication of the altarpiece are no longer clear. As Dóra Sallay outlines in her essay surrounding the Massacre of the Innocents (op. cit., p.161-162), the altar itself was founded in 1463 by the widow, Andreoccia di Bandino di ser Luca, in remembrance of her first husband, Checco di Jacobo. The altar was to be dedicated to Saint Francis of Assisi, but in the intervening decades changed instead to that of the Innocents (op. cit., p. 162). It was at this time, by 1482, that Matteo di Giovanni’s altarpiece was installed. The reason for the shift is not known, Sallay suggests it may have been due to increased interest in the cult of the Innocents, but, as Pope-Hennessy rightly points out, the church was home to important relics of the Holy Innocents which was likely a relevant factor (op. cit., p. 64, note 12). The altar’s initial Franciscan dedication and its placement within the church of Sant’Agostino no doubt account for the inclusion of those saints in the altarpiece’s lunette.