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Lot Essay
Stefano d'Antonio di Vanni was a collaborator of Bicci di Lorenzo, and contemporary records show that theirs was the largest and most successful workshop operating in Florence at the time. Lorenzo di Bicci had run the flourishing workshop before Bicci inherited it, and Bicci in turn employed his own son Neri di Bicci from the mid-15th century. As a result of these complex working practices, Bicci di Lorenzo's name has often been associated with works actually attributable to distinct hands working alongside him, like this panel, which was formerly given to Bicci but has now been identified by Laurence B. Kanter, to whom we are grateful, as the work of Stefano d'Antonio.
Saint Julian the Hospitaller was an early Christian saint born into a noble family but cursed by a pagan witch who promised he would one day murder his own parents. To avoid this terrible fate, Saint Julian left home, married, and settled far away. His parents eventually sought him out, arriving at his home one day while Julian was out hunting, and were invited by his wife to rest until their son returned. However, the Devil found Julian riding alone and told him that his wife is with another man; enraged, Julian murdered both the people he finds in his bed, only to be distraught by the truth of which his wife – who appears at the left in the present scene – immediately informs him. To repent, Julian spent the rest of his days establishing hospitals and houses for the homeless and sick, earning himself the nickname “Hospitaller”.
This panel is from the same predella as the two companion scenes (Arizona University Museum of Art, Tempe; and formerly Reinhardt Gallery, New York). All three panels have the same pastiglia ornamentation at their corners, punching in the figures' haloes, and distinctive treatment of architectural elements, which lend the series a visual coherence. Although the dimensions of the ex-Reinhardt picture are not recorded, the Tempe Nativity, which was the central element, is almost exactly twice the width of the present work. As Laurence Kanter pointed out, the altarpiece probably consisted of three elements, rather than five, because the predelle of conventional pentaptychs of this period usually did not feature central scenes twice as wide as lateral compartments. The three panels, therefore, almost certainly comprised the entirety of the original predella, and were probably surmounted by a central narrative scene flanked by two full-length standing saints, each above the panel showing a story from his legend.
The main components of this altarpiece have not been identified. One of the lateral panels clearly represented Saint Julian (a popular figure in Florentine art of this period) as the iconography of this work implies. The other lateral panel would have shown the saint responsible for the miracle represented in the ex-Reinhardt picture, which shows a figure falling from a window and then being resurrected after the saint's name is invoked: This presumably represented the miraculous resurrection of the son of a Roman notary when Fra Rabano invoked the aid of Saint Francis.
Scene from the life of a saint, art market, New York, 1925.
Saint Julian the Hospitaller was an early Christian saint born into a noble family but cursed by a pagan witch who promised he would one day murder his own parents. To avoid this terrible fate, Saint Julian left home, married, and settled far away. His parents eventually sought him out, arriving at his home one day while Julian was out hunting, and were invited by his wife to rest until their son returned. However, the Devil found Julian riding alone and told him that his wife is with another man; enraged, Julian murdered both the people he finds in his bed, only to be distraught by the truth of which his wife – who appears at the left in the present scene – immediately informs him. To repent, Julian spent the rest of his days establishing hospitals and houses for the homeless and sick, earning himself the nickname “Hospitaller”.
This panel is from the same predella as the two companion scenes (Arizona University Museum of Art, Tempe; and formerly Reinhardt Gallery, New York). All three panels have the same pastiglia ornamentation at their corners, punching in the figures' haloes, and distinctive treatment of architectural elements, which lend the series a visual coherence. Although the dimensions of the ex-Reinhardt picture are not recorded, the Tempe Nativity, which was the central element, is almost exactly twice the width of the present work. As Laurence Kanter pointed out, the altarpiece probably consisted of three elements, rather than five, because the predelle of conventional pentaptychs of this period usually did not feature central scenes twice as wide as lateral compartments. The three panels, therefore, almost certainly comprised the entirety of the original predella, and were probably surmounted by a central narrative scene flanked by two full-length standing saints, each above the panel showing a story from his legend.
The main components of this altarpiece have not been identified. One of the lateral panels clearly represented Saint Julian (a popular figure in Florentine art of this period) as the iconography of this work implies. The other lateral panel would have shown the saint responsible for the miracle represented in the ex-Reinhardt picture, which shows a figure falling from a window and then being resurrected after the saint's name is invoked: This presumably represented the miraculous resurrection of the son of a Roman notary when Fra Rabano invoked the aid of Saint Francis.
Scene from the life of a saint, art market, New York, 1925.