Lot Essay
In 1380, the Sienese painter, Francesco di Vannuccio painted a double-sided Crucifixion with Donors, today in the Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (fig. 1), which he signed and dated, FRANCISCHUS DE VANNUCIO DE SENIS PINSIT HOC OPUS MCCCLXXX (‘Francesco di Vannuccio of Siena painted this work 1380’). While the artist’s precise identity has been the subject of some confusion, it is on the basis of the signed Berlin painting that his body of work was reconstructed. Traditionally, he has been identified as Francio di Vannuccio, who was registered with the Sienese guild of painters from the time of their list’s inception in 1356 (Strehlke, 2004, op. cit.). Francesco di Vannuccio worked on minor commissions for the city of Siena and the surrounding area. The majority of his surviving works though are small-scale devotional diptychs and triptychs, richly decorated in gold with vivid colours and skilful punchwork, produced for wealthy, private patrons.
This Saint Anthony Abbot has been associated with one of the few documented works by Francesco di Vannuccio, an altarpiece painted for the Compagnia di Sant’Antonio dell’Abate, Siena. In the confraternity’s ledger book, the artist is listed as having received a payment of sixteen soldi for the altarpiece in 1388 (op. cit.). While the altarpiece is now lost, Federico Zeri considered the present Saint Anthony Abbot to be a likely candidate for one of the polyptych’s lateral panels (op. cit.). Given the confraternity’s dedication to Saint Anthony Abbot, it seems logical they would have chosen the saint to be included among the flanking figures for their polyptych. As the altarpiece’s central panel, Zeri proposed Francesco di Vannuccio’s Madonna della pace, which today adorns the high altar in the church of San Giovannino della Staffa, Siena (fig. 2; op. cit.).
The fragmentary state of the present painting, whose lower section has been curtailed at some point, renders it difficult to exactly compare the dimensions of the two panels, though they certainly correspond in scale. They also share similarly shaped tops, with steeply sloping shoulders, and the upper edge of the Saint Anthony Abbot bears remnants of the rounded central lobe above his head which has since been removed. In the Madonna della pace, however, the Virgin is positioned higher within the composition, with her tilted head positioned well inside the rounded upper section, increasing her prominence and presumably elevating her above the saints that would have accompanied her at either side.
The borders and halo of the Saint Anthony Abbot panel are beautifully tooled as is typical of Francesco di Vannuccio, with multiple rows of elaborate decoration. The halo is embellished with a large, six-petaled flower motif, punctuating a carpet of punched dots. The panel’s border has a similar strip of punched dots, this time interspersed with a simpler cross motif. The tooling in the Madonna della pace panel, however, is remarkably less extravagant. While similar cross-shaped and six-petaled flower motifs have been employed, they are outlined with simplified rows of uneven, imprecisely tooled dots, suggesting these areas of punchwork were possibly reworked at a later stage by a less accomplished artist.
Following the 1388 record of payment in the ledger of the Compagnia di Sant’Antonio, the last known documentation of the artist is in 1389, when one Francesco di Vannuccio di Martini was enrolled with the Sienese painters’ guild. He had been registered in the Popolo del Pellegrino area of Siena since 1384 but was not included in their tax rolls of 1391, suggesting he died at some point in the intervening two years (Strehlke, 2004, op. cit.).
This Saint Anthony Abbot has been associated with one of the few documented works by Francesco di Vannuccio, an altarpiece painted for the Compagnia di Sant’Antonio dell’Abate, Siena. In the confraternity’s ledger book, the artist is listed as having received a payment of sixteen soldi for the altarpiece in 1388 (op. cit.). While the altarpiece is now lost, Federico Zeri considered the present Saint Anthony Abbot to be a likely candidate for one of the polyptych’s lateral panels (op. cit.). Given the confraternity’s dedication to Saint Anthony Abbot, it seems logical they would have chosen the saint to be included among the flanking figures for their polyptych. As the altarpiece’s central panel, Zeri proposed Francesco di Vannuccio’s Madonna della pace, which today adorns the high altar in the church of San Giovannino della Staffa, Siena (fig. 2; op. cit.).
The fragmentary state of the present painting, whose lower section has been curtailed at some point, renders it difficult to exactly compare the dimensions of the two panels, though they certainly correspond in scale. They also share similarly shaped tops, with steeply sloping shoulders, and the upper edge of the Saint Anthony Abbot bears remnants of the rounded central lobe above his head which has since been removed. In the Madonna della pace, however, the Virgin is positioned higher within the composition, with her tilted head positioned well inside the rounded upper section, increasing her prominence and presumably elevating her above the saints that would have accompanied her at either side.
The borders and halo of the Saint Anthony Abbot panel are beautifully tooled as is typical of Francesco di Vannuccio, with multiple rows of elaborate decoration. The halo is embellished with a large, six-petaled flower motif, punctuating a carpet of punched dots. The panel’s border has a similar strip of punched dots, this time interspersed with a simpler cross motif. The tooling in the Madonna della pace panel, however, is remarkably less extravagant. While similar cross-shaped and six-petaled flower motifs have been employed, they are outlined with simplified rows of uneven, imprecisely tooled dots, suggesting these areas of punchwork were possibly reworked at a later stage by a less accomplished artist.
Following the 1388 record of payment in the ledger of the Compagnia di Sant’Antonio, the last known documentation of the artist is in 1389, when one Francesco di Vannuccio di Martini was enrolled with the Sienese painters’ guild. He had been registered in the Popolo del Pellegrino area of Siena since 1384 but was not included in their tax rolls of 1391, suggesting he died at some point in the intervening two years (Strehlke, 2004, op. cit.).