Saint John the Baptist
Saint John the Baptist
- Artist
- Follower of Pietro Lorenzetti
- Artist Dates
- active 1306-1345
- Artist Nationality
- Italian
- Title
- Saint John the Baptist
- Date
- before 1362
- Medium
- tempera and gold on panel
- Dimensions
- 108.6 x 43.2 cm (42-3/4 x 17 in)
- K Number
- K1237
- Repository
- Austin Arts Center
- Notes
Provenance
Private collection, Siena. (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi [1878-1955], Rome-Florence); sold to Samuel H.Kress [1863-1955] on 1 September 1939 as Attributed to Pietro Lorenzetti; gift to Austin Arts Center, Trinity College, Hartford, in 1961.
Catalogue Entry
Follower of Pietro Lorenzetti
Saint John the Baptist
K1237
Hartford, Conn., Trinity College, Study Collection, since 1961.(1) Wood. 42 3/4 x 17 in. (108.6 x 43.2 cm.). Inscribed on scroll: ECCE AGNUS DEI ECCE QUI TOLLIS PECCATA MUNDI MISERE NOBIS (Behold the Lamb of God; Thou Who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us) –partly from John 1:29. Extensively abraded. This panel, from a dismembered altarpiece,(2) has been attributed to Pietro Lorenzetti and more recently to Tegliacci.(3) Its close similarity to the Baptist in an altarpiece in the Siena Pinacoteca signed by Tegliacci and Luca di Tomme makes an attribution to one or the other of these artists reasonable, and although critics have given Luca credit for the Baptist in the signed altarpiece, the more intensely expressive character of K1237 may be evidence of Tegliacci's hand and may indicate a date preceding 1362, when the altarpiece was dated. The Evangelist (probably St. John) in the pinnacle of K1237 is shown winged, a rare iconographical feature. Provenance: Private Collection, Siena. Contini Bonacossi, Florence. Kress acquisition, 1939.
References
(1) J. C. E. Taylor, in Cesare Barbieri Courier, vol. IV, no. I, 1961, p. 18, as Pietro Lorenzetti or a follower. (2) W. E. Suida (in ms. opinion) states that other parts of the same polyptych are in the Siena Pinacoteca. He may refer to the four half-length saints, Pinacoteca nos. 62 and 64, attributed there to Pietro Lorenzetti; another pair of saints in this series is in the Rabinowitz Collection at Yale University. (3) G. Fiocco, R. Longhi, W. E. Suida, and A. Venturi (in ms. opinions) have attributed K1237 to Pietro Lorenzetti; F. M. Perkins (in ms. opinion) finds it strongly influenced by Pietro. F. Zeri (in Paragone, no. 105, 1958, p. 10) assigns ino the early oeuvre of Tegliacci.