San Bernardino of Siena Preaching
San Bernardino of Siena Preaching
- Artist
- Giovanni di Ser Giovanni Guidi
- Also Known As
- Lo Scheggia
- Artist Dates
- 1406-1486
- Artist Nationality
- Italian
- Title
- San Bernardino of Siena Preaching
- Date
- mid-15th century
- Medium
- tempera on panel
- Dimensions
- 24.5 x 23.6 cm (9-5/8 x 9-1/4 in)
- K Number
- K1108B
- Repository
- Birmingham Museum of Art
- Accession Number
- 1961.108
- Notes
Provenance
(Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi [1878-1955], Rome-Florence); sold to Samuel H. Kress [1863-1955] on 16 June 1937 as Maestro di Fucecchio; gift to the Birmingham Museum of Art in 1961, no.1961.107.
Catalogue Entry
Giovanni di Ser Giovanni Guidi
San Bernardino of Siena Preaching
K1108B
Birmingham, Ala., Birmingham Museum of Art (61.108), since 1952.(1) Wood. 10 1/2 x 10 in. (26.7 x 25.4 cm.). Inscribed on the plaque held by St. Bernardine: YHS (the monogram of Jesus). Slight damages throughout. For the unusual scene of the panel's companion (St. Anthony Abbot Tempted by Gold, K1108A), the artist had a prototype in the very similar composition by Fra Angelico now in the Straus Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas. Since St. Bernardine is shown with a halo, the panels, which probably come from the predella of an altarpiece, would have been painted, one might conclude, after his death (1444) and probably after he was canonized (1450). But Bernardine is an exception to the rule: he was not infrequently shown with a halo not only before his canonization, but also before his death.(2) Provenance: Contini Bonacossi, Florence. Kress acquisition, 1937.
References
(1) Catalogue by W. E. Suida, 1952, pp. 31 ff., and 1954, p. 40, as the Master of Fucecchio. (2) C. Brandi (in Burlington Magazine, vol. LXXXIX, 1947, p. 196; see also G. Kaftal, Iconography of the Saints in Tuscan Painting, 1952, cols. 197 f., for this iconographical detail. As to the attribution of K1108A and B, R. Longhi (in Critica d'Arte, July-Dec. 1940, p. 187), B. Berenson, G. Fiocco, and A. Venturi (in ms. opinions) agree in attributing them to the Master of Fucecchio; but Berenson later (Italian Pictures ... Florentine School, vol. I, 1963, p. 62) lists them as Francesco d'Antonio.