A Vision of Saint Catherine of Siena
A Vision of Saint Catherine of Siena
- Artist
- Domenico Beccafumi
- Artist Dates
- 1486-1551
- Artist Nationality
- Italian
- Title
- A Vision of Saint Catherine of Siena
- Date
- 1528
- Medium
- oil on panel
- Dimensions
- 24.1 x 38.1 cm (9-1/2 x 15 in)
- K Number
- K1203
- Repository
- Philbrook Museum of Art
- Accession Number
- 1961.9.23
- Notes
Provenance
Church of Santo Spirito, Siena. (Manzi, Siena). [1] (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi [1878-1955], Rome-Florence); sold to Samuel H. Kress [1863-1955] on 1 September 1939; gift t1961 to Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, no. 1961.9.23. [1] Possibly Michel Manzi [1849-1915] founder of Galerie Manzi-Joyant et Cie., Paris.
Catalogue Entry
Domenico Beccafumi
A Vision of Saint Catherine of Siena
K1203
Tulsa, Okla., Philbrook Art Center (3365 and 3367), since 1953.(1) Wood. Each, 9 1/2 x 15 in. (24.1 x 38.1 cm.). K1203, good condition; K1232, fair condition, slightly abraded throughout. With three panels of similar dimensions (St. Bernardine Preaching, formerly in the collection of Dr. Alfred Scharf, London;(2) and St. Dominic Burning the Books of the Heretics and the Martyrdom of St. Sigismund's Family, both in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), K1203 and K1232 were recognized a few years ago as answering Vasari's description(3) of the predella of Beccafumi's altarpiece of the Marriage of St. Catherine painted in 1528.(4) The large main panel of the altarpiece, which was transferred in 1822 from Santo Spirito, Siena, to the Chigi-Saricini Collection in the same city, is more conservative in style than K1203 and K1232; for it was in his paintings of small format that Beccafumi gave free rein to his use of brilliant brushwork and luministic effects. The vision illustrated in K1203 is that of Christ offering St. Catherine of Siena a crown of roses and a crown of thorns: she chooses the latter. Provenance: Church of Santo Spirito, Siena (dispersed by 1822). Manzi, Siena. Contini Bonacossi, Florence. Kress acquisition, 1939 –exhibited, after entering the Philbrook Art Center: 'The Age of Vasari,' University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Ind., Feb. 22-Mar. 31, 1970; State University of New York, Binghamton, N.Y., Apr. 12-May 10, 1970, nos. P2, P3 of catalogue by M. Milkovich, as Beccafumi.
References
(1) Catalogue by W. E. Suida, 1953, pp. 36, 38, as Beccafumi. (2) Reproduced by B. Berenson (Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Central Italian and North Italian Schools, vol. III, 1968, fig. 1585), who (ibid., vol. I, p. 38) attributes K1203 and K1232 to Beccafumi, connecting them with the Chigi-Saricini altarpiece. (3) Vasari, Le Vite, Milanesi ed., vol. v, 1880, p. 637. (4) This identification (already suggested in ms. opinion by R. Longhi) was published by D. Sanminiatelli (in Connoisseur, vol. CXXXVIII, 1956, pp. 156 f.), who later (Domenico Beccafumi, 1967, pp. 100 f.) concluded that the two panels in Boston are copies. K1203 and K1232 had been attributed in the 1930's to Beccafumi by Berenson, G. Fiocco, R. Longhi, F. M. Perkins, W. E. Suida (see also note 1, above), and A. Venturi (in ms. opinions). See also P. du Colombier (in Connaissance des Arts, Apr. 1964, p. 92), M. Laclotte (in Revue du Louvre, vol. XVI, 1966, p. 245 n. 7), and Berenson (pp. 34, 38 of op. cit. in note 2, above). Sanminiatelli states that the size of each of the five panels is 9 1/2 x 15 in. (i.e. 24.1 x 38.1 cm.), which is actually the size of K1203 and K1232. However, the Boston panels measure 26 x 37.5 cm. each and the London panel 31.7 x 41.9 cm. This last panel has a painted frame all around, which has unfortunately been cropped in the reproduction in Connoisseur. The other panels probably had such frames originally (a strip is preserved at the bottoms of the Boston panels); the frames' having been cut off would account for the present discrepancies in size among the five panels. B. Suida Manning (in Archivo Español de Arte, vol. XXIV, no. 95, 1951, p. 204) cites K1232 in noting the influence of Italian painting on EI Greco's luministic representation of celestial apparitions. A. Contini Bonacossi has kindly called my attention to the close similarity between K1232 and Beccafumi's larger Baptism of Cilrist, no. 344 in the Siena Pinacoteca, from the Convent of Monte Oliveto Maggiore.