Physical description
Saint Stephen stands, wearing a deacon's dalmatic and holing a book in his left hand and a martyr's palm in his right; he is tonsured and the bloodied stones of his martyrdom are visible on his head
Place of Origin
Siena (town), Italy (probably, painted)
Date
ca. 1389-ca. 1406 (painted)
Artist/maker
Andrea di Bartolo (attributed to, painter (artist))
Materials and Techniques
Tempera and gold on poplar panel
Dimensions
Height: 32.2 cm estimate, Width: 14.2 cm estimate, Depth: 3.5 cm
Object history note
Purchased, 1876
Historical significance: Andrea di Bartolo (between 1358 and 1364-1428) was a painter and illuminator who trained under his father Bartolo di Fredi. Unlike his father, Andrea employed a more summary drawing technique and softer, less emphatic modelling. In some ways, he was a more traditional painter than Bartolo di Fredi and less interested in naturalistic detail and expressionism. Andrea appears to have set up his own workshop after 1390 and soon became one of the most successful painters in Siena while also receiving prestigious commissions in the Veneto. In 1405–6 Andrea painted frescoes (destr.) in the chapel of S Vittore in Siena Cathedral, and in 1409–10 he painted several wooden sculptures for the cathedral, including St Crescentius by Francesco di Valdambrino (Siena, Mus. Opera Duomo). He also designed stained-glass windows (1410) for the sacristy of S Domenico, Siena. The four panels of SS John the Baptist, Francis, Peter and John the Evangelist, from a polyptych from S Petronilla, Siena (1413; Siena, Osservanza), are his only dated works. 371-1876 is a fragmentary panel from a series of superimposed figures from the right pilaster (as suggested by the direction of the saint's gaze) of a polyptych. St. Stephen is depicted with a book and martyr's palm. The stones on his head refer to his role as the first Christian martyr, whose death by stoning is recorded in the Book of Acts (6:1-8:2). The top of the arched panel has been cut off, and it has been trimmed at the bottom. The style and treatment of the gold tooling suggest that it may come from the same dispersed altarpiece as panels of St. Lucy and St. Catherine, now in the Worcester (Mass.) Art Museum (1940.31a; 1949.31b).
Historical context note
An altarpiece is an image-bearing structure set on the rear part of the altar, and which normally declares to which saint or mystery the altar was dedicated. Its form and content customarily evoke the mystery or personage whose cult was celebrated at the altar. Altarpiece forms vary enormously, and may include movable statues, relics and sacrament tabernacles among other elements. The original association of the Christian altar was with the tomb of a saint, and theologically with the tomb of Christ. Altarpieces adorned both high altars and side altars. High altars often carried large altarpieces with elaborate programmes while side altars served a more private piety and their altarpieces were often endowed by private individuals. In Italy, the altar became a primary setting for painting on panel, a format developed in the West from the example of Byzantine icons. An early format, consisting of gabled panels in a vertical format representing a full-length saint flanked by scenes of his or her life, soon developed to include an elaborate gabled outer structure enframing several vertically conceived individual compartments to form a Polyptych. Polyptychs were increasingly elaborate, their frames often featuring piers, colonettes, cusped arches, tracery, pinnacles, crockets and finials, eventually transforming the altarpiece into an architectonic structure resembling in detail and spatial principles the façades of contemporary full-scale Gothic architecture.
Descriptive line
Saint Stephen, Andrea di Bartolo, ca. 1389-ca. 1405/06
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
Kauffmann, C.M. Catalogue of Foreign Paintings, I. Before 1800. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1973, p. 7-8, no. 6
The following is the full text of the entry:
ANDREA di Bartolo (active 1389; d. 1428)
Sienese School
Son of the painter Bartolo di Fredi, he worked with him, and Luca di Tomé in Siena Cathedral 1389-1405/06.
6
ST STEPHEN: PANEL FROM THE RIGHT PILASTER OF AN ALTAR-PIECE
Tempera on poplar panel
11 ¾ x 4 ¾ (29.9 x 12)
371-1876
Acquired as 'Florentine, probably the work of Fra Angelico', this painting was ascribed to Bartolo di Maestro Fredi by Berenson in 1909, to the school of Paolo di Giovanni Fei by van Marle in 1924 and to Paolo di Giovanni Fei himself by van Marle in 1928. Bartolo di Fredi was the name given to most Sienese paintings of the late 14th century at the time of Berenson's first list, and Fei is close in style to Andrea di Bartolo, though he is now generally considered to be the better artist of the two. The attribution to Andrea di Bartolo was first made by Berenson in 1932, and maintained in his lists of 1936 and 1968. In the latter edition he stated that this painting belonged to the same altar-piece as the panels of St Thomas Aquinas (15 X 6½ in.) and St Anthony Abbot (16 x 6 5/8 in.) in the Johnson Collection at Philadelphia (see Philadelphia Museum of Art, John G. Johnson Collection, Catalogue of paintings, 1941, p. 1). However, 371-1876, has a more pointed arch than the Philadelphia panels and these are more than 4 in. longer, even though they have been cut at the top (the St Thomas Aquinas has been cut at the bottom as well), and nearly 2 in. wider. A more plausible connection can be made with two panels of St Lucy (14 1/8 x 4 ¾ in.) and St Catherine (14 3/16 x 4 ¾ in.) in the Worcester (Mass.) Art Museum (P. B. Cott in Worcester Art Museum Annual, iv, 1941, pp. 8, 25, figs. 3-4). These are very close to the Museum's St Stephen in style, details of construction and gold tooling and size. A conclusive comparison can no longer be made, as the St Stephen has been cut at the top. However, the missing central trefoil and the area immediately above it could well account for the 2 3/8 in. difference in height between it and the Worcester panels. These came from the collection of R. Langton Douglas and before that from an unidentified German princely house. They were attributed to Andrea di Bartolo by Evelyn Sandberg Vavalà and it is most likely that they came from the same altar-piece as the St Stephen. On the other hand Perry Cott's suggestion that two panels of St Apollonia and St Agatha successively in the collections of Sir E. J. Poynter and Walter S. M. Burns (Berenson, 1968, fig. 430; as Andrea di Bartolo already in the B. F. A. C. exhibition of 1920, no.4; and at Christie's, 5 March 1937, lot 74), does not seem convincing. These panels are close in style but different in gold tooling and construction.
Prov. Bought in 1876.
Lit. B. Berenson, The Central Italian painters of the Renaissance, 1909, p. 140; R. van Marle, The development of the Italian Schools of painting, ii, 1924, p. 542, n. 2; ibid., 'Alcuni dipinti ignoti...di Paolo Giovanni Fei' in La Diana, iii, 1928, p. 289; B. Berenson, Italian pictures of the Renaissance, 1932, p. 9; ibid., Pitture italiane del Rinascimento, 1936, p. 8; ibid., Central and North Italian Schools, i, 1968, p. 7.
Bernhard Berenson, The central Italian painters of the renaissance 2d ed., rev. and enl. New York, London, G. P. Putnam's sons [c1909], p. 140.
Raimond van Marle, The development of the Italian schools of painting The Hague : M. Nijhoff, vol. ii, 1924, p. 542, n. 2.
Raimond van Marle, 'Alcuni dipinit ignoti.. di Paolo di Giovanni Fei' in La Diana iii, 1928, p. 289.
Bernhard Berenson, Italian pictures of the renaissance Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1932, p. 9.
Bernhard Berenson, Pitture italiane del rinascimento; catalogo dei principali artisti e delle loro opere, con un indice dei luoghi (traduzione italiana di Emilio Cecchi). Milano, U. Hoepli [1936], p. 8.
Bernhard Berenson, Italian pictures of the Renaissance : a list of the principal artists and their works with an index of places. Central Italian and North Italian schools. (London : Phaidon, 1968), vol. i. p. 7.
European paintings in the collection of the Worcester Art Museum. (Worcester, Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts Press, 1974), p. 309.
Materials
Gold leaf; Tempera; Poplar
Techniques
Painting
Subjects depicted
Rock; Books; Stephen (Saint); Martyr's palm
Categories
Religion; Christianity; Paintings
Collection code
PDP
