Tempera painting, Christ Delivering the Keys to St Peter, St Christopher Carrying the Infant Christ, St Mary Magdalen, St Clare and St. Elizabeth of Hungary, Circle of Simone Martini, ca. 1325

From left: Christ delivering the keys to St Peter, St Christopher carrying the infant Christ, and at right, St Mary Magdalen, St Clare and St. Elizabeth of Hungary, a wrought-iron lockplate has been inserted into the centre of the panel

Purchased for £12 in 1902

Historical significance: Simone Martini (ca. 1284-1344) was an Italian painter active in central Italy (mostly Siena), Naples and Avignon and was as one of the most outstanding painters of the 14th century in all of Europe. He mastered stylistic and technical practices in his grand formal altarpieces which surpassed those of his contemporaries. A visually compelling story-teller, he deftly moved from the discursive to the solemn or even playful narrative modes As the earliest archival record relating to Simone dates from 1315, the first 30 years of his life, including his training continue to be a subject of debate. The traditional view is that Simone was a Sienese painter trained in the workshop of Duccio, whose initial 'Duccesque' style was shifted during the second decade to more closely resemble that of Giotto.


On this small horizontal panel painted in tempera, the figures of Christ handing the keys of the Church to Saint Peter, and of Saint Christopher carrying the Christ Child on the left are easily identified by their attributes and poses. Similarly, the figure of Mary Magdalen on the right is identified by the jar of ointment with which she anointed Christ’s feet. She is a reduced reversed version of the same figure in a fresco by Simone Martini of 1317 in the Capella di San Martino in the Lower Church of San Francesco at Assisi. Although the two female saints to the right of the panel are now extremely damaged and missing their attributes, they may be identified by comparison with Simone’s fresco of Saints Clare and Elizabeth of Hungary in the same church where they appear, on a larger scale, in identical poses but divided by a trefoil gothic arch and colonnette. In the fresco, Saint Clare, founder of the Order of Poor Clares and follower of Saint Francis, holds a lily while Saint Elizabeth, a princess of the Arpad dynasty of Hungary who also joined the Franciscan order, wears a rich clock and hairdress. Although it is unclear what Elizabeth holds in her right hand in both this panel and the fresco, another fresco by Simone of 1318 in the chapel of Cardinal Gentile da Montefiore in the same church shows Elizabeth fingering a long necklace or the ties of her robe in a similar gesture to 493-1902. A comparison with the later fresco, also suggests that Elizabeth originally wore a crown in the V&A panel and that like both series’ of frescoes the individual saints were originally separated by delicate gothic architecture. While further technical examination is required in order to confirm or disprove this hypothesis, the presence of Sts Clare and Elizabeth of Hungary suggests that this work was originally made for a Franciscan context and that it formed part of a devotional object. The panel appears to have been cut down at some date and the lockplate must have been added when the work was transformed into the front of a coffer or safebox. This alteration may also have obliterated a central figure, perhaps a Crucifixion? at the centre of the panel.

This work appears to be a fragment or many re-composed fragments of an altarpiece. 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. In Italy such altarpieces were usually made of wood and painted, while in northern Europe they were commonly executed in stone.

Once attributed to a follower of Simone Martini and subsequently considered the work of an Umbrian painter inspired by Sienese works, this work belongs to the circle of Simone as it closely reproduces several of his figures. Kauffmann (1973) hypothesized that the work once formed part of a predella panel. While there does not appear to be enough evidence to support this, the work appears to be a fragment or many re-composed fragments of an altarpiece.

Simone Martini (ca. 1284-1344) was an Italian painter active in central Italy (mostly Siena), Naples and Avignon and was as one of the most outstanding painters of the 14th century in all of Europe. A visually compelling story-teller, he deftly moved from the discursive to the solemn or even playful narrative modes As the earliest archival record relating to Simone dates from 1315, the first 30 years of his life, including his training continue to be a subject of debate.
On this small horizontal panel painted in tempera, the figures of Christ handing the keys of the Church to Saint Peter, and of Saint Christopher carrying the Christ Child on the left are easily identified by their attributes and poses. Similarly, the figure of Mary Magdalen on the right is identified by the jar of ointment with which she anointed Christ’s feet. She is a reduced reversed version of the same figure in a fresco by Simone Martini of 1317 in the Capella di San Martino in the Lower Church of San Francesco at Assisi. Although the two female saints to the right of the panel are now extremely damaged and missing their attributes, they may be identified by comparison with Simone’s fresco of Saints Clare and Elizabeth of Hungary in the same church where they appear, on a larger scale, in identical poses but divided by a trefoil gothic arch and colonnette. While further technical examination is required in order to confirm whether the individual saints in the V&A picture were originally separated by delicate gothic architecture, the presence of Sts Clare and Elizabeth of Hungary suggests that this work was originally made for a Franciscan context and that it formed part of a devotional object. The panel appears to have been cut down at some date and the lockplate must have been added when the work was transformed into the front of a coffer or safebox. This alteration may also have obliterated a central figure, perhaps a Crucifixion? at the centre of the panel.

493-1902