Andrea di Bonaiuto da Firenze, 'The Virgin and Child with Ten Saints', about 1365-70
About the work
Overview
The Virgin and Child are surrounded by saints, each occupying a separate arched compartment bounded by spiral columns. The design is highly unusual and is not known in any other Italian paintings of the period. Its shape and layout have a very specific function: they map the Florentine Church of Santa Maria Novella, the city’s main church belonging to the Dominicans, the order of friars founded by Saint Dominic.
Each saint represents a chapel dedicated to them at the eastern end of the church. This explains why only three of the evangelists are shown, with the animals that became their symbols: Saint Mark with the lion, Saint Luke with the ox and Saint John with the eagle. Saint Matthew is missing because the church didn't have a chapel dedicated to him. It also explains the inclusion of three Dominican saints wearing the Order’s black cloaks. The sequence of saints in the panel mirrors that of the chapels on either side of the central altar, which was dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- The Virgin and Child with Ten Saints
- Artist dates
- documented 1346; died 1379
- Date made
- about 1365-70
- Medium and support
- egg tempera on wood
- Dimensions
- 28 × 105.8 cm
- Acquisition credit
- Presented by Mrs Richard F.P. Blennerhassett, 1940
- Inventory number
- NG5115
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Frame
- 14th-century Tuscan Frame (original frame)
Provenance
Additional information
This painting is included in a list of works with incomplete provenance from 1933–1945; for more information see Whereabouts of paintings 1933–1945.
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Dillian Gordon, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Italian Paintings before 1400’, London 2011; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Exhibition history
-
2011Devotion by Design: Italian Altarpieces before 1500The National Gallery (London)6 July 2011 - 2 October 2011
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2015Sacred Spaces: The Lycett Green CollectionYork Art Gallery1 August 2015 - 6 March 2016
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2019Louise Giovanelli: Bridging TraditionManchester Art Gallery1 June 2019 - 1 September 2019
Bibliography
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1930R. Offner and K. Steinweg, A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting, 8 vols, New York 1930
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1951Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, London 1951
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1951M. Meiss, Painting in Florence and Siena After the Black Death, Princeton 1951
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1952G. Kaftal, Iconography of the Saints in Tuscan Painting, Florence 1952
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1961M. Davies, The Earlier Italian Schools, 2nd edn, London 1961
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1986Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, revised edn, London 1986
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1988Gordon, Dillian, National Gallery Catalogues: The Early Italian Schools before 1400, revised edn, London 1988
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1991J. Dunkerton et al., Giotto to Dürer: Early Renaissance Painting in the National Gallery, New Haven 1991
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1994E.S. Skaug, Punch Marks from Giotto to Fra Angelico: Attribution, Chronology and Workshop Relationships in Tuscan Panel Painting, With Particular Consideration to Florence c.1330-1430, Oslo 1994
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2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
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2009D. Gordon, 'Andrea di Bonaiuto's Painting in the National Gallery and S. Maria Novella: The Memory of a Church', The Burlington Magazine, CLI/1277, 2009, pp. 512-8
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2011Gordon, Dillian, National Gallery Catalogues: The Italian Paintings before 1400, London 2011
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.