Barnaba da Modena, 'Scenes of the Virgin; The Trinity; The Crucifixion', 1374
About the work
Overview
It is unusual to see these four images grouped together like this. This arrangement and the evidence of hinges at the panel’s right edge suggest that it was once part of a larger work made up two or more connected panels.
Clockwise from top left, we see the coronation of the Virgin (when Christ crowned his mother the Queen of Heaven); the Trinity (God the Father, Christ, his son, on the Cross, and the Holy Ghost in the form of a dove); and Christ’s crucifixion.
The two figures who kneel before the Virgin and Child in last scene have been identified as Juana Manuel, Queen of Castile in Spain, and her father, Juan Manuel. These were Barnaba da Modena’s patrons. By the time this picture was made he had already painted another for their chapel in the cathedral of Murcia, a Spanish town.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- The Coronation of the Virgin; The Trinity; The Virgin and Child with Donors; The Crucifixion; The Twelve Apostles
- Artist
- Barnaba da Modena
- Artist dates
- active 1361 - 1386
- Date made
- 1374
- Medium and support
- egg tempera on wood
- Dimensions
- 82 × 60.7 cm
- Inscription summary
- Signed; Dated and inscribed
- Acquisition credit
- Presented by Rosalind, Countess of Carlisle, 1913
- Inventory number
- NG2927
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Previous owners
- Frame
- 14th-century Genoese Frame (original frame)
Provenance
Additional information
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.
Bibliography
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1826J.B.L.G. Séroux d'Agincourt, Storia dell'arte dimostrata coi monumenti, 8 vols, Prato 1826
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1857G.F. Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain: Being and Account of the Chief Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illuminated Mss. […], translated from German by Elizabeth Eastlake, 3 vols, London 1857, vol. 3
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1857G. Scharf, Catalogue of the Art Treasures of the United Kingdom: Collected at Manchester in 1857, London 1857
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1903J.A. Crowe and G.B. Cavalcaselle, A History of Painting in Italy, Umbria, Florence and Siena, from the Second to the Sixteenth Century, ed. R.L. Douglas, 2nd edn, 6 vols, London 1903
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1913C. Ricci, 'Barnaba da Modena', The Burlington Magazine, XXIV, 1913, pp. 65-9
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1915National Gallery, National Gallery: Abridged Descriptive and Historical Catalogue of the British and Foreign Pictures, London 1915
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1923R. van Marle, The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting, 19 vols, The Hague 1923
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1951Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, London 1951
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1983D. Markow, 'The Soul of the Sinner - the Soul of the Saint: Some Aspects of the Iconography of Particular Judgment', Perceptions, III, 1983, pp. 17-25
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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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2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
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2011Gordon, Dillian, National Gallery Catalogues: The Italian Paintings before 1400, London 2011
Frame
Only the two internal horizontal divisions, crafted in pastiglia (raised gesso), are original to the fourteenth century. The panel is now surrounded by a moulding probably dating to the nineteenth century. Traces of metal from original hinges embedded in the right side of the panel suggest it may once have been a wing of a larger piece, although its original setting is unknown and the original frame has been lost.
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.