Catalogue entry
Giovanni di Paolo active 1417; died 1482
NG 5451–4
Scenes from the Life of Saint John the Baptist
2003
,Extracted from:
Dillian Gordon, The Fifteenth Century Italian Paintings, Volume I (London: National Gallery Company and Yale University Press, 2003).

© The National Gallery, London

The Birth of Saint John the Baptist (NG 5453) (© The National Gallery, London)

The Baptism of Christ (NG 5451) (© The National Gallery, London)

Saint John the Baptist retiring to the Desert (NG 5454) (© The National Gallery, London)

The Head of John the Baptist brought to Herod (NG 5452) (© The National Gallery, London)
Egg tempera on wood
(for dimensions, see under individual entries)
These panels – which show the Birth of Saint John the Baptist (NG 5453), Saint John the Baptist retiring to the Desert (NG 5454), the Baptism of Christ (NG 5451) and the Head of John the Baptist brought to Herod (NG 5452) – are discussed here in chronological order and not according to inventory number. They are almost certainly from the predella to an altarpiece by Giovanni di Paolo, dated 1454, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (fig. 21).
Technical Notes
Restoration
All four panels were cleaned and restored in 1944. All are considerably warped and have been fitted into modern frames, retaining elements of their original frames to varying degrees, as described below. On the back of each panel is stencilled 781 HG.
NG 5453
The Birth of Saint John the Baptist
The story is told in Luke 1:57. Saint Elizabeth has just given birth to John the Baptist, who is being tended by two mid‐wives, one holding him, the other drying a cloth by the fire. Saint Zacharias, who had been struck dumb for not believing the angel who foretold the birth of his son, is writing down that the child’s name is to be John. The bedhead and bed end are decorated with small music‐making figures (angels?) under an arcade (figs 1 and 6).
Panel construction
Original panel: height 30.8 cm, width 39.7 cm, thickness 2.3 cm. Painted surface 30.5 x 36 cm.
Photographs taken in 1944 after cleaning and restoration show that there is a strip of exposed wood at the right‐hand side, presumably where mouldings were removed; this is now concealed by the modern frame.
The only remaining original moulding is the vertical inner raised ridge at the left‐hand side. To the left of this are traces of what may be the remains of a flat, gilded vertical band. The rest of the frame is entirely false: the inner ridge has been repeated on the other three sides and then a gold band of approximately 4 cm width and external mouldings have been applied to the original panel and extending beyond it. The whole has then been encased in a modern outer frame. Traces of gold around all the edges indicate that the original frame was gilded. Dimensions, including false mouldings, 38.7 x 44.2 cm. Modern containing frame 41.2 x 47 cm.
Condition and technique
The condition is generally good. There are scattered flake losses, most evident in the fireplace, the dark green dress of the midwife, the infant Baptist, the architectural background and the red bed‐cover. The tiny figures on the bed ends are well preserved.
All the gilding is water‐gilding. The stars of the bed canopy are executed in sgraffito. The pillow and fire are red lake painted over gold, and traces of a brown glaze modelling over the gilding of the ewer and basin survive.
The haloes are all decorated with a semicircular punch. All the architectural lines have been incised and were ruled [page 86] [page 87] [page 88] [page 89] in around the figures. Infra‐red reflectography reveals a free underdrawing for the outlines of the figures and draperies, with diagonal hatching in the draperies, and a few minor pentimenti, such as in the hands and toes of Zacharias and the left arm of the midwife drying a towel (figs 2–5).1

Details of Saint Elizabeth’s bed from NG 5453 (© The National Gallery, London)

Infra‐red reflectogram mosaic detail of midwife from NG 5453 (© The National Gallery, London)

Detail of midwife from NG 5453 (© The National Gallery, London)
Comment
Painted bedheads with religious subjects, like the one in NG 5453, still survive: a painted bedhead and bed end with the Virgin and Child and a donor, dated 1337, is in the Ospedale del Ceppo, Pistoia.2

Infra‐red reflectogram mosaic detail of Zacharias from NG 5453 (© The National Gallery, London)

Detail of Zacharias from NG 5453 (© The National Gallery, London)

Details of Saint Elizabeth’s bed from NG 5453 (© The National Gallery, London)

Infra‐red reflectogram mosaic detail of NG 5454 showing changes in peaks of landscape (© The National Gallery, London)

Detail of NG 5454 showing John the Baptist leaving the city (© The National Gallery, London)

Infra‐red reflectogram mosaic detail of NG 5454 (© The National Gallery, London)
NG 5454
Saint John the Baptist retiring to the Desert
According to Luke 1:80, John ‘was in the deserts till the day of his shewing unto Israel’. The young saint with his bundle on the end of a stick is shown twice, first leaving the city and then going into the desert, where he will baptise Christ. The scale of the figures is disproportionately large in relation to the patchwork‐like fields, the tiny forests and small castellated town and farmstead, and the craggy, claw‐like peaks which lead to an ethereal snow‐capped(?) mountain range on the horizon.3
The painted borders on either side show naturalistic roses (figs 10 and 11) seen from below in various stages of bloom, from bud to full flower.
Panel construction
Original panel: height 31 cm, width 50.5 cm, thickness 2.3 cm. Painted surface of narrative image 30.5 x 38.7 cm. Painted surface of floral bands 30.5 x 4 cm. Total painted and decorated surface 30.5 x 49 cm. The only original mouldings are the vertical ridges dividing the narrative image from the floral bands. The rest of the frame mouldings are modern, as described under NG 5453 above. Dimensions, including false mouldings, 38 x 56.2 cm. Modern containing frame 40.6 x 57.5 cm.
Condition and technique
The condition is good. There are scratches on the mountainside to the right of the figure of John the Baptist and in the landscape background to the left.
All the architectural lines and the fields have been incised. There is a pentimento in the recession of the crenellations, which were incised to recede more steeply (visible in raking light). The floral bands on either side are well preserved.
There seems to be no underdrawing for the roses, but infra‐red reflectography reveals extensive underdrawing for the whole narrative composition, with several pentimenti in the contours of the landscape, particularly in the peaks, where planning involved a messy network of lines followed by washes (fig. 7). Diagonal lines were hatched across the architecture of the town wall overlapping on to the landscape (figs 8 and 9).
Comment
The combination of two episodes in a single scene is found in Duccio’s Maestà made for Siena Duomo and completed in 1311 (for instance, in the Flight into Egypt and the Healing of the Blind Man).4
Sir John Pope‐Hennessy noted with reference to the patterned landscape in NG 5454 that it is unlikely to derive from paintings by Paolo Uccello and the Florentine perspectivists, as has been suggested.5 In fact, the interest in empirical linear perspective in Sienese paintings goes back to the work of Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti in the first half of the fourteenth century and is first intimated in Duccio’s Maestà.

Details of roses from the frame of NG 5454 (© The National Gallery, London)

© The National Gallery, London

X‐radiograph of NG 5451 (© The National Gallery, London)
NG 5451
The Baptism of Christ
The Baptism is described in John 1:29. Christ is being baptised by John the Baptist. Above are God the Father and the Dove of the Holy Spirit. Five angels fly in the sky, while on the left two wingless angels stand watching; one has a white robe draped across its shoulders, which must belong to Christ.
Panel construction
Original panel: height 31 cm, width 44.5/45.2 cm. Painted surface: 31 x 45 cm. No original mouldings remain. New mouldings have been added on all four sides, as described above under NG 5453.
Dimensions, including new mouldings, 39 x 52.5 cm. Modern containing frame 40.7 x 54.2 cm.
Condition and technique
The painted surface is in good condition except for the face of God the Father and two regular vertical trapezoidal damages at either edge, with modern repaint, which must relate to a later episode in the painting’s history. Small modern pins in these areas of damage, visible in the X‐radiograph (fig. 12), may be the remains of the fixings of an earlier, but not the original, frame.
The figures of the angels were reserved, but the rest of the sky, extending down to the horizon, has been water‐gilded and then painted blue. Above the horizon is a band of damage where the gilding has come off and the area repainted with blue over the bole; this now appears inappropriately dark in colour. God the Father has been painted over the gold and the flecks of his robe then incised with sgraffito. The Dove was painted over the incised rays
Infra‐red reflectography reveals a fairly light and simple underdrawing for the draperies (figs 13–16), of the type found in other panels in the series, and a coarse, dense underdrawing for the swarthy figures of the Baptist and Christ (figs 17 and 18), of the type found in Giovanni di Paolo’s Saints Fabian and Sebastian (NG 3402: see figs 1–4 on pp. 82–3). There are some minor pentimenti, such as changes to the Baptist’s hands and feet, and in the figure of Christ both arms were originally lower and the fingers longer.

Infra‐red reflectogram mosaic detail of NG 5451 (© The National Gallery, London)

Detail of The Baptism of Christ (NG 5451) (© The National Gallery, London)

Infra‐red photograph detail of NG 5451 (© The National Gallery, London)

Detail of The Baptism of Christ (NG 5451) (© The National Gallery, London)

Infra‐red reflectogram mosaic detail of NG 5451 (© The National Gallery, London)

Detail of The Baptism of Christ (NG 5451) (© The National Gallery, London)
NG 5452
The Head of John the Baptist brought to Herod
The story of Herod’s feast is told in Matthew 14:6–11. Herod was so pleased by Salome’s dancing at his birthday feast that he offered her whatever she asked; at her mother’s instigation she asked for John the Baptist’s head on a charger. The head of John the Baptist is presented to Herod by a kneeling soldier while the guests at the feast cover their faces in horror. On the right is the blithely dancing Salome, wearing pink.
Panel construction
Original panel: height 30.5, width 39.5 cm. Painted surface 30.7 × 37 cm. An original vertical ridge survives at the right, and to the right of that is a band of original gold 2.5 cm wide, mirroring the left side of NG 5453. Otherwise, false mouldings have been added all round, as described under NG 5453. Dimensions, including false mouldings, 38.7 x 45.2 cm. Modern containing frame 40.7 x 47 cm.
Condition and technique
The condition of NG 5452 is the least good of all four panels. A horizontal split in the wood has caused extensive losses, running across the shoulders of the two onlookers to the right, Salome’s shoulder, the napkin lying on the table, and then along the foremost edge of the table through the head of the kneeling soldier. There are also damages to Herod’s right eye and part of his face, and to Salome’s knee. Paint has flaked from the gold of the red hanging and from the green textile of the throne steps.
All the gilding is water‐gilding, including the utensils. The gold extends under the entire tablecloth. A thistle pattern is incised into the red hanging. All the architectural lines have been incised.
Infra‐red reflectography reveals a light underdrawing for the draperies and figures (figs 19 and 20).

Infra‐red reflectogram mosaic detail from NG
5451
5452
showing Salome and onlookers (© The National Gallery, London)

Detail from NG
5451
5452
showing Salome and onlookers (© The National Gallery, London)

Giovanni di Paolo, The Virgin and Child with a Female Saint, Saints Augustine, John the Baptist and Nicholas of Tolentino, 1454. Tempera on wood, 210.2 x 236.5 cm. New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Friedsam Collection, Bequest of Michael Friedsam, 1931, inv. no. 32.100.76. © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Photograph 1985
Original Appearance of the Predella
From the distribution of the wormholes and the continuity of a narrow extension attached at a slant along the top of the principal plank of wood, it is evident that the Birth of John the Baptist, John the Baptist retiring to the Desert and the Baptism of Christ (NG 5453, NG 5454 and NG 5451) were painted on a single plank and were immediately juxtaposed. However, there are no signs of any continuation from NG 5451 to NG 5452. Moreover, a split in the wood of NG 5452 (described above) does not continue in NG 5451, and it therefore seems that there is a missing panel between the Baptism of Christ (NG 5451) and the Head of John the Baptist brought to Herod (NG 5452). On the basis of a comparable cycle of scenes from the Life of John the Baptist by Giovanni di Paolo (for which see below), a number of episodes are possible for the missing panel: Saint John the Baptist preaching in the Desert, Saint John preaching before Herod, Saint John in Prison, the Feast of Herod, or the Decollation of the Baptist. Most likely is that the missing scene showed Saint John the Baptist preaching in the Desert, since that would presumably balance the scene of the Baptist going into the desert, on the other side of the Baptism. The missing panel would have had floral bands on either side, matching those of Saint John the Baptist retiring to the Desert. The pale architectural piers at the left and right sides of the Birth of Saint John the Baptist and the Head of John the Baptist brought to Herod respectively, which are similar to each other in size and construction, seem to confirm that these were the first and last panels. This arrangement would mean that the Baptism of Christ, the most important episode in the Baptist’s life, was in the centre.
Related Panels and Date
Martin Davies6 suggested that the four panels were part of the predella of an altarpiece now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (fig. 21), dated 1454 and showing the Virgin and Child with a Female Saint (Lucy?),7 Saints Augustine, John the Baptist and Nicholas of Tolentino8, signed and dated at the base of the central panel, on the green marble step, OPUS IOHANNES MCCCCLIIII.9 However, Davies cast a small element of doubt on this association on the grounds of measurement. Pope‐Hennessy, who considered the association correct, rightly pointed out that the discrepancy was small: the [page 96] width of the New York altarpiece is 236.5 cm, while the minimum projected width of the London panels (including a missing fifth panel) is approximately 225 cm.10 The distance between the centres of the base socles of the panels showing the female saint and Saint Augustine in the New York altarpiece ( c. 45 cm) corresponds approximately to the width of the outer panel (NG 5453) plus half a floral panel; the same is true of NG 5454.11 The distance between the centres of the base socles below the panel with the Virgin and Child is c. 67 cm, so if the Baptism was similarly divided from the adjacent panels with a single floral band, then the Baptism panel would have been reduced in width by approximately 6 cm on each side. Another version of the Baptism (Oxford, Ashmolean Museum; fig. 24) includes a tree on the right of the composition, present in Ghiberti’s relief (fig. 22) that was the model for both, which could originally have been included in a more extensive landscape at the right of the National Gallery version, with possibly the continuation of the left‐hand angel’s wing and more angels at the left.12 A date of 1454 is consistent with the style of the paintings.

Lorenzo Ghiberti, The Baptism of Christ, delivered 1427. Gilded bronze relief, 60 x 60 cm. Siena, Baptistery.
© Photo: SCALA, Florence
Photo: Opera Metropolitana Siena/Scala, Florence

Donatello and Giovanni di Turino, The Feast of Herod, delivered 1427. Gilded bronze relief, 60 × 60 cm. Siena, Baptistery.
© Photo: SCALA, Florence
Photo: Opera Metropolitana Siena/Scala, Florence
Pope‐Hennessy also associated pinnacles with the Redeemer and the Four Evangelists in the Chiaramonte Bordonaro Collection in Palermo with the altarpiece.13
Original Location
Given the presence of Saint Augustine at the right hand of the Virgin, and the prominence accorded to Saint John the Baptist both in the main tier and in the predella, the altarpiece probably comes from a church either dedicated to Saint Augustine or belonging to his Order, and from an altar or chapel dedicated to the Baptist.14 It may have come from a side altar rather than a high altar: Henk Van Os observed that the altarpiece is designed to be viewed on the right because of the outward‐turned poses of the Christ Child and John the Baptist.15 Pope‐Hennessy suggested that the altarpiece might have come from the church of Sant’Agostino in Siena,16 and this remains a possibility: a chapel dedicated to John the Baptist was founded there on 14 May 1439.17
However, Giovanni di Paolo executed a number of commissions for the Augustinians in Siena and its environs18 – for example, at San Leonardo al Lago,19 where he painted a Crucifixion in monochrome in the refectory,20 and at San Salvatore at Lecceto, for which, probably in 1442, he executed an Antiphonary and contributed to a Gradual.21 Van Os suggested that the altarpiece could have come from Sant’Agostino, Montepulciano, where Giovanni di Paolo signed and dated an altarpiece dedicated to Saint Nicholas of Tolentino in 1456.22 But if the association of the National Gallery predella panels with the New York main tier is correct, which seems probable, then one of the most likely options is that the altarpiece came from Sant’Agostino, Cortona, since the New York altarpiece came from the Tommasi‐Aleotti (modern spelling Aliotti) Collection in Cortona.23 The Tommasi family, one of the wealthiest families in Cortona in the fifteenth century and later, had a collection drawn largely from the locality. It is not known how the altarpiece entered their collection.24
The church of Sant’Agostino in Cortona was founded between 1256 and 1273,25 and in the 1430s a new church was being built. From at least 1432, and still in 1438, a member of the Tommasi family was building a chapel there: in his third will, of 11 May 1432, and again in his fourth, of 26 March 1438, Giovanni di Tommaso (d. by 1439) left 50 lire to his nephew Niccolò di Cristoforo di Tommaso towards the fabric of the chapel which Niccolò was building in the new church of Sant’Agostino.26 No mention is made of the dedication of the chapel or of furnishings or altarpiece.27 Niccolò, who was ‘riformatore’ of Cortona in 1451 and 1454,28 was still alive in 1461.29 The building of the new church seems [page 97]to have continued into the 1440s, as there are several bequests towards the fabric of the building.30
Possibly a more likely patron is Zaccaria di Matteo Cenni degli Bencivenni, a merchant of Cortona, who on 22 July 1450, ‘corpore languens’, left 80 florins for the construction and endowment of a chapel in Sant’Agostino dedicated to Saint John the Baptist, to be built within eight years of his death. No mention is made of an altarpiece or chapel furnishings. The dedication to the Baptist could have been motivated by the fact that Zacharias, the name saint of the possible donor, was the Baptist’s father, which likewise could have prompted the inclusion of the naming of the Baptist in the first predella scene. The chapel passed to the Laparelli family, another leading family in Cortona, through the marriage of Zaccaria’s only daughter, Lucy, his universal heir.31 It was still dedicated to the Baptist in the seventeenth century, when it had a painting of Saint John baptising Christ by Pietro Montanini, also called Pietruccio Perugino (1626–1689), and according to a note in an apparently eighteenth‐century hand in the margin of the copy of Zaccaria’s will in the Contratti di Sant’Agostino, the chapel was then still in the Laparelli family.32
The question remains as to whether the altarpiece indeed came from Sant’Agostino, Cortona, and if so, whether it came from the Tommasi chapel or from a different family chapel (such as that of the Bencivenni/Laparelli family) and entered the Tommasi‐Aliotti Collection as a purchase or otherwise.33
Iconography and Design
The pose of the Virgin and Child with two front angels facing each other, although widespread, could owe something to Sassetta’s altarpiece painted between 1430 and 1436 for the spice merchant (‘aromatorio’) Niccolò di Angelo di Cecco for his chapel to the left of the high altar in San Domenico, Cortona (now Cortona, Museo Diocesano).34
Vertical floral bands dividing the narrative scenes of the predella were used by Giovanni di Paolo throughout his working career, from the ‘Fondi’ (or more likely ‘Tondi’) altarpiece of 143635 to late works such as Saint Jerome appearing to Saint Augustine (Berlin, Gemäldegalerie). This motif may have originated with Gentile da Fabriano: it seems quite likely that the painting (which may have been a fresco) made for the Notaries of Siena by Gentile da Fabriano in 1424 or 1425 had floral decoration on the borders similar to that on the frame of the Strozzi Adoration of the Magi (Florence, Uffizi) of 1423,36 and that Giovanni di Paolo, who was profoundly influenced by Gentile da Fabriano,37 adopted the idea. Alternatively, it is accepted that Giovanni di Paolo probably went to Florence between 1436 and 1440, where he would have seen the Strozzi altarpiece.38
It has often been noted that the compositions of NG 5451 and 5452, the Baptism and the Head of John the Baptist brought to Herod, derive from the bronze panels of those subjects by Ghiberti and Donatello respectively (figs 22 and 23), made for the Baptistery font in Siena, which arrived in Siena in 1427.39 Christopher Lloyd noted that until the erection of the font in Siena Baptistery, cycles of John the Baptist were more common in Florence (whose patron saint he is) than in Siena, and commented that Giovanni di Paolo was not influenced by the thirteenth‐century Sienese altarpiece of John the Baptist Enthroned (Siena, Pinacoteca), which he would obviously have known.40

Giovanni di Paolo, The Baptism of Christ. Tempera on wood, 25 x 36 cm. Oxford, Ashmolean Museum.
© Copyright in this Photograph Reserved to the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
© Ashmolean Museum / Bridgeman Images

Giovanni di Paolo, The Birth and Naming of the Baptist. Tempera on wood, 74 x 35 cm. Münster, Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte,
inv. no. 355LG.
© Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte
The Picture Art Collection / Alamy Stock Photo

Giovanni di Paolo, Saint John the Baptist entering the Wilderness. Tempera on wood, 68.5 x 36.2 cm. Chicago, Art Institute, Mr & Mrs Martin A. Ryerson Collection, inv. no. 1933.1010. © The Art Institute of Chicago, All Rights Reserved. Photograph 2001
The subject of Saint John the Baptist retiring to the Desert is a rare one in painting. The iconography of this scene is similar to that in the thirteenth‐century mosaics of Florence Baptistery and on the bronze Baptistery doors completed in 1330 by Andrea Pisano,41 and to that in a predella panel (Leicester, Leicestershire Museum and Art Gallery) thought to come from an altarpiece painted by Lorenzo Monaco for Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence.42 As noted above, Giovanni di Paolo almost certainly visited Florence.
Giovanni di Paolo frequently reused compositions and motifs.43 For example, the bed and interior in NG 5453 are close to those in the predella panel showing Saint Catherine of Siena beseeching Christ to resuscitate her Mother (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Lehman Collection).44 Another, slightly simplified, version of the Baptism by Giovanni di Paolo (Oxford, Ashmolean Museum; fig. 24) is identifiable as part of the predella of the altarpiece painted for the Compagnia degli Artisti for their chapel in Montepulciano.45
Most closely related to the predella scenes in the National Gallery is a series of eleven vertical panels by Giovanni di Paolo showing the Life of John the Baptist, now dispersed, whose original function, location and date are not known.46 The scenes corresponding to the National Gallery panels are the Birth and Naming of the Baptist (Münster, Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kunstgeschichte, inv. no. 355LG; fig. 25);47 Saint John the Baptist retiring to the Desert (Art Institute of Chicago, Mr and Mrs Martin A. Ryerson Collection, inv. no. 1933.1010; fig. 26);48 The Baptism of Christ (Pasadena, Norton Simon Museum, inv. no. 1973.07.P; fig. 27); and Saint John the Baptist’s Head brought before Herod (Art Institute of Chicago, Mr and Mrs Martin A. Ryerson Collection, inv. no. 33.1015; fig. 28).49 In these four panels the poses of all the figures are almost identical to those in the National Gallery compositions, with only minor variations, suggesting the use of patterns. Tracings of the figures in the London panels placed over the equivalent figures in panels from the other Baptist [page 99] cycle consistently showed an increase in scale (for example, fig. 29): in NG 5454 the young John the Baptist is substantially smaller than in the Chicago panel; in NG 5451 the figures are all smaller than those in the Pasadena panel; in NG 5452 Salome and the two onlookers, and the soldier bearing the head, are smaller than in the Chicago panel, whereas the three men behind the table, the angle and length of the table and the placement of the two end figures are close in the two versions, although the male figure at the table in the London panel is slightly smaller in all proportions.50 The variations in scale are accompanied by minor variations in the poses. In the Birth of the Baptist in Münster the main differences are that the midwife is slightly further from the fire and two more figures have been introduced into the foreground; a vertical column has been added to contribute an upward dynamic to the composition. In the Baptist retiring to the Desert in Chicago the poses are almost identical except for a slight adjustment in the position of the hands; the architecture of the small town is more elaborate. In the Baptism of Christ in Pasadena the poses are again almost identical, except that Christ looks up at the Baptist instead of out at the spectator and thus the strong centralising emphasis of the London panel, which would have been at the centre of the predella, is absent; three angels have been added to the group on the left and God the Father and the surrounding sky have been adapted to a vertical format. In the Baptist’s Head brought before Herod in Chicago the right‐hand figure has been turned so that the hand of his companion around his shoulder is visible; Salome has no white bands on her arms and her left arm has been raised; the direction of the floor tiles has been changed to take account of the different function of the panel.51

Giovanni di Paolo, The Baptism of Christ. Tempera on wood, 75.7 x 33.4 cm. Pasadena, The Norton Simon Foundation, inv. no. 1973.07.P. © The Norton Simon Foundation. Pasadena

Giovanni di Paolo, Saint John’s Head brought before Herod. Tempera on wood, 69.1 x 36 cm. Chicago, Art Institute, Mr & Mrs Martin A. Ryerson Collection, inv. no. 1933.1015. © The Art Institute of Chicago, All Rights Reserved. Photograph 2001
The comparative chronology of the two cycles is problematic. Giacomo de Nicola called the National Gallery panels an ‘editio minor’, post‐dating the more extensive Baptist cycle. Pope‐Hennessy, in 1937, dated them c. 1460 – that is, after the larger Baptist cycle, which he dated 1455–60; but in 1987 [page 100]he reversed the order, having argued for the association of the predella with the 1454 altarpiece (see above) and still dating the more extensive cycle to the late 1450s. Cesare Brandi saw the Gallery’s predella panels as a late work painted after the larger cycle, which he dated c. 1450–3; they were also dated after the larger cycle by Elisabeth Mognetti, and by Paul Pieper, who dated the larger cycle c. 1453–4. Carl Strehlke argues for the National Gallery predella panels having preceded the more extensive cycle, although by how much remains uncertain.52 In a comparison of the scenes of the Baptism, the logical development seems to be from the almost exact repetition of Ghiberti in NG 5451 to the composition adapted for a vertical format in the Pasadena panel and then simplified in the Ashmolean version (see p. 86, and figs 22, 27, 24).
The New York/National Gallery altarpiece was painted at the height of Giovanni di Paolo’s powers, just after the signed polyptych with Saint Nicholas of Bari Enthroned and Saints (Siena, Pinacoteca) dated 1453.53
Provenance
Possibly from Sant’Agostino, Cortona, and possibly Tommasi‐Aliotti Collection, Cortona, by 1858; Charles Butler Collection 1887–1904; acquired by J. Pierpont Morgan 1904;54 listed for sale in the Morgan sale at Christie’s, 31 March 1944 (lot 121); they were acquired before the sale, half the purchase money being given by the NACF .
Exhibited/Loaned
London 1887, RA (lent by Charles Butler55 and framed in two frames, 187 and 188); London 1893–4, New Gallery (17 and 18); London 1896, RA (146 and 153); London 1904, BFAC (27 and 28); London 1945, NG , Exhibition of Returned Pictures ; London 1945–6, NG , Exhibition in Honour of Sir Robert Witt…of the Principal Acquisitions Made for the Nation through the National Art‐Collections Fund (35); London 1947–8, NG , Exhibition of Cleaned Pictures (18–21); London 1973, NG , The National Art Collections Fund 1903–1973 ; London 1982, NG , Watch this Space.
Select Bibliography
- J. Pope‐Hennessy, ‘Giovanni di Paolo’, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, XLVI, 2, 1988, pp. 6–48 (pp. 18–23).
- C. Strehlke in Painting in Renaissance Siena 1420–1500, exh. cat., Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 1988, p. 218.

Outline drawing of comparisons between figures in NG 5453 (in red/blue) and Münster (fig. 25, in red/blue), courtesy of Ingeborg Doetsch. Drawn by Jim Farrant. © The National Gallery, London
Notes
1. For Giovanni di Paolo’s underdrawing in other works, see J. Panders, The Underdrawing of Giovanni di Paolo. Characteristics and Development, Deventer 1977. (Back to text.)
2. IIlustrated in R. Davidsohn, Storia di Firenze, IV, part III, Florence 1965, pl. 8. (Back to text.)
3. For the landscape, see A. Perrig, ‘Die theoriebedingten Landschaftsformen in der italienischen Malerei des 14. und 15. Jahrhunderts’, in W. Prinz and A. Beyer (eds), Die Kunst und das Studium der Natur vom 14. zum 16. Jahrhundert, Weinheim 1987, pp. 41–60 (esp. p. 51). (Back to text.)
4. See J. White, Duccio. Tuscan Art and the Medieval Workshop, London 1979, plates 15 and 32. (Back to text.)
6. Davies 1961 , p. 244. (Back to text.)
7. The female saint is wearing a dress of silver leaf with an incised leaf design and a brownish/lilac robe (not a nun’s habit). Pèleo Bacci, in ‘Ricordi della vita e dell’attività artistica del pittore senese Giovanni di Paolo di Grazia detto Boccanera (1399 circa–1482)’, Le Arti, October–November 1941, p. 25, identified her as Judith. Pope‐Hennessy (1988, p. 17) identified her as probably Saint Monica. She looks too young to be Saint Monica, Augustine’s mother. She is also unlike the figure of Saint Monica in the fresco attributed to Lippo Vanni in San Leonardo al Lago, where the saint’s face is wrinkled to indicate her old age, and her name is inscribed; there she carries a rosary and is dressed as an Augustinian nun. For an illustration, see A. Cornice in C. Alessi et al. , Lecceto e gli Eremi Agostiniani in Terra di Siena, Siena 1990, pp. 287ff. and fig. 28. See also Kaftal 1952 , no. 221. H.W. Van Os (Sienese Altarpieces 1215–1460, vol. 2, Groningen 1990, p. 49) doubts that she is Saint Monica because Monica is always dressed as an Augustinian nun. On p. 216, n. 34, he notes that the same woman appears on Giovanni’s Pienza altarpiece of 1463 (previously noted by E.S. King in ‘Notes on the Paintings by Giovanni di Paolo in the Walters Collection’, Art Bulletin, XVIII, 1936, p. 233, n. 35). The poses are indeed identical, but the saint in the Pienza altarpiece (Van Os 1990, fig. 204) carries a martyr’s palm, whereas the saint in the New York altarpiece does not. It may be that she is Saint Mustiola, a young Roman noblewoman, hence the rich fabric of her dress ( Kaftal 1952 , no. 222), despite the lack of a martyr’s palm or ring. Saint Mustiola’s remains were at nearby Chiusi and an Augustinian convent in Montepulciano was dedicated to her (see note 18 below). Another, less likely, possibility is Saint Martha, to whoman Augustinian convent of nuns near Siena was dedicated (for the convent, see K. Walsh, The Observant Congregations of the Augustinian Friars in Italy c.1385–c.1465, Oxford University doctoral dissertation, 1972, pp. 131–2; see also note 18 below). Sant’Agostino, Cortona, from where the altarpiece may have come (see below), had a relic of the tooth of Saint Apollonia, who could be a candidate. See G. Laura, Dell’origine della città di Cortona in Toscana e sua antichità, 1634, reprinted in the series Historiae Urbium et Regionum Italiae Rariores, 1981, no pagination. Saint Lucy is also a possibility; see note 31. (Back to text.)
8. The cult of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino developed from before 1338, although he was not canonised until 1446. See Kaftal 1952 , no. 225. (Back to text.)
9. J. Pope‐Hennessy, Giovanni di Paolo 1403–1483, London 1937, pp. 61 and 104, n. 11, where the provenance is given as the Tommasi‐Aleotti Collection, said incorrectly to be in Arezzo. The dimensions are given as central panel 213 x 66 cm, lateral panels 183 x 43 cm. These dimensions are minimally modified in F. Zeri and E.E. Gardner, Italian Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Sienese and Central Italian Schools, New York 1980, pp. 22–3, where the provenance is correctly given as Count Luigi Tommasi‐Aleotti, Cortona, in 1907. Zeri and Gardner do not discuss the possibility that the National Gallery panels formed part of the predella of the New York altarpiece, although they refer to Davies having raised the question. In the New York exhibition catalogue of 1988, the date of the altarpiece is given incorrectly as 1453 on p. 218, and correctly as 1454 on p. 212. (Back to text.)
10. Davies 1961 , p. 244; Pope‐Hennessy 1988, p. 19. (Back to text.)
11. I am grateful to Keith Christiansen for allowing me to examine and measure the altarpiece in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. (Back to text.)
12. A double floral panel is unlikely, since it would not have lined up with the socle bases, and 7 cm seems too narrow for a panel with coats of arms, which likewise would not have lined up with the socle bases. A possible solution for NG 5451 is that the panel was reduced in width when it was framed together with NG 5452 (see note 55), in order, for reasons of symmetry, to make it roughly the same width as NG 5454, which was framed together with NG 5453. (Back to text.)
13. Pope‐Hennessy 1988, p. 17. Illustrated in K. Christiansen, ‘Fourteenth‐Century Italian Altarpieces’, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, XL, 1, 1982, p. 4. (Back to text.)
14. The predominance of Augustinian saints makes it unlikely that the New York/NG altarpiece was painted for Giovanni di Paolo’s own chapel dedicated to his name saint, John the Baptist, in the church of Sant’Egidio, where he stated in his first will, of 19 November 1477, that he wished to be buried and for which Bacci doubtfully suggested that he could have destined the other Baptist series. However, it is interesting that during a pastoral visit of 1575 Bossio noted ‘L’altare maggiore con icona deaurata cum figuris SS. Virginis et aliorum sanctorum in tabula depictis’: Bacci, Le Arti, 1941 (cited in note 7), p. 32, doc. XXXVII, and p. 34. Bacci notes (p. 39, doc. XLV) that in his second will, of 29 January 1482, Giovanni di Paolo makes no mention of the chapel dedicated to the Baptist, while still requesting burial in the church of Sant’Egidio. Bacci published the documents again in Documenti e Commenti per la Storia dell’Arte, Florence 1944, pp. 65–94; see doc. 42, p. 87, and doc. 50, p. 94, for the two wills. (Back to text.)
15. Van Os 1990 (cited in note 7), pp. 48–51. Van Os seems unaware that the New York altarpiece has been connected with the National Gallery John the Baptist predella panels, and (p. 50) both suggests and casts doubt on the possibility that the altarpiece may have had scenes from the life of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino in the predella, of which possibly Saint Nicholas rescues a Ship in a Storm (52 x 42.5 cm; Philadelphia, John G. Johnson Collection) may have been associated with Saint Nicholas appearing over the Walls of a Town (see B. Sweeny, John G. Johnson Collection. Catalogue of Italian Paintings, Philadelphia 1966, p. 35; Strehlke, The Italian Paintings of the John G. Johnson Collection and Philadelphia Museum of Art, I, (forthcoming catalogue). J. Pope‐Hennessy (assisted by L.B. Kanter), The Robert Lehman Collection: Italian Paintings, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, I, 1987, p. 140, relates these two panels to the Saint Nicholas panel of 1456. (Back to text.)
16. Pope‐Hennessy 1988, p. 17. (Back to text.)
17. See M. Butzek in Die Kirchen von Siena (eds P.A. Riedl and M. Seidel), Munich 1985, I, 1, p. 6; another chapel dedicated to John the Baptist was founded in 1522/3 in the nave ( ibid. , pp. 9 and 145). See also A. Carapelli, Notizie delle Chiese e Cose riguardevoli di Siena, 1718 (Siena, Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati, MS B.VII.10. f. 96). (Back to text.)
18. Strehlke (New York exh. cat., 1988, pp. 211–12) also gives Santa Mustiola, dependant of the Augustinian church in Montepulciano that was incorporated with Sant’Agostino in the late eighteenth century, as another possible church where Giovanni di Paolo could have worked; he points out that Giovanni di Paolo was the Augustinians’ preferred artist). See also note 7 above. For discussion of earlier Sienese polyptychs commissioned by the Augustinians, see J. Cannon, ‘The Creation, Meaning and Audience of the Early Sienese polyptych: evidence from the friars’, in E. Borsook and F. Superbi Gioffredi (eds), Italian Altarpieces 1250–1550, Oxford 1994, pp. 43–50. (Back to text.)
19. Research in the archives has not revealed evidence of any altar or chapel dedicated to John the Baptist in San Leonardo al Lago. For the church and its commissions, see N. Fargnoli, ‘La chiesa di San Salvatore nel Trecento’, in Alessi et al. 1990 (cited in note 7), pp. 181–96. (Back to text.)
20. See E. Carli, ‘Problemi e restauri di Giovanni di Paolo’, Pantheon, XIX, July/August 1961, pp. 174–7, and Alessi, ‘La Crocefissione di Giovanni di Paolo’, in Alessi et al. 1990 (cited in note 7), pp. 309–14. (Back to text.)
21. See G. Vailati Schoenburg Waldenburg: ‘La libreria di Coro dell’Eremo di Lecceto’, Antichità Viva, anno XX, 6, 1981, pp. 12–24 (esp. pp. 22ff.); eadem, ‘L’osservanza leccetana [page 102]e la genesi della libreria di coro’, Antichità Viva, anno XXII, 2, 1983, pp. 8 and 24, nn 15 and 16; eadem, ‘Testo e Immagine: Giovanni di Paolo e la leccetana “Communella dei Santi”’ in M. Ceccanti and M.N.C. Castelli (eds), Il Codice Miniato. Rapporti tra Codice, Testo e Figurazione (Atti del III Congresso di Storia della Miniatura Italiana, Cortona 1988), Florence 1992, pp. 295–306; and ‘La “Communella de’ Santi” e il quarto Graduale del Tempo’, in Alessi et al. 1990 (cited in note 7), pp. 383ff. See also Strehlke in New York exh. cat., 1988, cat. no. 30, pp. 181–9. (Back to text.)
22. Van Os 1990 (cited in note 7), pp. 48–51. See also note 15 above. (Back to text.)
23. The altarpiece is almost certainly identifiable with that itemised in an inventory of the possessions of Luigi and Girolamo Tommasi drawn up on 20 March 1858 (no. 176: ‘Un quadro antico in Tavola del fare del Pollajolo esprimante la Madonna col Bambino Gesu, due Angeli ai piedi e quattro santi ai lati. Trittico con fondo dorato’), despite the fact that it is described as a triptych and attributed to Pollaiuolo. No provenance is given and there is no mention of a predella. I am extremely grateful to Signora Tommasi‐Aliotti for making this inventory available to me as well as allowing me access to the Tommasi archives, and for all her kindness. (Back to text.)
24. The arms of the Tommasi family were to be found in several local churches, including Sant’Agostino; see A.della Cella, Cortona Antica, Cortona 1900, p. 264. See, for example, the seventeenth‐century frescoes in the cloister of Sant’Agostino (C. Bruschetti, Le lunette del convento di Sant’Agostino in Cortona, Accademia Etrusca. Cortona. Note e Documenti, 12, Cortona 1983, p. 13 and tav. VI). For the local provenance of all the paintings by Signorelli in the Tommasi‐Aliotti Collection, see Tom Henry, ‘Signorelli’s Madonna and Child: A Gift to His Daughter’, Metropolitan Museum Journal, 36, 2001, p. 164. (Back to text.)
25. Della Cella 1900 (cited in note 24), pp. 172–8. The church was remodelled in 1481 and 1681. For plans, sections etc., see G. Cataldi et al. (eds), Cortona. Struttura e Storia, Cortona 1987, pp. 386–9. The convent was suppressed in 1808. See R. Lapucci, ‘Elenco completo dei Conventi del Dipartimento dell’Arno soppressi da Napoleone’, appendix to ‘Fonti d’archivio per la storia delle arti durante la soppressione napoleonica a Firenze’, Rivista d’Arte, anno XXXIX, serie quarta, III, 1987, pp. 475–93 (492). (Back to text.)
26. The four wills of Giovanni di Tommaso were published in 1985 by N. Fruscoloni (‘Giovanni di Tommaso e i suoi quattro testamenti nel XV Secolo’, Accademia Etrusca di Cortona, Annuario XIV: 1984, published 1985, pp. 159–74, esp. p. 165). For the bequest in the will of 1432, see ASF , Notarile antecosimiano, 18919, f. 353v, and for the same bequest in the will of 1438, see ASF , Notarile antecosimiano, 5858, f. 127v: ‘expendendis et convertendis in opera mura fiendi [1438 will – ‘in fabrica muri’] ex parte cappelle qua fit per Nicolaum olim Christophori Tommasi ser Cecchi et fratres in dicta nova ecclesia Sancti Augustini.’ Giovanni di Tommasi himself endowed a chapel in San Domenico, for which Fra Angelico painted an altarpiece (now in Cortona, Museo Diocesano) showing the Virgin and Child with Saints John the Baptist, John the Evangelist, Mary Magdalene (for Giovanni’s wife) and Matthew (for his eldest son). (Back to text.)
27. An inventory of the possessions of Sant’Agostino made in 1784 (Cortona, Archivio Storico Comunale, Compagni e luoghi pii laicali, 1784, 2330, N.3, p. 76) lists a paliotto embroidered with the arms of the Tommasi family, which might confirm that they had an altar there, although of what date it is impossible to be certain. I am grateful to the archivist in the Archivio Storico Comunale, Bruno Giallucca, for all his help. (Back to text.)
28. See the Memorie Genealogiche della Famiglia Tommasi di Cortona Raccolte dal Cavaliere Canonico Niccolo Tommasi e presentate al Bali Fra Bartolomeo suo Zio l’Anno MDCCLXIV (volume in the Tommasi‐Aliotti archive, Cortona), p. 116. Niccolò had one son and three daughters. This branch of the family became extinct after several generations ( ibid. , p. 8). (Back to text.)
29. For Giovanni referred to as ‘quondam’ in 1439, while Niccolò was still involved in transactions in 1461, see the Memorie estratte dal pubblico Archivio Fiorentino dal Cavaliere Anibale Tommasi Tenente del Reggimento delle Guardie di S.M.C. Franco I, 1750 (volume in the Tommasi‐Aliotti archive, Cortona), pp. 34 and 39. If Niccolò was the patron of the altarpiece, Nicholas of Tolentino could have been included as his name saint. (Back to text.)
30. Under the years 1431 and 1432 in the Contratti Sant’Agostino (Cortona, Archivio Storico Comunale, no inventory numbers and no foliation) there are bequests ‘pro hedificazione nove ecclesie Sancti Augustini’, and still in the late 1440s there are bequests for the fabric of the building – ASF , Notarile antecosimiano, 5858: f. 277, will of Giovanni Cevelli, 11 April 1441, leaving money ‘per structura e hedificio dicte Ecclesie (S. Augustini)’; f. 279, will of Vangelista Angiolucci, 11 April 1441, leaving money for the same; f. 383, will of Domina Magdalena, wife of Niccolo Giovanni di Meo Betti ‘in structura in fabricorum’. On 11 February 1440 Paola di Lando di Biagio of Cortona, wife of Francesco Casali, wanted to be buried in Sant’Agostino near the chapel of the Annunciate Virgin and left a bequest to be used in the new construction of Sant’Agostino (Siena, Archivio di Stato, MS B96bis, Spoglio delle Pergamene del Convento di S. Agostino di Cortona, no. 104). (Back to text.)
31. Contratti Sant’Agostino (no foliation), cited in note 30. I am extremely grateful to Dr Daniel Bornstein for all his help in my researches into the Tommasi family and possible links with Sant’Agostino. Although the female saint in the New York altarpiece carries no attributes, if Zaccaria were the patron, the saint could be Saint Lucy for his daughter. (Back to text.)
32. See G. Cucciatti, ‘Quadri in chiese e luoghi pii di Cortona alla Metà del Settecento’, in P.J. Cardile (ed.), Fonti e Testi, II, Accademia Etrusca‐Cortona, Cortona 1982, p. 53. No Tommasi family chapel is mentioned, but he does mention the family chapels in the cathedral (pp. 13 and 15), the parish church of Sant’Andrea (p. 18), part of the patronage of San Bartolomeo (p. 36), and San Francesco (p. 39). The Laparelli also had chapels in San Francesco (p. 39) and Santa Margherita (p. 45). The Baptism of Christ by Pietro Montanini (on deposit with the Comune of Cortona) measures 316 x 227 cm (information kindly supplied by Anna Maria Maetzke). This is close enough to the New York altarpiece in width (236 cm) to make it possible that they came from the same altar mensa. (Back to text.)
33. Possibly when the convent was suppressed in 1808/10; see appendix in R. Lapucci 1987 (cited in note 25). The fact that the altarpiece escaped the antiquarian interest of writers such as Romagnoli and Milanesi could suggest that it passed into a private collection at an early date. If the altarpiece indeed came from the Bencivenni chapel, this could have been when it was replaced by the painting by Montanini (see note 32) and sold. (Back to text.)
34. Fruscoloni 1985 (cited in note 26), p. 167. The chapel was dedicated to Thomas Aquinas (not shown in the altarpiece) and to Saint Nicholas, who was also the name saint of the patron. (Back to text.)
35. For the ‘Fondi’ altarpiece, see New York exh. cat., 1988, p. 176; C. Wilson, Italian Paintings XIV–XVI Centuries in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Rice University Press, Houston 1996, p. 160; P. Torriti, La Pinacoteca Nazionale di Siena. I dipinti dal XII al XV secolo, 2nd edn, Genoa 1980, p. 306. The ‘Fondi’ altarpiece is probably the ‘Tondi’ altarpiece. See E. Taselaar in H.W. Van Os et al. (eds), The Early Sienese Paintings in Holland, Florence and The Hague 1989, p. 70. Floral bands are also found in the predellas of the San Galgano altarpiece of c. 1470 and the Staggia altarpiece of 1475 (Torriti 1980, pp. 332ff. and 338ff.). (Back to text.)
36. Illustrated in K. Christiansen, Gentile da Fabriano, London 1982, fig. 23. For the painting for the notaries, see note 33 on p. 67 of this catalogue. (Back to text.)
37. For the influence of Gentile da Fabriano on Giovanni di Paolo, see Pope‐Hennessy 1937 (cited in note 9), pp. 8–9. (Back to text.)
38. Pope‐Hennessy 1937, p. 21. (Back to text.)
39. R. Krautheimer, Lorenzo Ghiberti, Princeton 1956, p. 399, docs 151 and 153, and p. 411, doc. 144; J. Pope‐Hennessy, Donatello: Sculptor, New York, London and Paris 1993, p. 79. M. Meiss (in ‘A new panel by Giovanni di Paolo from his Altar‐piece of the Baptist’, BM , 116, 1974, p. 77) observed that the version of the Baptism in the Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, is closer to Donatello than either the NG or the Ashmolean version. Meiss noted that the Birth and Naming of the Baptist in the same series followed Giovanni Turini’s relief (illustrated in Krautheimer 1956, fig. 39). NG 5453 is not particularly close to this, although the pose of Elizabeth in bed owes something to it, with a change of position in the left hand propping up her head. (Back to text.)
40. See C. Lloyd, Italian Paintings before 1600 in The Art Institute of Chicago. A Catalogue of the Collection, Chicago 1993, p. 126. For the altarpiece in Siena Pinacoteca, see Torriti 1980 (cited in note 35), p. 44, no. 14. (Back to text.)
41. For the iconography, see M. Aronberg Lavin, ‘Giovannino Battista: A Study in Renaissance Religious symbolism’, AB , 37, 1955, p. 88; also A. Moskovitz, ‘Osservazioni sulla Porta del Battistero di Andrea Pisano’, Antichità Viva, XX, 1, 1981, pp. 28–39, esp. fig. 13. (Back to text.)
42. See M. Boskovits, Frühe italienische Malerei. Katalog der Gemälde. Gemäldegalerie Berlin, Berlin 1988, cat. no. 37, pp. 96ff. (Back to text.)
43. For Giovanni di Paolo’s reuse of other artists’ and his own motifs, see A. Ladis, ‘Sources and Resources: The Lost Sketchbooks of Giovanni di Paolo’ in A. Ladis and C. Wook (eds), The Craft of Art. Originality and Industry in the Italian Renaissance and Baroque Workshop, Athens 1995, pp. 48–85. (Back to text.)
44. The date of this painting, which is part of a series, is problematic, but probably in the early 1460s; see Strehlke in the New York exh. cat., 1988, p. 233. See also Pope‐Hennessy 1987 (cited in note 15), pp. 128–32, no. 52. (Back to text.)
45. C. Lloyd, A Catalogue of the Earlier Italian Paintings in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford 1977, pp. 84–6; New York exh. cat. 1988, p. 210, and p. 212, where Strehlke dates the Montepulciano altarpiece to the late 1450s/early 1460s. The pinnacles of this altarpiece, showing the Annunciating Angel and the Annunciate Virgin, are described in the New York catalogue as missing. However, the measurements given in the inventory of paintings in Montepulciano by F. Brogi, Inventario generale degli oggetti d’arte della provincia di Siena (1862–1865), Siena 1897, p. 305 – cited in the New York exh. cat. as 106 x 42 cm – correspond to the measurements of the two panels of the Annunciating Angel and the Annunciate Virgin (Heidelberg, private collection; 106.5 x 42.5 cm), as noted by P.A. Riedl (Eine wiederentdeckte ‘Verkündigung Maria’ von Giovanni di Paolo, Heidelberg 1986), who associated them with the Montepulciano predella panels and suggested that they were part of an altarpiece showing Saint Nicholas of Bari enthroned with Saints Bernardino, Francis, Clare and Louis of Toulouse (Siena, Pinacoteca), dated 1453 ( ibid. , esp. pp. 24 and 31). Riedl suggested that the altarpiece came from San Francesco, Montepulciano. Strehlke (New York exh. cat., 1988, pp. 204–5) makes the more plausible suggestion of San Niccolò, a Clarissan convent. The predella scenes are devoted to Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the Evangelist, which rules out their association with the altarpiece showing the enthroned Saint Nicholas, which had only Franciscan saints in the main tier lateral panels. (Back to text.)
46. It has been suggested that they may have been intended as shutters to close around a statue of the Baptist, possibly the bronze statue for the cathedral by Donatello, delivered in 1457, or the wooden polychromed statue by Francesco di Giorgio made in 1464 for the Compagnia di San Giovanni della Morte (now in the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo), or possibly commissioned in anticipation of the arrival of the relic of John the Baptist’s arm that was brought to Siena in 1464 to form the custodia for the relic. See Strehlke in the New York exh. cat., 1988, pp. 215–18. (Back to text.)
47. See P. Pieper, Die deutschen, niederlăndischen und italienischen Tafelbilder bis um 1530, Münster 1986, pp. 529–32, nos 263 and 264. (Back to text.)
48. See Lloyd 1993 (cited in note 40), pp. 110–18. (Back to text.)
49. See ibid. , loc. cit. . (Back to text.)
50. See note 51 below. (Back to text.)
51. The tracings were kindly controlled by Martha Wolff in Chicago, Gloria Williams in Pasadena and Ingeborg Doetsch in Münster. (Back to text.)
52. Strehlke, New York exh. cat., 1988, p. 218. G. de Nicola, ‘The masterpiece of Giovanni di Paolo’, BM , 33, 1918, p. 53; Pope‐Hennessy 1937 (cited in note 9), pp. 80–90, and 1988, p. 20; C. Brandi, Giovanni di Paolo, Florence 1947 (revision of an article in Le Arti, 1941), pp. 84–5, n. 68; E. Mognetti in L’art gothique siennois, exh. cat., Florence 1983, p. 322, cat. 117; Pieper 1986 (cited in note 47), p. 529. Without discussing the chronological relationship between the larger cycle and the National Gallery predella panels, Meiss ( BM , 1974, cited in note 39, p. 77) dated the former to the same date as the Metropolitan Museum altarpiece of 1454, and Pope‐Hennessy (1987, cited in note 15, p. 123) dated the larger cycle to the second half of the 1450s. (Back to text.)
53. Torriti 1980 (cited in note 35), pp. 320–2. (Back to text.)
54. See D. Sutton, ‘Robert Langton Douglas’, pt II, Apollo, 109, 1979, p. 370; B. Berenson, The Central Italian Painters of the Renaissance, 2nd edn, New York and London 1909, p. 177. (Back to text.)
55. NG 5453 and 5454, and NG 5451 and 5452, were framed together. For Charles Butler (1815–1911), see D. Sutton, ‘Discoveries’, Apollo, 122, 1985, p. 122, where it is said that he was a client of Charles Fairfax Murray ( c. 1849–1919). See also pp. xxxv–xxxvi of this catalogue. (Back to text.)
Glossary
- antiphonary
- Liturgical book containing the part of Divine Office sung by the choir
- bole
- A red clay applied to the gessoed surface of a panel as an adhesive underlayer for gold leaf
- Divine Office
- The cycle of daily devotions consisting of eight canonical hours of prayer
- Gradual
- A choir book containing responses and versicles for the Epistle readings from the Mass, sometimes sung from the church steps (Latin gradus = step)
- lake
- A pigment made by precipitation onto a base from a dye solution, resulting in a comparatively transparent pigment often used as a glaze
- Mass
- Church service commemorating the sacrifice of Christ with the celebration of the Eucharist
- pentimento
- Literally ‘repentance’ – used to describe changes made by the artist during the execution of a drawing or painting
- sgraffito
- Literally ‘scratched’ – the process whereby paint is applied to a gilded surface and the paint then scraped away to reveal the gold beneath, generally used to convey the texture or patterns of textiles
- water gilding
- Gold leaf applied to wetted bole and then burnished
Abbreviations
Institutions
- ASF
- Archivio di Stato, Florence
- NG
- National Gallery, London
Periodicals
- BM
- Burlington Magazine, London, 1903–
Frequently cited works are given in abbreviated form throughout, as listed below:
List of archive references cited
- Cortona, Archivio Storico Comunale, 2330, N.3, p. 76: Compagni e luoghi pii laicali, 1784
- Cortona, Archivio Storico Comunale: Contratti Sant’Agostino
- Cortona, Tommasi‐Aliotti archive: Memorie estratte dal pubblico Archivio Fiorentino dal Cavaliere Anibale Tommasi Tenente del Reggimento delle Guardie di S.M.C. Franco I, 1750
- Cortona, Tommasi‐Aliotti archive: Memorie Genealogiche della Famiglia Tommasi di Cortona Raccolte dal Cavaliere Canonico Niccolo Tommasi e presentate al Bali Fra Bartolomeo suo Zio l’Anno MDCCLXIV
List of references cited
- Alessi 1990
- Alessi, C., ‘La Crocefissione di Giovanni di Paolo’, in Lecceto e gli Eremi Agostiniani in Terra di Siena, eds C. Alessi, et al., Siena 1990, 309–14
- Aronberg Lavin 1955
- Aronberg Lavin, M., ‘Giovannino Battista: A Study in Renaissance Religious Symbolism’, Art Bulletin, 1955, 37, 85–101
- Bacci 1941a
- Bacci, P., ‘Ricordi della vita e dell’attività artistica del pittore senese Giovanni di Paolo di Grazia detto Boccanera (1399 circa – 1482)’, Le Arti, Oct.–Nov. 1941, IV, 11–39 (republished, Documenti e Commenti per la Storia dell’Arte, Florence 1944, 63–94)
- Berenson 1897
- Berenson, Bernard, The Central Italian Painters of the Renaissance, New York and London 1897 (2nd edn, revised and enlarged, 1909)
- Brandi 1947
- Brandi, C., Giovanni di Paolo (based on his study published in Le Arti, 1941, pp. 230–50 and 316–41), Florence 1947
- Brogi 1897
- Brogi, F., Inventario generale degli oggetti d’arte della provincia di Siena (1862–1865), Siena 1897
- Bruschetti 1983
- Bruschetti, C., Le lunette del convento di Sant’Agostino in Cortona. Accademia Etrusca, Cortona. Note e Documenti, Cortona 1983, 12
- Butzek 1985–
- Butzek, M., in Die Kirchen von Siena, eds P.A. Riedl and M. Seidel, 3 vols, Munich 1985–
- Cannon 1994
- Cannon, J., ‘The Creation, Meaning and Audience of the Early Sienese polyptych: evidence from the friars’, in Italian Altarpieces 1250–1550, eds E. Borsook and F. Superbi Gioffredi, Oxford 1994, 41–79
- Carapelli 1718
- Carapelli, A., Notizie delle Chiese e Cose riguardevoli di Siena, 1718
- Carli 1961
- Carli, E., ‘Problemi e restauri di Giovanni di Paolo’, Pantheon, July/August 1961, XIX, 4, 163–77
- Cataldi 1987
- Cataldi, G., et al., eds, Cortona. Struttura e Storia, Cortona 1987
- Christiansen 1982
- Christiansen, Keith, ‘Fourteenth‐Century Italian Altarpieces’, Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, 1982, XL, 1, 1–56
- Christiansen 1982a
- Christiansen, Keith, Gentile da Fabriano, London 1982
- Cucciatti 1982
- Cucciatti, G., ‘Quadri in chiese e luoghi pii di Cortona alla Metà del Settecento’, in Accademia Etrusca‐Cortona. Fonti e Testi, ed. P.J. Cardile, Cortona 1982, II
- Davidsohn 1965
- Davidsohn, R., Storia di Firenze, 8 vols, Florence 1965, IV, III
- Davies 1961
- Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, 2nd revised edn, London 1961 (1st edn, London 1951)
- De Nicola 1918
- De Nicola, G., ‘The masterpiece of Giovanni di Paolo’, Burlington Magazine, 1918, 33, 45–54
- Della Cella 1900
- Della Cella, A., Cortona Antica, Notizie Archeologiche, Storiche ed Artistiche, Cortona 1900
- Fargnoli 1990
- Fargnoli, N., ‘La chiesa di San Salvatore nel Trecento’, in Lecceto e gli Eremi Agostiniani in Terra di Siena, eds C. Alessi, et al., Siena 1990, 181–209
- Fruscoloni 1984
- Fruscoloni, N., ‘Giovanni di Tommaso e i suoi quattro testamenti nel XV Secolo’, Accademia Etrusca di Cortona, 1984 (1985), Annuario XIV, 159–74
- Henry 2001
- Henry, T., ‘Signorelli’s Madonna and Child: A Gift to His Daughter’, Metropolitan Museum Journal, 2001, 36, 161–8
- Kaftal 1952
- Kaftal, George, Iconography of the Saints in Tuscan Painting, Florence 1952
- King 1936
- King, E.S., ‘Notes on the Paintings by Giovanni di Paolo in the Walters Collection’, Art Bulletin, 1936, 18, 215–39
- Ladis 1995
- Ladis, A., ‘Sources and Resources: The Lost Sketchbooks of Giovanni di Paolo’, in The Craft of Art. Originality and Industry in the Italian Renaissance and Baroque Workshop, general ed. W.U. Eiland, eds A. Ladis and C. Wook, Athens 1995, 48–85
- Lapucci 1987
- Lapucci, R., ‘Fonti d’archivio per la storia delle arti durante la soppressione napoleonica a Firenze
Elenco completo dei conventi soppressi da Napoleone’, Rivista d’Arte, 1987, XXXIX, serie quarta, III, 475–93
(Back to text.)
- Laura 1634
- Laura, G., Dell’origine della città di Cortona in Toscana e sua antichità, 1634 (reprint in the series Historiae Urbium et Regionum Italiae Rariores, 1981)
- Lloyd 1977
- Lloyd, C., A Catalogue of the Earlier Italian Paintings in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford 1977
- Lloyd 1993
- Lloyd, Christopher, contributions by M. Andreotti, L.J. Feinberg and M. Wolff, Italian Paintings before 1600 in The Art Institute of Chicago. A Catalogue of the Collection, Chicago 1993
- Meiss 1974a
- Meiss, M., ‘A new panel by Giovanni di Paolo from his Altar‐piece of the Baptist’, Burlington Magazine, 1974, 116, 73–7
- Moskovitz 1981
- Moskovitz, A., ‘Osservazioni sulla Porta del Battistero di Andrea Pisano’, Antichità Viva, 1981, XX, 1, 28–39
- Panders 1977
- Panders, J., The Underdrawing of Giovanni di Paolo. Characteristics and Development, Deventer 1977
- Perrig 1987
- Perrig, A., ‘Die theoriebedingten Landschaftsformen in der italienischen Malerei des 14. und 15. Jahrhunderts’, in Die Kunst und das Studium der Natur vom 14. zum 16. Jahrhundert, eds W. Prinz and A. Beyer, Weinheim 1987, 41–60
- Pieper 1986
- Pieper, Paul, Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte, Münster – Die deutschen, niederländischen und italienischen Tafelbilder bis um 1530, Münster 1986
- Pope‐Hennessy 1937
- Pope‐Hennessy, J., Giovanni di Paolo 1403–1483, London 1937
- Pope‐Hennessy 1987a
- Pope‐Hennessy, J., assisted by L.B. Kanter, The Robert Lehman Collection: Italian Paintings, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 1987, I
- Pope‐Hennessy 1988
- Pope‐Hennessy, J., ‘Giovanni di Paolo’, Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, 1988, XLVI, 2, 6–48
- Pope‐Hennessy 1993
- Pope‐Hennessy, J., Donatello: sculptor, New York, London and Paris 1993
- Riedl 1986
- Riedl, P.A., Eine wiederentdeckte ‘Verkündigung Maria’ von Giovanni di Paolo, Heidelberg 1986
- Strehlke 1988
- Strehlke, Carl, in Painting in Renaissance Siena 1420–1500 (exh. cat. Metropolitan Museum of Art), New York 1988
- Strehlke 2004
- Strehlke, Carl Brandon, Italian Paintings 1250–1450 in the John G. Johnson Collection and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia 2004
- Sutton 1979
- Sutton, D., ‘Robert Langton Douglas: [part I]’, Apollo, April 1979, 109, 248–315; ‘[part II]’, May 1979, 334–93; ‘[part III]’, June 1979, 412–75
- Sutton 1985b
- Sutton, D., ‘Discoveries’, Apollo, 1985, 122, 118–29
- Sweeny 1966
- Sweeny, B., John G. Johnson Collection. Catalogue of Italian Paintings, Philadelphia 1966
- Taselaar 1989
- Taselaar, E., in The Early Sienese Paintings in Holland, eds H.W. Van Os, et al., Florence and The Hague 1989
- Vailati Schoenburg Waldenburg 1981
- Vailati Schoenburg Waldenburg, G., ‘La libreria di Coro dell’Eremo di Lecceto’, Antichità Viva, 1981, XX, 6, 12–24
- Vailati Schoenburg Waldenburg 1983
- Vailati Schoenburg Waldenburg, G., ‘L’osservanza leccetana e la genesi della libreria di coro’, Antichità Viva, 1983, XXII, 2, 5–26
- Vailati Schoenburg Waldenburg 1990
- Vailati Schoenburg Waldenburg, G., ‘La “Communella de Santi” e il quarto Graduale del Tempo’, in Lecceto e gli Eremi Agostiniani in Terra di Siena, eds C. Alessi, et al., Siena 1990, 383–401
- Vailati Schoenburg Waldenburg 1992
- Vailati Schoenburg Waldenburg, G., ‘Testo e Immagine: Giovanni di Paolo e la leccetana “Communella dei Santi”’, in Il Codice Miniato. Rapporti tra Codice, Testo e Figurazione, eds M. Ceccanti and M.N.C. Castelli (Atti del III Congresso di Storia della Miniatura Italiana, Cortona 1988), Florence 1992, 295–306
- Van Os 1984
- van Os, Henk W., with a contribution ‘On architectural and liturgical aspects of Siena Cathedral in the Middle Ages’ by Kees van der Ploeg, 1215–1344, 1984 (Sienese Altarpieces 1215–1460. Form, Content, Function, Groningen, 1)
- Van Os 1990
- van Os, Henk W., with a contribution ‘A description of the altars in Siena Cathedral in the 1420s’ by Gail Aronow, 1344–1460, 1990 (Sienese Altarpieces 1215–1460. Form, Content, Function, Groningen, 2)
- Walsh 1972
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- Wilson 1996a
- Wilson, C., Italian Paintings
X1VXIV‐XVI Centuries in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston 1996 - Zeri and Gardner 1980
- Zeri, Federico and Elizabeth E. Gardner, Italian Paintings. A Catalogue of the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, III, Sienese and Central Italian Schools, New York 1980
List of exhibitions cited
- London 1857
- London, Royal Academy, 1857
- London 1896
- London, Royal Academy, 1896
- London 1945
- London, National Gallery, Exhibition of Returned Pictures, May 1945
- London 1947–8, National Gallery
- London, National Gallery, An Exhibition of Cleaned Pictures (1936–1947), 1947–8
- London 1982
- London, National Gallery, Watch this Space – an Exhibition about Perspective in Painting, 1982
The Organisation of the Catalogue
Chronological and geographical limits
Included in this volume are works by artists or workshops the bulk of whose surviving work falls within the first half of the fifteenth century, i.e. around 1400–60: Starnina (d. 1413), Lorenzo Monaco (d. c. 1423), Gregorio di Cecco di Luca (d. c. 1428), Masaccio (d. 1428/9), Masolino (d. c. 1436), Giovanni dal Ponte (d. 1437), Sassetta (d. 1450), Master of the Osservanza (active second quarter of fifteenth century), Francesco d’Antonio (active until 1452), Jacopo di Antonio (Master of Pratovecchio?) (d. 1454), Fra Angelico (d. 1455), Pisanello (d. 1455), Pesellino (d. 1457), Domenico Veneziano (d. 1461), Bono da Ferrara (active until 1461), Apollonio di Giovanni (d. c. 1465), Zanobi Strozzi (d. 1468), Filippo Lippi (d. 1469), Giovanni da Oriolo (d. by 1474), Uccello (d. 1475), Marco del Buono (d. after 1480), Giovanni di Paolo (d. 1482).
The exceptions to this are two paintings whose previous attributions were to artists represented in this catalogue but which are now attributed to artists active primarily in the second half of the fifteenth century. The Virgin and Child with Angels (NG 5581) used to be catalogued as by a follower of Fra Angelico. Now, it is generally accepted as being an early work of c. 1447 by Benozzo Gozzoli, and it is therefore included here. However, his work as an independent painter dates from 1450, and his altarpiece dated 1461 for Santa Maria della Purificazione, Florence, will be considered in a subsequent catalogue. A panel of the Nativity (NG 3648) used to be given to a follower of Masaccio, but technical evidence links it to the altarpiece attributed to the Master of the Castello Nativity (active mid‐fifteenth century), recently identified as Piero di Lorenzo di Pratese – a painter deeply enmeshed in the history of the Trinity altarpiece by Pesellino (NG 727 etc.) considered here.
The majority of the paintings included in this catalogue are from Tuscany, with the exception of those by Pisanello, his pupil Bono da Ferrara and his follower Giovanni da Oriolo. Because so few Venetian paintings in the collection date from the first half of the fifteenth century, those which do will be considered in another volume.
Artists: The artists are catalogued in alphabetical order. Autograph works precede those which are attributed.
Attribution: A painting is discussed under the artist where the attribution is not considered to be in doubt. ‘Attributed to’ implies a measure of doubt. ‘Workshop of’ indicates that the work has been executed by a member of the workshop, sometimes with the participation of the artist concerned.
Title: The traditional title of each painting has been followed, except where further research has made a more precise description possible.
Date: Reasons for the date given in the head matter are explained in the body of each entry.
Medium: This is generally assumed to be egg. Where this has been identified, it is stated.
Support: This is generally assumed to be poplar. Where this has been identified, it is stated.
Dimensions: The overall dimensions are given in the head matter. Height precedes width. More precise dimensions are given in the discussion of each work.
Restoration: The history of the restoration of a painting before it entered the National Gallery is not given unless specifically known.
Technique and condition: These are discussed together, since the condition of a painting is often the result of the techniques employed. Where pigments seemed unusual, samples were examined by Ashok Roy and in some cases the medium has been analysed by Raymond White.
Method: Every painting was examined and measured in the Conservation Department with a conservator – usually Jill Dunkerton, but in some instances Martin Wyld, Larry Keith and Paul Ackroyd. Some paintings were examined by Rachel Billinge with infra‐red reflectography (see p. 478).
X‐radiographs, infra‐red photographs and infrared reflectograms: The reader may find it frustrating that reference is sometimes made to X‐radiographs, infra‐red photographs and infra‐red reflectograms without their being illustrated. This is because once they are reduced to page size they are often no longer decipherable.
Bibliographical information: At the end of every catalogue entry is a Select Bibliography listing the main publications relevant to that entry, in chronological order. The works in this list are cited in abbreviated form in the notes following the entry. Full references to all works cited in the catalogue are given in the List of Publications Cited (pp. 435–55).
Comments: I have attempted to give as full an account as possible with regard to attribution, patronage, date, related panels, original location, subject matter, iconography, etc., and to make this information accessible and interesting to the lay reader as well as to the art historian. Inevitably the text contains some speculation – I have tried to make it clear when an argument is hypothetical. For ease of reference the comments are given subheadings, but their sequence varies according to the requirements of the argument.
Dating and Measurements
Dates – old style and modern
Dates are given in the modern style, but the old style (o.s.) is indicated where pertinent.
- Florence:
- The calendar year began on the feast of the Annunciation, 25 March.
- Pisa:
- The year began on 25 March, but anticipated the Florentine year by one year (i.e. 1 January–24 March = modern).
- Pistoia (stile della Natività):
- The year began on 25 December, anticipating modern style (i.e. 1 January–24 December = modern).
- Siena:
- The year began on 25 March, but sometimes followed the Pisan system.
(See A. Cappelli, Cronologia Cronografica e Calendario Perpetuo, 2nd edn, Milan 1930, pp. 11–16.)
Measurements
The Florentine braccio (fioretino da panno) was the standard unit of linear measurement in Florence from at least the fourteenth until the nineteenth century and was equal to approximately 58.4 cm. In Siena the braccio (per le tele) before 1782 was 60 cm, although Siena also used the braccio of 58.4 cm.
(See A.P. Favaro, Metrologia, Naples 1826, pp. 85 and 118; R. Zupko, Italian weights and measures from the Middle Ages to the 19th Century, Philadelphia 1981, p. 46.)
Infra‐red reflectography
Infra‐red reflectography was carried out by Rachel Billinge using a Hamamatsu C2400 camera with an N2606 series infra‐red vidicon tube. The camera is fitted with a 36mm lens to which a Kodak 87A Wratten filter has been attached to exclude visible light. The infra‐red reflectogram mosaics were assembled on a computer using an updated version of the software (VIPS ip) described in R. Billinge, J. Cupitt, N. Dessipris and D. Saunders, ‘A note on an improved procedure for the rapid assembly of infrared reflectogram mosaics’, Studies in Conservation, vol. 38, 11, 1993, pp. 92–8.
About this version
Version 1, generated from files DG_2003__16.xml dated 07/03/2025 and database__16.xml dated 09/03/2025 using stylesheet 16_teiToHtml_externalDb.xsl dated 03/01/2025. Structural mark-up applied to skeleton document in full; entry for NG583, biography for Uccello and associated front and back matter (marked up in pilot project) reintegrated into main document; document updated to use external database of archival and bibliographic references; entries for L2, NG215-NG216, NG1897, NG2862 & NG4062; L15, NG727, NG3162, NG3230, NG4428 & NG4868.1-NG4868.4; NG583; NG663.1-NG663.5; NG666-NG667; NG766-NG767 & NG1215; NG1436; NG2908; NG3046; NG4757-NG4763; NG5451-NG5454; NG5962-NG5963; and NG6579-NG6580 prepared for publication; entry for NG583 proofread and corrected.
Cite this entry
- Permalink (this version)
- https://data.ng.ac.uk/0E9Y-000B-0000-0000
- Permalink (latest version)
- https://data.ng.ac.uk/0E6B-000B-0000-0000
- Chicago style
- Gordon, Dillian. “NG 5451–4, Scenes from the Life of Saint John the Baptist”. 2003, online version 1, March 9, 2025. https://data.ng.ac.uk/0E9Y-000B-0000-0000.
- Harvard style
- Gordon, Dillian (2003) NG 5451–4, Scenes from the Life of Saint John the Baptist. Online version 1, London: National Gallery, 2025. Available at: https://data.ng.ac.uk/0E9Y-000B-0000-0000 (Accessed: 19 March 2025).
- MHRA style
- Gordon, Dillian, NG 5451–4, Scenes from the Life of Saint John the Baptist (National Gallery, 2003; online version 1, 2025) <https://data.ng.ac.uk/0E9Y-000B-0000-0000> [accessed: 19 March 2025]