Skip to main content

Main image

Carnesecchi Tabernacle:
Catalogue entry

Catalogue contents

About the catalogue

Entry details

Full title
Carnesecchi Tabernacle
Artist
Domenico Veneziano
Author
Dillian Gordon and Susanna Avery-Quash

Catalogue entry

, 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

Head of a tonsured, beardless saint (NG 766) (© The National Gallery, London)

Head of a tonsured, bearded saint (NG 767) (© The National Gallery, London)

c. 1440–4

The following fresco fragments come from a street tabernacle on the Canto de’ Carnesecchi in Florence, signed by Domenico Veneziano.

NG 1215 
The Virgin and Child Enthroned

Fresco, transferred to canvas,1 241.0 x 120.5 cm

Signed on the step of the throne: DOMIN(I)CUS/D(E). VENECIIS.P(INXIT). (fig. 1)

The Virgin gazes out beyond the viewer, presenting, rather than merely holding, the blessing Child, who stands on her right knee. They are enthroned on a deeply recessed marble cosmati throne, placed amid foliage and flowers. Above is God the Father despatching the Dove of the Holy Ghost, surrounded by rays of light and with three rays emanating from his mouth. The whole is surrounded by a fictive grey frame of pietra serena with intermittent roundels of blue with white petals.

Technical Notes
Restoration

Restored in 1851–2 (see Provenance) and in 1980.

Condition and technique

The fresco, which must in its original state have been magnificent, has been damaged by exposure to the elements [page 59][page 60] [page 61] [page 62]and by its removal and transfer to canvas. Much of what survives is discoloured and stained by glue and varnish applied in the nineteenth‐century restoration, and the canvas onto which the fresco was transferred is visible in places. The upper part, which was presumably protected by the canopy of the niche, is the best preserved.

Fig. 1

Detail of signature (© The National Gallery, London)

A report on the technique of the painting was made in 1977.2 It was stressed that because of the extremely damaged condition and complex history of restoration, it was difficult to assess the materials and technique. The painting was certainly executed on lime plaster, since a thin layer of calcium carbonate remains. The pigments are consistent with the technique of buon fresco; the yellows, browns and red are ochre (iron oxide) pigments, the white areas are lime white, the Virgin’s robe is azurite over an underlayer of carbon black (achieving a more economical use of blue), and the greens of the decorative panels of the throne are green earth, also present in the flesh tones of the Virgin and Child. Although Vasari implied that Domenico Veneziano might have used drying oil as a medium in wall painting,3 there is in NG 1215 an apparently total absence of any organic binding material, with the possible exception of the gold, where gold leaf has been laid over what may be an egg‐tempera mordant pigmented with white. Joyce Plesters concluded that the painting had probably been done using the technique of buon fresco with the fine details added a secco. This is confirmed by the examination of cross‐sections from NG 767 made by Ashok Roy, which further shows that the painting probably originally had a black sinopia underdrawing.

The mordant gilding has largely come away but originally decorated the rays around God the Father and those emanating from his mouth, as well as the Dove’s halo, the outline of the haloes of the Virgin and Child, the edging of the Virgin’s veil and the signature around the steps of the throne. The Virgin’s dress, which is decorated with a floral pattern incised with fairly dense parallel lines (see detail opposite), is of tin with gold lying over it; little of this has survived.4 Incised lines also lend three‐dimensionality to the silver‐leaf balls at each corner of the throne. The haloes, which have an outline of gold leaf, are metallic tin (as in NG 766 and 767), identified in a sample from the Child’s halo. The flesh areas have been badly damaged and so no attempt was made to reconstruct them when the painting was cleaned in 1980. However, enough survives to give some idea of the original appearance, particularly in the Child’s right arm except for the fingers, his left arm, his legs and feet, the Virgin’s right hand and her right eye. The losses in the Child’s face and most of the Virgin’s face are extensive. The blue of the Virgin’s robe is damaged, but the white modelling of the drapery is reasonably preserved. There are vestiges of a pearl crown on the Virgin’s head.

The outlines of the figures seem not to have been incised, unlike the ruled lines of the architecture of the throne, which mostly were. The red mouldings of the throne are well preserved, but the marbling has lost most of its subtlety and the decorative inlay pattern is damaged.

NG 766 
Head of a tonsured, beardless saint

Fresco, transferred to tile, 43.0 x 35.5 cm

The saint is difficult to identify. He may be intended to represent a Benedictine or an Augustinian; if the latter, he may be Saint Nicholas of Tolentino. His habit has no apparent white lining, but it is possible that this disappeared during repainting.

NG 767 
Head of a tonsured, bearded saint

Fresco, transferred to tile, 45.0 x 35.5cm5

The saint, who is reading a book, may be Saint Benedict, with patriarchal beard.

Technical Notes for NG 766 and NG 767
Restoration

Restored in 1851–2 (see Provenance).

Condition and technique

In both fragments the paint surface is obscured by dirty varnish and retouching, and it is particularly damaged and pockmarked in NG 767. The irregular fragments – approximately following the outlines of the heads – have been made up into rectangles with new plaster and paint. The change in levels could be mistaken for a giornata, but this is not the case. Carmen Bambach detected that spolvero has been used along the hairline (continued by a restorer) and on part of the ear lobe of the saint in NG 766, and on the ear of the saint in NG 767.6 The damaged and repainted condition precludes any certain identification, even under a microscope. Examination in 1998 of a sample of the blue background from NG 767, taken from an area of original paint close to the saint, shows a true fresco structure with a lower layer of plaster, a black sinopia and an upper layer of plaster beneath the pigment layer. A preliminary dark underlayer consisting of black, iron‐oxide red and possibly also some blue seems to have been preparatory to the application of the blue surface. The blue surface, which would have been applied a secco, contains natural ultramarine. On top of this there is some later paint containing Prussian blue (not invented until after c. 1710) and zinc white (not in general use until the mid‐nineteenth century, and therefore probably part of the restoration campaign of 1851–2).

Samples of the black habits of the saints show a single layer of black paint over plaster, so they were always black. Both saints were originally full‐length (see below). In both fragments the haloes are of tin foil.

In NG 766 the overall shape of the saint’s face is as it originally was, but the features, except for the nose and mouth area, have been overpainted and reinforced – especially on the right‐hand side, where the hair, forehead, eye and cheek are all later inventions. In NG 767 the saint’s face has been entirely overpainted, but following the original contours.

[page [63]]

The Virgin and Child Enthroned (NG 1215), detail (© The National Gallery, London)

[page 64]
Fig. 2

Attributed to Pietro Nelli, street tabernacle with The Virgin and Child and Saints, 1416(?). Fresco. Florence, Santa Maria Mater Dei a Lippi. © Photo:SCALA, Florence

Original Location and Removal

NG 766, 767 and 1215 are the surviving fragments of a street tabernacle (see Provenance)7 painted at the Canto de’ Carnesecchi, which was at the convergence of Via de’ Panzani and Via de’ Banchi, not far from Santa Maria Maggiore, Florence.8 This was a pivotal point in the city’s processional topography.9 Hellmut Wohl identifies the tabernacle as that shown in an arch framed by columns on the level of the piano nobile at the end of a row of buildings on the right of an engraving by Giuseppe Zocchi (1754), because in Cinelli’s edition of Bocchi’s guide to Florence the tabernacle is described as being ‘sopra’ on the Canto de’ Carnesecchi.10

According to a statement made by a previous owner, Prince Ercole Pio di Savoia, once the fragments had been removed from the wall in 1851 they were given to Antonio Marini to restore; the heads of the saints were in the sides of the tabernacle (ali) and the remaining parts of the figures, which were presumably full‐length, were too ruined to warrant removal.11

Patron

Although Hellmut Wohl dismisses Decio Gioseffi’s suggestion that the Carnesecchi family commissioned the tabernacle,12 a member of the Carnesecchi family remains the most likely patron. The Carnesecchi owned several properties on Via Cerretani and Via de’ Panzani13 and had two family chapels in the nearby church of Santa Maria Maggiore.14 Brenda Preyer has established that the patron was probably Bernardo di Cristofano (1398–1452). In the catasto records she has found that his sons, including Cristofano di Bernardo Carnesecchi, inherited from their father after his death in 1452 ‘una chasa nuova chola Vergiene Maria di fuori’ (‘a new house with the Virgin Mary on the outside’), still known in 1458 as ‘la chasa della Vergine Maria’. This is probably identifiable not with Bernardo’s own dwelling but with the house located across the Via de’ Panzani from where the Carnesecchi lived. In 1447 he stated that he had built it ‘al tempo della chorte’, meaning during the time the papal court was in Florence – that is, June 1434 to April 1436, or February 1439 to March 1443 – and that he had used it as rental property. It is not listed in tax returns of 1427, 1430 and 1433, and was therefore probably built between 1433 and 1443.15 It is almost certainly the case that the house took its name from the fresco by Domenico Veneziano.

Attribution, Date and Iconography

There is no reason to doubt the authenticity of the signature.16 The poor condition prejudices any attempt at accurate dating. According to Vasari, the Carnesecchi tabernacle was the first work that Domenico Veneziano executed when he arrived in Florence.17 He was certainly in Florence by 1439 and may also have been there for a while before going to Perugia, where he was in 1438 (see biography). There are wide variations in the dating of the Carnesecchi tabernacle, ranging from c. 1432–4 to c. 1450 and summarised by Wohl, who himself dates it c. 1432–7 and sees the style and iconography as locating the tabernacle fresco in the same period as Fra Angelico’s Linaiuoli tabernacle of 1433 (Florence, Museo di San Marco; fig. 4).18 Although other writers, such as Curtis Shell, also see the Carnesecchi Virgin and Child as the earliest among Domenico’s surviving works, the Virgin appears close in type to that in the Washington Virgin and Child (National Gallery of Art) and seems to fall into the sequence of his works between the Virgin and Child in Bucharest (National Museum), which Wohl placed in Domenico’s time in Perugia, and before the altarpiece for Santa Lucia de’ Magnoli (Florence, Uffizi), plausibly dated c. 1445 by Andrea De Marchi and Giovanni Agosti.19

The iconography has its roots in both Florentine and Venetian painting.20 The motif of God the Father with the Dove, with its connotations of the Trinity, is often shown with the Baptism,21 and with the Annunciation;22 it is less common in connection with the Virgin and Child Enthroned. However, there is a strong Florentine tradition, dating from the late fourteenth/early fifteenth century, of showing the Virgin of Humility suckling the Child, while immediately above, or above and to the side, are the Dove and God the Father.23 More relevant to NG 766 is a panel painting by Agnolo Gaddi (see p. 196, fig. 6) from Santa Maria degli Angeli, Florence (Berlin, Gemäldegalerie),24 showing the Virgin and Child enthroned with the Dove in the spandrel above; presumably a pinnacle panel with God the Father is missing. In Fra Angelico’s Linaiuoli tabernacle the Child stands on the enthroned Virgin’s knee, a dove hovers above them, and in the pinnacle of the frame carved by Ghiberti is God the Father.25 However, most pertinent is the use of this iconography in the context of a street tabernacle sometimes attributed to Paolo Uccello, but possibly by Pietro Nelli (active 1375–1419), and possibly [page 65] painted in 1416, from Via P. Fanfani, on the corner of Via dei Perfetti Ricasoli, now in Santa Maria Mater Dei a Lippi, Florence (fig. 2), which shows the Virgin suckling the Child, with standing saints on either side, and God the Father despatching the Dove above.26

Fig. 3

Gentile da Fabriano, The Virgin and Child Enthroned, 1425. Fresco. Orvieto, Duomo. © Photo:SCALA, Florence

Fig. 4

Fra Angelico and Lorenzo Ghiberti, The Linaiuoli tabernacle, 1433. Tempera on wood and marble. Florence, Museo di San Marco. © Photo: SCALA, Florence

None of the Florentine versions cited above is particularly close to the iconography of God the Father in NG 1215, where the frontal God the Father despatching the Dove, with the palms of his hands thrust forward, could derive from Venetian prototypes, such as Lorenzo Veneziano’s Annunciation (fig. 5) in the Lion polyptych of 1359.27 Wohl stresses that the marble space‐enclosing throne is traditional in Florentine painting.28 Curtis Shell sees the base of the throne in NG 1215 as probably Venetian in type,29 although there are Florentine examples.30 Another probably north Italian feature is the position of the Child. While the standing Child is common in Florentine painting,31 it is rare to find him standing on the Virgin’s right (rather than left) knee. In north Italian painting, however, there are many examples of the blessing, sometimes naked, Child standing on the Virgin’s right knee.32 This type of iconography may also have been brought south by Gentile da Fabriano, as, for example, in his fresco in the Duomo of Orvieto (fig. 3) of 1425; an unknown factor is what Gentile painted on the exterior of the Sala dei Notai in Siena in 1424 or 1425.33

Although Domenico may have brought elements of northern painting to graft onto Florentine tradition, Wohl also stresses the position of the Carnesecchi tabernacle as ‘related to the Florentine avant‐garde of its day’ in the monumentality of the composition, deriving from Masaccio, the elaborate perspectival construction of the throne, and the ‘articulation of mass and energy as opposing forces in the human figure’.34

The heads of the accompanying saints are slightly smaller in scale. It is probable that they were originally full‐length, and set in the ali (wings) of the tabernacle – that is, at an angle to the main picture, as in the example attributed to Pietro Nelli cited above. The iconographic links with Fra Angelico’s tabernacle strengthen the links Wohl makes with the contrapuntal relationship of the heads of the side saints, one looking down, the other up, as in the exterior wings of the Linaiuoli tabernacle.35

According to Vasari, the Carnesecchi tabernacle was so highly praised that it aroused the envy of Castagno.36

[page 66]

Provenance

Painted as a tabernacle at the Canto de’ Carnesecchi, Florence. Some property that included this fresco was sold in 1841 by the Marchesa Marianna Garzoni Venturi, widow of Carlo Leopoldo Ginori Lisci, to Prince Ercole Pio di Savoia. In 1851 Prince Pio had the frescoes removed from the wall by the Milanese restorer Giovanni Rizzoli and restored by Antonio Marini, in whose studio they remained by request of a civic Florentine delegation (Delegazione di Governo del Quartiere S. Giovanni) from 8 March 1852; on 10 April 1852 they were returned to the Prince, who was given official approval (ex post facto) for their detachment on 26 April 1854.37 The three fragments were seen in his house in 1858 by Eastlake.38 In 1859 Prince Pio sold NG 1215, and possibly the other two fragments also, to the dealer Luigi Hombert. NG 766 and 767 were acquired by Sir Charles Eastlake in 1862;39 in 1867, after his death, they were purchased from his collection at the price he had paid for them. NG 1215 was sold by Hombert in 1865 to Lord Lindsay, later 25th Earl of Crawford.40 He died in 1880 and was succeeded by his son, who presented the fresco to the Gallery in 1886.

Exhibited (NG 1215)

London 1871, RA , Winter Exhibition (269).

Select Bibliography

Fig. 5

Lorenzo Veneziano, detail of God the Father from the Lion polyptych, 1359. Tempera on wood. Venice, Galleria dell’Accademia. © Gabinetto Fotografico Soprintendenza per i beni artistici per Venezia e Laguna, Photo: Osvaldo Bohm S.N.C. Photo © Cameraphoto/Scala, Florence

Notes

1. The fresco of the Virgin and Child was transferred to canvas in 1851. See the documents cited in note 37 below. (Back to text.)

2. Report by Joyce Plesters of March 1977, in the NG archives. (Back to text.)

3. See the discussion in Wohl 1980, pp. 1ff. (Back to text.)

4. The tin was analysed by EDX in 1998 by Ashok Roy. Cennino Cennini recommends tin foil or leaf rather than silver as a decorative material in frescoes because silver turns black even more quickly there than it does on a panel; see Cennino Cennini, Il Libro dell’Arte. The Craftsman’s Handbook (trans. D.V. Thompson, Jr), New York 1933, Dover paperback edn, p. 60. (Back to text.)

5. The fragments NG 766 and 767 had been transferred to tile by 7 May 1855 according to a description in an export document in the NG archives. (Back to text.)

7. Such tabernacles were often set at the corners of streets. For Florentine street tabernacles, see A. Paolucci et al. , Arte storia e devozione. Tabernacoli da Conservare, exh. cat., Ufficio Restauri della Soprintendenza per i Beni Artistici e Storici di Firenze e Pistoia, Florence 1992. (Back to text.)

8. Santa Maria Maggiore was then a foundation of Augustinian canons. See Paatz and Paatz, Die Kirchen von Florenz , III, 1952, p. 615. (Back to text.)

9. As pointed out to me by Caroline Elam (oral communication). See also Brenda Preyer (forthcoming). (Back to text.)

11. Statement made by Prince Ercole Pio di Savoia in the documents cited in note 37 below. The figures are said to have been ruined by the weather. (Back to text.)

[page 67]

14. For a study of the Carnesecchi chapel dedicated to Saint Catherine, see R. Bellucci and C. Frosinini, La Cappella Carnesecchi in Santa Maria Maggiore a Firenze: Un problema di collaborazione tra Paolo Uccello, Masolino e Masaccio (forthcoming). The Carnesecchi family commissioned from Masolino an altarpiece for their family chapel showing the Virgin and Child (stolen) with Saint Julian (Florence, Santo Stefano) and Saint Catherine (lost), and a predella showing scenes from the Life of Saint Nicholas. The Carnesecchi also commissioned from Masolino a Virgin and Child dated 1423, now in Bremen. Lee Roberts has suggested that the patron of both altarpieces was Paolo di Berto di Grazino de’ Carnesecchi (d. 1427). See P. Lee Roberts, Masolino da Panicale, Oxford 1993, pp. 18 and 176. Brenda Preyer has discovered that Bernardo di Cristofano founded a second chapel in Santa Maria Maggiore, dedicated to Saint Bernard, in 1450. (Back to text.)

15. I am extremely grateful to Brenda Preyer for sharing with me her research on the Carnesecchi house and Domenico Veneziano’s fresco, which she intends to publish shortly. (Back to text.)

16. Although Francesco Baldovinetti attributed it to his father, Alesso, Domenico’s pupil, in his Memoriale of 1513 (Wohl 1980, p. 351). (Back to text.)

17. See Vasari, Vite , 1550, p. 413; Vasari, Vite, 1550, eds Bellosi and Rossi , 1986, p. 392 and n. 14; and Vasari, Vite, 1568, ed. Milanesi , II, 1878, p. 675; Vasari, Vite, eds Bettarini and Barocchi , III, 1971, p. 358. (Back to text.)

18. See Wohl 1980, p. 67, and p. 116 for a summary of different dates given by various critics. (Back to text.)

20. J. Beck (‘Was Domenico Veneziano Really Veneziano?’, Art News, lxxix/10, December 1980, pp. 168–9) casts doubt on whether Domenico trained in Venice as an artist. (Back to text.)

21. For example, the Baptism by Niccolò di Pietro Gerini of c. 1387 in the National Gallery (NG 579). See M. Davies, revised by D. Gordon, National Gallery Catalogues, The Early Italian Schools before 1400, London 1988, pp. 89–93. (Back to text.)

23. For example, the paintings by Niccolò di Pietro Gerini (Avignon, Musée du Petit Palais, MI 365) – see M. Laclotte and E. Mognetti, Avignon: Musée du Petit Palais. Peinture italienne (series: Inventaire des collections publiques françaises), 3rd edn, Paris 1987, no. 78, p. 99; Jacopo di Cione (Washington, National Gallery of Art) – see F. Rusk Shapley, Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. National Gallery of Art Washington, Washington 1979, no. 814, pp. 248–9 and pl. 169; Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci (Florence, Accademia) – see L. Marcucci, Gallerie Nazionali di Firenze: I Dipinti Toscani del Secolo XIV, Rome 1965, pp. 136–7. (Back to text.)

24. See p. 197, note 9, under NG 4208. (Back to text.)

27. See R. Pallucchini, La Pittura Veneziana del Trecento, Venice and Rome 1964, fig. 498. The God the Father in the tier above is a later addition. (Back to text.)

28. Wohl 1980, p. 67 and p. 80, n. 3. J. Elkins (‘The case against surface geometry’, Art History, vol. 14, no. 2, 1991, pp. 143–74, esp. p. 148 and p. 173, n. 24) argues persuasively against Wohl’s discovery of a geometric scheme in the composition (Wohl 1980, p. 65 and fig. 1). (Back to text.)

29. C. Shell, ‘Domenico Veneziano. Two Clues’, in A. Kosegarten and P. Tigler (eds), Festschrift Ulrich Middeldorf, Berlin 1968, p. 153. Although Shell sees the standing Child as deriving from Fra Angelico, it is also a common motif in north Italian painting (see below). J. Pope‐Hennessy, who dated NG 1215 to c. 1434 (Donatello: Sculptor, New York, London and Paris 1993, p. 254), drew parallels between the receding side of the throne and the receding walls and ceiling of Donatello’s marble relief of the Pazzi Madonna (Berlin). (Back to text.)

30. For Venetian examples, see Pallucchini 1964 (cited in note 27), figs 186, 193, 603. For a Florentine example, see R. Fremantle, Florentine Gothic Painters from Giotto to Masaccio, London 1975, fig. 871. (Back to text.)

31. Wohl 1980, p. 67. (Back to text.)

32. For example, P. Zampetti and G. Donnini, Gentile e i pittori di Fabriano, Florence 1992, p. 41 (Allegretto Nuzi), pp. 111, 112, 152 (Gentile da Fabriano), p. 162 (Michele Giambono), p. 194 (Maestro di Staffolo). The standing Child occurs also in fourteenth‐century Venetian painting: Pallucchini 1964 (cited in note 27), figs 116, 117, 119. The Child held on the Virgin’s right knee is far more common in Venetian painting than it is in Florentine painting: ibid. , figs 548, 571, 580, 605, 614, 620, 625, 626. Domenico shows the Child held on the Virgin’s right knee in the altarpiece for Santa Lucia de’ Magnoli (Florence, Uffizi), for which see A. De Marchi (pp. 67–8) and G. Agosti (p. 70) in the exh. cat. Pittura di Luce (cited in note 19). (Back to text.)

33. For the problematic dating, see A. De Marchi, Gentile da Fabriano. Un viaggio nella pittura italiana alla fine del gotico, Milan 1992, pp. 193–4. For the impact of Gentile on Domenico, see Wohl 1980, pp. 7–9, who sees Gentile as Domenico’s teacher. (Back to text.)

34. Wohl 1980, pp. 66–7. (Back to text.)

35. Wohl 1980, p. 67. (Back to text.)

36. ‘dipinse in sul canto de’ Carnesecchi, nell’Angolo delle due vie, che vanno l’una alla nuova, l’altra alla vecchia piazza di Santa Maria Novella, in un tabernacolo a fresco una Nostra Donna in mezzo d’alcuni santi: laqual cosa, perchè piacque, e molto fo lodata dai cittadini, e dagli artefici di que’ tempi, fu cagione, che s’accendesse maggiore sdegno ed invidia nel maladetto animo d’Andrea [Castagno].’ See note 17. (Back to text.)

37. See the appeal made by Prince Ercole Pio di Savoia giving the history of his acquisition of the tabernacle, the detachment and restoration of the fragments, their sequestration and return to his ownership – documents dated 4February 1852 and 26 April 1854 in the NG archives, which were given to the Gallery by Lord Crawford. (Back to text.)

38. Eastlake’s notebook of 1858, vol. 4, p. 12 (undated entry). See also Crowe and Cavalcaselle 1864 , II, pp. 317–18. (Back to text.)

39. Eastlake’s letter to Wornum, 5 November 1863. (Back to text.)

Glossary

a secco
Literally ’in dry’ – used in relation to fresco painting, to describe details painted after the fresco in buon fresco has dried
buon fresco
True fresco – in which the pigments are applied when the plaster is wet
Catasto
Records of Florentine tax returns
cosmati
Inlaid marble pattern; a term deriving from the Cosmati brothers, who reintroduced the technique in Italy in the thirteenth century
EDX
Energy Dispersive X‐ray microanalysis
giornata
The area of buon fresco which can be painted in a day; final details were sometimes added a secco
mordant gilding
The process of applying gold leaf to an adhesive or mordant, usually done in the final stages of a painting
pietra serena
Grey sandstone
sinopia
Underdrawing in red chalk applied to plaster before the painting of a fresco

Abbreviations

Institutions
NG
National Gallery, London
Frequently cited works are given in abbreviated form throughout, as listed below:
Crowe and Cavalcaselle 1864
J.A. Crowe and G.B. Cavalcaselle, A History of Painting in Italy, 2 vols, London 1864
Vasari, Le Vite, eds Bellosi and Rossi
G. Vasari, Le Vite de’ più eccellenti architetti, pittori, et scultori italiani da Cimabue insino ai tempi nostri nell’edizione per i tipi di Lorenzo Torrentino, Firenze 1550/Giorgio Vasari, eds L. Bellosi and A. Rossi, Turin 1986
Vasari, Le Vite, ed. Milanesi
G. Vasari, Le Vite de’ più eccellenti pittori, scultori ed architetti, ed. G. Milanesi, 8 vols, Florence 1878–85
Vasari, Le Vite, eds Bettarini and Barocchi
G. Vasari, Le Vite de’ più eccellenti pittori, scultori e architettori nelle redazioni del 1550 & 1568, eds R. Bettarini and P. Barocchi, vol. II, Florence 1967; vol. III, Florence 1971

List of archive references cited

List of references cited

Bambach 1999
BambachCarmen C.Drawing and Painting in the Italian Renaissance Workshop. Theory and Practice 1300–1600Cambridge 1999
Barker et al. 2000
BarkerN.H. Brigstocke and T. CliffordA Poet in Paradise: Lord Lindsay and Christian Art, ed. A. Weston‐Lewis (exh. cat. National Gallery of Scotland), Edinburgh 2000
Beck 1980
BeckJ., ‘Was Domenico Veneziano Really Veneziano?’, Art News, Dec. 1980, lxxix10168–9
Bellosi 1990
BellosiL.Pittura di Luce. Giovanni di Francesco e L’arte fiorentina di metà Quattrocento (exh. cat. Florence, Casa Buonarroti), Milan 1990
Bellucci and Frosinini forthcoming
BellucciR. and C. FrosininiLa Cappella Carnesecchi in Santa Maria Maggiore a Firenze: Un problema di collaborazione tra Paolo Uccello, Masolino e Masaccio, forthcoming
Bocchi 1677
BocchiF.Le Bellezze della Città di Firenze: dove a pieno di pittura di scultura, di sacri templi, di palazzi, i più notabili artifizi, e più preziosi si contengono, ed. G. CinelliFlorence 1677
Borsi and Borsi 1992
BorsiS. and F. BorsiPaolo UccelloParis 1992
Boskovits 1975
BoskovitsMiklósLa Pittura Fiorentina alla vigilia del Rinascimento 1370–1400Florence 1975
Cennino Cennini 1932–3
CenniniCenninoIl Libro dell’Arte. The Craftsman’s Handbook, ed. Daniel V. Thompson Jr.2 volsNew Haven 1932–3
Ciabani 1992
CiabaniR.Le Famiglie di Firenze3 volsFlorence 1992
Crowe and Cavalcaselle 1864
CroweJoseph Archer and Giovanni‐Battista CavalcaselleA New History of Painting in Italy 2 volsLondon 1864
Davies rev. Gordon 1988
DaviesMartinrevised by D. GordonNational Gallery Catalogues: The Early Italian Schools Before 1400, revised edn of Davies 1961, London 1988
Da Marchi 1992
De MarchiA.Gentile da Fabriano. Un viaggio nella pittura italiana alla fine del goticoMilan 1992
Del Migliore 1684
Del MiglioreF.L.Firenze, città nobilissima illustrata: prima, seconda, e terza parte del primo libroFlorence 1684
Edgerton and Steinberg 1987
EdgertonS.Y.Jr and L. Steinberg, ‘How shall this be? Reflections on Filippo Lippi’s Annunciation in London’, Artibus et Historiae, 1987, VIII1625–53
Elkins 1991
ElkinsJ., ‘The case against surface geometry’, Art History, 1991, 142143–74
Fremantle 1975
FremantleRichardFlorentine Gothic Painters from Giotto to Masaccio: a Guide to Painting in and near Florence, 1300 to 1450London 1975
Ginori Lisci 1985
Ginori LisciL.The Palazzi of Florence. Their History and Arttrans. by J. GrilloFlorence 1985
Gioseffi 1962
GioseffiD., ‘Domenico Veneziano. L’“esordio masaccesco” e la tavola con i SS Girolamo e Giovanni Battista della National Gallery di Londra’, Emporium, 1962, CXXXV51–72
Laclotte and Mognetti 1977
LaclotteM. and E. MognettiAvignon, musée du Petit Palais. Peinture italienneInventaire des collections publiques françaises, 2nd edn, Paris 1977 (3rd edn, Paris 1987)
Lee Roberts 1993
Lee RobertsP.Masolino da PanicaleOxford 1993
Padoa Rizzo 1991
Padoa RizzoA.Paolo Uccello. Catalogo completo dei dipintiFlorence 1991
Paolucci et al. 1992
PaolucciA.et al.Arte storia e devozione. Tabernacoli da Conservare (exh. cat. Ufficio Restauri della Soprintendenza per i Beni Artistici e Storici di Firenze e Pistoia), Florence 1992
Pope‐Hennessy 1952b
Pope‐HennessyJ.Fra AngelicoLondon 1952 (2nd edn, 1974)
Pope‐Hennessy 1993
Pope‐HennessyJ.Donatello: sculptorNew YorkLondon and Paris 1993
Preyer forthcoming
reference not found
Rusk Shapley 1979
Rusk ShapleyF.Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. National Gallery of Art WashingtonWashington, DC 1979
Shell 1968
ShellC., ‘Domenico Veneziano. Two Clues’, in Festschrift Ulrich Middeldorf, eds A. Kosegarten and P. TiglerBerlin 1968, 153
Vasari 1878–85
VasariGiorgioLe Vite de’più eccellenti pittori, scultori ed architettori, ed. Gaetano Milanesi9 volsFlorence 1878–85
Vasari 1967–71
VasariGiorgioLe Vite de’più eccellenti pittori, scultori ed architettori, eds R. Bettarini and P. BarocchiFlorence 1967 (I and II), 1971 (III)
Vasari 1986
VasariGiorgioLe vite de’ piu eccellenti pittori, scultori et architetti italiani, da Cimabue insino a’ tempi nostri nell’ edizione per i tipi di Lorenzo Torrentino, eds Luciano Bellosi and Aldo RossiFlorence 1550 (Turin 1986)
Wohl 1980
WohlH.The Paintings of Domenico Veneziano, ca. 1410–1461. A Study in Florentine Art of the Early RenaissanceNew York and London 1980
Zampetti and Donnini 1992
ZampettiP. and G. DonniniGentile e i pittori di FabrianoFlorence 1992

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/0E8X-000B-0000-0000
Permalink (latest version)
https://data.ng.ac.uk/0E65-000B-0000-0000
Chicago style
Gordon, Dillian. “NG 1215, 766, 767, The Carnesecchi Tabernacle”. 2003, online version 1, March 9, 2025. https://data.ng.ac.uk/0E8X-000B-0000-0000.
Harvard style
Gordon, Dillian (2003) NG 1215, 766, 767, The Carnesecchi Tabernacle. Online version 1, London: National Gallery, 2025. Available at: https://data.ng.ac.uk/0E8X-000B-0000-0000 (Accessed: 19 March 2025).
MHRA style
Gordon, Dillian, NG 1215, 766, 767, The Carnesecchi Tabernacle (National Gallery, 2003; online version 1, 2025) <https://data.ng.ac.uk/0E8X-000B-0000-0000> [accessed: 19 March 2025]