Saint Romulus: Frame Panel:
Catalogue entry

Catalogue contents

About the catalogue

Full title: Saint Romulus: Frame Panel
Artist: Fra Angelico
Inventory number: NG2908
Author: Dillian Gordon and Susanna Avery-Quash
Extracted from: The Fifteenth Century Italian Paintings, Volume 1 (London, 2003)

Guido di Pietro, called Fra Angelico active 1417; died 1455
NG 2908
Saint Romulus

Dillian Gordon, 2003

Extracted from:
Dillian Gordon, The Fifteenth Century Italian Paintings, Volume I (London: National Gallery Company and Yale University Press, 2003).

c. 1423–4

Egg tempera on wood, 16.0 x 15.6 cm

On the right the remains of an inscription: OL(?)VS(?)

The bishop saint, wearing a mitre and a pink cope with golden orphreys and a green lining, carries a martyr’s palm and a crozier in his right hand and a book in his left hand.

Technical Notes

Restoration

Cleaned and restored in 2002.

Panel construction

Height 16 cm, width 15.6 cm; panel thickness 1.5 cm; painted roundel 14 cm in diameter. The panel, which has a vertical grain, has been cut on all sides to an almost square shape. It consists of two pieces of wood with an original join 11.5 cm from the right. A trapezoidal‐shaped piece of mahogany(?) has been added to the left edge, so that 1.2 cm of the front surface and 2.2 cm of the reverse are modern.

Condition and technique

Examination under magnification of a cross‐section from the background behind the saint shows that the whole surface was prepared with bole, indicating that it was probably once intended to be water‐gilded, or indeed was gilded and then scraped before it was overpainted blue with azurite (possibly at an early date – see below). This blue background was in turn extensively repainted with Prussian blue,¹ removed in the cleaning of 2002. The letters just visible to the right of the saint, which have been painted in lead white, appear to read OL(?)VS(?).

The gold of the spandrels is very abraded. A punched pattern encircles the roundel.

The canvas appears in the X‐radiograph (fig. 1) to be very similar to that of NG 663.

Identification of the Saint

The letters of the inscription were read by Martin Davies as …MEUS(?), but correctly interpreted as fragments of the name ROMOLUS by Christa Gardner von Teuffel;² see also below. They are most legible in the X‐radiograph (fig. 1).

Related Fragment

A panel with a bishop saint in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (fig. 2; inv. no. 1991.27.2), was first associated with NG 2908 by Bernard Berenson.³ The two fragments are stylistically similar and share a number of characteristics: both have been entirely covered with bole, showing that in each case the background was originally intended to be gilded; both have similar incised and punched decoration in the gold around the circumference; both have letters painted in lead white; the blue overpainted backgrounds are similar; the dimensions are similar (the New York panel is 15.9 x 15.6cm, the painted roundel 14.9 cm in diameter); both panels have an added piece of mahogany at the side – in the case of the New York one this has been added at the right‐hand edge.⁴ The London figure is lit from the right, while the New York figure is lit from the left. Given their technical and stylistic similarities, it seems reasonable to argue that the two panels come from the same work and remained together for some time.

Original Function and Location

Several writers have in the past suggested that the two fragments came from Fra Angelico’s high altarpiece for San Domenico, Fiesole. Sir John Pope Hennessy said that NG 2908 was stated to have come from a predella or a frame, possibly from the San Domenico altarpiece, which Robert Langton Douglas had said was the provenance for the New York fragment.⁵

The original frame of that altarpiece has been dismantled: the predella is now in the National Gallery (see NG 663) and the present pilasters come from another painting.⁶ Umberto Baldini assembled a number of fragments in a reconstruction of the frame (see NG 663, fig. 14, p. 14),⁷ which included NG 2908 and the New York fragment, as well as Saint Mark and Saint Matthew (Chantilly, Musée Condé; figs 7 and 8); Saint Nicholas and Saint Michael (now Rau Collection; ex coll. Deane Johnson, Bel Air, California; figs 5 and 6); two roundels with the Angel Gabriel and the Annunciate Virgin (ex von Tucher Collection, Vienna; present whereabouts unknown); Christ Blessing (Royal Collection; p. 16, fig. 21).⁸ The four panels with the full‐length saints all have identical inscriptions on the back stating that the figure is one of ten from the altarpiece in San Domenico, Fiesole.⁹ The pilasters of the altarpiece were repainted by Lorenzo di Credi when he repainted the main tier (see p. 16). Baldini points out that the fragment of pilaster repainted by Lorenzo di Credi still remaining on the altarpiece is important evidence that the Chantilly and Rau fragments come from the altarpiece.¹⁰ Old photographs (figs 3 and 4, and p. 15, figs 16 and 17) of the four surviving saints’ panels show the standing figures under semicircular arches – apparently stone niches imitating pietra serena, presumably painted by Lorenzo di Credi.

The blue background of NG 2908 may have been repainted when the altarpiece was changed in 1501 from an essentially Gothic altarpiece, with arched compartments and a gold background, to a Renaissance pala with a landscape background by Lorenzo di Credi.¹¹

The provenance from San Domenico, Fiesole, is confirmed by Christa Gardner von Teuffel’s identification of the bishop martyr saint in the National Gallery panel as Saint Romulus, to whom the cathedral of Fiesole was dedicated and in whose diocese San Domenico was located.¹² By analogy with NG 2908, Gardner von Teuffel recognised that the bishop saint in the New York panel, which has the fragmentary inscription (?) X (A?), is to be identified as Saint Alexander, to whom an ancient church in Fiesole was dedicated.¹³

The vertical grain suggests that the fragments came from the frame of the altarpiece. Baldini reconstructs them in the pilasters.¹⁴ However, Giorgio Bonsanti insists that one cannot be sure of the complex from which NG 2908 comes.¹⁵

[page 27][page 28]

**Fig. 1**
X‐radiograph of NG 2908 (© The National Gallery, London)

[page 29]

**Fig. 2**
Fra Angelico, *Saint Alexander*, c. 1423. Tempera on wood, 15.9 x 15.6 cm. New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bequest of Lucy G. Moses, 1990, inv.no. 1991.27.2. © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Attribution and Date

The likely provenance of NG 2908 from the high altarpiece of San Domenico gives it a probable date of about 1423–4 with a terminus ante quem of 1435 (see p. 17). NG 2908 was listed by Berenson in 1936 as by Angelico in part. Mario Salmi attributed it to Zanobi Strozzi following Angelico’s design.¹⁶ Pope‐Hennessy¹⁷ considered both panels to have originated in Fra Angelico’s workshop. NG 2908 was attributed by Mirella Levi d’Ancona and by Paul Cardile to Battista di Biagio Sanguigni.¹⁸ Bonsanti considers the fragment to be autograph.¹⁹ Although Carl Strehlke considers the London and New York panels to date from later than the San Domenico triptych, reflecting a painter familiar with Masaccio’s frescoes in the Brancacci chapel,²⁰ the style of NG 2908 is entirely consistent with some of the figures in the predella and must be contemporary, and most probably from the same work. Compare particularly the panels with the Dominican Blessed.

Exhibited/Loaned

Lent by Lady Lindsay to the New Gallery 1893/4 (no. 120);²¹ London 19 8 9 8–9, NG , Zanobi Strozzi. In the light of Fra Angelico (no catalogue).

Provenance

Lady Lindsay Bequest, 1912.²²

[page 30]

Select Bibliography

J. Pope‐Hennessy, Fra Angelico, London 1974, 2nd edn, p. 227.
C. Strehlke in Painting and Illumination in Early Renaissance Florence 1300–1450, exh. cat., Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 1994, pp. 339–42.
C. Gardner von Teuffel, ‘Fra Angelico’s bishop saints from the high altar of S. Domenico, Fiesole’, BM , 139, 1997, pp. 463–5.
G. Bonsanti, Beato Angelico. Catalogo completo, Florence 1998, no. 21, p. 121.

**Fig. 3**
Fra Angelico, *Saint Nicholas of Bari* (before cleaning), c. 1423. Tempera on wood, 35.5 x 14cm. ~~© The National Gallery, London~~ © Collection RAU-Fondation UNICEF, Cologne

**Fig. 4**
Fra Angelico, *Saint Michael* (before cleaning), c. 1423. Tempera on wood, 35.5 x 14cm. ~~© The National Gallery, London~~ © Collection RAU-Fondation UNICEF, Cologne

Notes

1. Cross‐sections examined by Ashok Roy. (Back to text.)

2. See note 12. (Back to text.)

3. Berenson 1963 , Florentine School, I, p. 14, where he suggested that they came from the frame of an altarpiece. (Back to text.)

4. See the notes in the archives on the New York fragment sent to the National Gallery by Charlotte Hale, Conservator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in October 1991. The New York panel has been cradled. (Back to text.)

5. Pope‐Hennessy 1974, p. 227 and fig. 93. See also K. Christiansen in Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, XLIX, Fall, New York 1991, p. 39. Langton Douglas had said that the New York fragment, which he had owned, was part of the San Domenico altarpiece, but he did not state his source for this (letter in the NG archives dated 18 December 1928). The New York panel was possibly with Samuel Rogers (before 1856), for whom see also p. 48 of this catalogue, then with Canon Sutton, London (Langton Douglas: before 1928), Mr and Mrs Henry L. Moses, New York (by 1928–61), then with Lucy G. Moses, New York (1961–90). For Robert Langton Douglas, see D. Sutton in Apollo, 109, 1979, pp. 248–315, 334–93 and 412–75; and p. xxxvi of this catalogue. (Back to text.)

6. According to Pope‐Hennessy (1974, p. 189), this was first noted by Venturi ( 1911 , vol. 7, p. 40). (Back to text.)

7. U. Baldini, L’opera completa dell’Angelico, Milan 1970, no. 9, p. 87: the details of his reconstruction on p. 88 were refined in his ‘Contributi all’Angelico: il Trittico di San Domenico di Fiesole e Qualche Altra Aggiunta’, in Scritti di Storia dell’Arte in Onore di Ugo Procacci, I, Milan 1977, pp. 236–46 (reconstruction: fig. 232). The fragments with Saint Nicholas and Saint Michael (each 35.5 x 14 cm) were sold Sotheby’s, 6 December 1972, lot 6, from the collection of the Revd A. Hawkins‐Jones, Sheffield; see note 9 below. For Christ Blessing in the Royal Collection on loan to the National Gallery, see J. Shearman, The Early Italian Pictures in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen, Cambridge 1983, no. 9, pp. 13–15. See further Laurence Kanter in the exh. cat. Rediscovering Fra Angelico. A Fragmentary History, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven 2001, pp. 34–7. The von Tucher Collection in Vienna is often cited as the Tucker Collection. (Back to text.)

8. Carl Strehlke (exh. cat., 1994, p. 341) also suggests that a fragment he identifies as Saint Anthony of Padua (Assisi, San Francesco, Federico Mason Perkins Collection) may have been part of the same altarpiece, possibly from the pilasters, since it is slightly narrower in width than the New York and NG fragments. Strehlke points out that the figure is misidentified as Saint Francis in F. Zeri, La collezione Federico Mason Perkins, Turin 1988, p. 87. Kanter and Palladino argue – in G. Morello and L.B. Kanter (eds), The Treasury of Saint Francis, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, exh. cat., Milan 1999, cat. 21, p. 108 – that the fact that the saint has been identified as Saint Antoninus, the Dominican archbishop, suggests that it was once in a Dominican location (possibly from the frame of the Coronation of the Virgin in the Louvre; also from San Domenico, Fiesole, c. 1429). This, however, can be used to argue the precise opposite, since it is highly unlikely that any Dominican would have labelled a figure in a Franciscan habit as a Dominican. (Back to text.)

9. The inscriptions on the backs of the Saint Nicholas and Saint Michael panels are recorded on the backs of photographs in the NG archives taken on 13 September 1945 while they were still in the collection of the Revd Hawkins‐Jones: ‘Questa figura che rappresenta S. Michele/Arcangelo di mano di Gio. Beato Angelico/era una delle dieci che adornavano un/Altare del convento di [page 31] S. Domenico di/ Fiesole.’ The Saint Nicholas panel had the same inscription, but identifying him as Saint Augustine. For the inscriptions on the panels in Chantilly, see de Boissard, in E. de Boissard and V. Lavergne‐Durey, Chantilly Musée Condé: Peintures de l’Ecole italienne, Inventaire des collections publiques françaises, vol. 34, Paris 1988, cat. nos 4 and 5, pp. 44–5. De Boissard (p. 45) suggests that missing from the series are Saint John and Saint Luke. Saint Nicholas is shown also in the predella (see p. 4 of this catalogue). (Back to text.)

**Fig. 5**
Fra Angelico, *Saint Nicholas of Bari*, c. 1423. Tempera on wood, 35.5 x 14 cm. Collection Rau – Fondation UNICEF, Cologne, inv. no. GR 1.696. ~~© Collection RAU‐Fondation UNICEF, Cologne: *Photo:* Peter Schälchli, Zurich~~ © Remagen, Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck / Collection Rau for UNICEF. Photo: Peter Schälchli, Zurich

**Fig. 6**
Fra Angelico, *Saint Michael*, c. 1423. Tempera on wood, 35.5 x 14 cm. Collection Rau – Fondation UNICEF, Cologne, inv. no. GR 1.697. ~~© Collection RAU‐Fondation UNICEF, Cologne: *Photo:* Peter Schälchli, Zurich~~ © Remagen, Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck / Collection Rau for UNICEF. Photo: Peter Schälchli, Zurich

**Fig. 7**
Fra Angelico, *Saint Mark*, c. 1423. Tempera on wood, 36 x 11 cm. Chantilly, Musée Condé, inv. no. 4. ~~© *Photo:* Bridgeman Art Library, London~~ © Musée Condé, Chantilly / Bridgeman Images

**Fig. 8**
Fra Angelico, *Saint Matthew*, c. 1423. Tempera on wood, 36 x 11 cm. Chantilly, Musée Condé, inv. no. 5. ~~© *Photo:* Bridgeman Art Library, London~~ © Musée Condé, Chantilly / Bridgeman Images

10. Baldini 1977 (cited in note 7), p. 237 and fig. 231. (Back to text.)

11. The Chantilly panels are also missing much of their gold background, revealing the gesso ground, although it is impossible to say when it was removed. (Back to text.)

12. See Gardner von Teuffel, BM , 1997, pp. 463–5. (Back to text.)

13. Gardner von Teuffel, loc. cit. Carl Strehlke (exh. cat., 1994, no. 49, pp. 339–42, illustration on p. 340, pl. 49) had previously identified the saint as John Chrysostom. (Back to text.)

14. Strehlke (exh. cat., 1994, loc. cit. ) felt that there were inconsistencies within the group assembled by Baldini, such as the fact that the roundels with the Annunciation have a pastiglia rather than a punched decoration. However, his disassociation of the roundels from the San Domenico frame is invalidated by his misidentification of the saint in the New York roundel (see note 13). Strehlke has suggested that they could have been the ‘due piccole Tavole esistenti nella Sagrestia con due Santi in campo d’oro’. However, the latter are more likely to have been full‐length saints rather than diminutive fragments. (Back to text.)

15. Bonsanti 1998, no. 20, p. 121. (Back to text.)

16. M. Salmi, Il Beato Angelico, Spoleto 1958, p. 87. He incorrectly identified the saint as possibly Louis of Toulouse and associated the fragment with the Lamentation over the Dead Christ (Florence, San Marco) commissioned in April 1436 for the Compagnia of Santa Maria della Croce al Tempio. Martin Davies ( 1961 , p. 32, n. 3) thought that some of his remarks must have been misplaced from NG 3417 (The Vision of the Dominican Habit) of this catalogue. (Back to text.)

17. Pope‐Hennessy 1974, p. 227. (Back to text.)

18. M. Levi d’Ancona, ‘Battista di Biagio Sanguigni (1392/3–1451)’, La Bibliofilia, LXXII, 1970, p. 29. She also attributes NG 3417 to him. However, this does not appear to be by the same hand (see p. 33 of this catalogue). P.J. Cardile, in Fra Angelico and his Workshop at San Domenico (1420–1435): The Development of his Style and the Formation of his Workshop, PhD Dissertation, Yale University, 1976, pp. 92–3, attributes NG 2908 to Sanguigni but the New York painting to Zanobi Strozzi. (Back to text.)

19. Bonsanti 1998, loc. cit. (Back to text.)

20. Strehlke (exh. cat., 1994), p. 341. (Back to text.)

21. As Saint Nicholas. (Back to text.)

22. Margaret Lady Lindsay was the daughter of Lieutenant‐General James Lindsay and wife of the collector Alexander Lord Lindsay, later 25th Earl of Crawford and Balcarres; see N. Barker, H. Brigstocke and T. Clifford (ed. A. Weston‐Lewis), A Poet in Paradise. Lord Lindsay and Christian Art, exh. cat., National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh 2000, pp. 11–12. (Back to text.)

Glossary

bole: A red clay applied to the gessoed surface of a panel as an adhesive underlayer for gold leaf
cope: A semicircular cloak worn by a bishop (sometimes called a pluvial)
crozier: A staff carried by a bishop
mitre: A liturgical hat worn by a bishop
orphrey: The gold or richly embroidered border of a liturgical vestment
pala: An altarpiece with a unified painted surface
pastiglia: Raised gesso, usually in a foliate pattern, which is gilded; often used to decorate the wider surface areas of frames, particularly in the spandrels or predella
pietra serena: Grey sandstone
terminus ante quem: AA fixed date before which (a painting must have been made)
water gilding: Gold leaf applied to wetted bole and then burnished

Abbreviations

Institutions

NG: National Gallery, London

Periodicals

BM: Burlington Magazine, London, 1903–

Frequently cited works are given in abbreviated form throughout, as listed below:

Berenson 1963: B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: a list of the principal artists and their works with an index of places. Florentine School, 2 vols, London 1963 (lists of 1932 revised)
Davies 1961: M. Davies, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, 2nd revised edn, London 1961
Venturi 1911: A. Venturi, Storia dell’arte italiana, 11 vols, Milan 1901–39 (vol. 7, 1911)

List of archive references cited

London, National Gallery, Archive: notes on the New York fragment sent by Charlotte Hale, Conservator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, October 1991
London, National Gallery, Archive: letter, 18 December 1928

List of references cited

Baldini 1970: Baldini, U., L’opera completa dell’Angelico, Milan 1970
Baldini 1977: Baldini, U., ‘Contributi all’Angelico: il Trittico di San Domenico di Fiesole e Qualche Altra Aggiunta’, in Scritti di Storia dell’Arte in Onore di Ugo Procacci, Milan 1977, 1, 236–46
Barker et al. 2000: Barker, N., H. Brigstocke and T. Clifford, A Poet in Paradise: Lord Lindsay and Christian Art, ed. A. Weston‐Lewis (exh. cat. National Gallery of Scotland), Edinburgh 2000
Berenson 1963: Berenson, Bernard, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: a list of the principal artists and their works with an index of places. Florentine School (revised lists of 1932), 2 vols, London 1963
Bonsanti 1998: Bonsanti, G., Beato Angelico. Catalogo completo, Florence 1998
Cardile 1976: Cardile, P.J., ‘Fra Angelico and his Workshop at San Domenico (1420–1435): The Development of his Style and the Formation of his Workshop’ (PhD dissertation), Yale University, 1976
Christiansen 1991b: Christiansen, K., ‘European Paintings. Fra Angelico, a Bishop Saint’, Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, New York Fall 1991, XLIX, 39
Davies 1961: Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, 2nd revised edn, London 1961 (1st edn, London 1951)
De Boissard and Lavergne‐Durey 1988: De Boissard, Elisabeth and Valérie Lavergne‐Durey, Chantilly, Musée Condé: Peintures de l’Ecole italienne, Inventaire des collections publiques françaises, no. 34, Paris 1988
Gardner von Teuffel 1997: Gardner von Teuffel, C., ‘Fra Angelico’s bishop saints from the high altar of San Domenico, Fiesole’, Burlington Magazine, July 1997, 139, 1132, 463–65
Kanter 2001: Kanter, L., Rediscovering Fra Angelico. A Fragmentary History (exh. cat. Yale University Art Gallery), New Haven 2001
Kanter and Palladino 1999: Kanter, L.B. and P. Palladino, in The Treasury of Saint Francis of Assisi, eds G. Morello and L.B. Kanter (exh. cat. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), Milan 1991
Levi d’Ancona 1970: Levi d’Ancona, M., ‘Battista di Biagio Sanguigni (1392/3–1451)’, La Bibliofilia, 1970, LXXII, 1–35
Pope‐Hennessy 1952b: Pope‐Hennessy, J., Fra Angelico, London 1952 (2nd edn, 1974)
Salmi 1958: Salmi, M., Il Beato Angelico, Spoleto 1958
Shearman 1983: Shearman, John, The Early Italian Pictures in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen, Cambridge 1983
Strehlke 1994: Strehlke, Carl, in Painting and Illumination in Early Renaissance Florence 1300–1450 (exh. cat. Metropolitan Museum of Art), New York 1994
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
Venturi 1911: Venturi, A., Storia dell’arte italiana, 11 vols, Milan 1911, 7
Zeri 1988: Zeri, F., La collezione Federico Mason Perkins, Turin 1988

List of exhibitions cited

London 1998–9: London, National Gallery, Zanobi Strozzi. In the light of Fra Angelico, 1998–9

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/0EAH-000B-0000-0000
Permalink (latest version): https://data.ng.ac.uk/0E68-000B-0000-0000
Chicago style: Gordon, Dillian. “NG 2908, Saint Romulus”. 2003, online version 1, March 9, 2025. https://data.ng.ac.uk/0EAH-000B-0000-0000.
Harvard style: Gordon, Dillian (2003) NG 2908, Saint Romulus. Online version 1, London: National Gallery, 2025. Available at: https://data.ng.ac.uk/0EAH-000B-0000-0000 (Accessed: 19 March 2025).
MHRA style: Gordon, Dillian, NG 2908, Saint Romulus (National Gallery, 2003; online version 1, 2025) <https://data.ng.ac.uk/0EAH-000B-0000-0000> [accessed: 19 March 2025]

Main image

Saint Romulus: Frame Panel:Catalogue entry