Stefano di Giovanni, called Sassetta active by 1427; died 1450
NG 4757–4763 
Seven Scenes from the Life of Saint Francis

Dillian Gordon, 2003

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

1437–44

Egg tempera (identified) on poplar (identified), each panel c. 89.5 x 54.5 cm

The seven panels NG 4757 to NG 4763, depicting scenes from the Life of Saint Francis (d. 1226), founder of the Franciscan Order, come from a double‐sided altarpiece commissioned in 1437 from Sassetta by the friars of San Francesco, Borgo San Sepolcro, and delivered in 1444. The front showed the Virgin and Child with Saint Anthony of Padua, Saint John the Evangelist (all Paris, Louvre), Saint John the Baptist and Blessed Raniero Rasini (both Settignano, Berenson Collection), while the back showed Saint Francis in Glory (also Berenson Collection), flanked by eight compartments showing scenes from his life, seven of which are in the National Gallery and are discussed individually below; the eighth is in the Musée Condé, Chantilly.

General Technical Notes

Restoration

Restored between 1819 and 1840.¹ Cleaned and restored in 1977,² at which time the opportunity was taken to make a full technical examination, the results of which were published in the National Gallery Technical Bulletin.

Examination by infra‐red reflectography has revealed some underdrawing outlining forms and drapery folds, and cross‐sections from a few small samples show some grains of black between gesso and paint, indicating the presence of an underdrawing.³ The medium was found to be egg.⁴

The principal pigments used were ultramarine, artificial malachite, vermilion, red lake possibly deriving from kermes, and lead‐tin yellow. For the flesh, the undermodelling was done not in terra verde but in verdaccio (lead white with yellow ochre and black). Joyce Plesters wrote of the skies that: ‘The subtle gradation of the blue…depends not only on increasing the proportion of ultramarine to lead white for the deeper shades, but also on increased particle size of the ultramarine.’⁵

The decorative effects used are elaborate: as well as the traditional gold leaf, for the background and elsewhere, silver leaf has been used in every panel except the Stigmatisation (NG 4760), and glazed with red lake, blue or green; this, added to the substantial use of silver and gold leaf on the Virgin and Child panel, helps to explain the extremely high sum of 510 florins paid to Sassetta, which must have included the cost of materials as stipulated in the contract of 1437 (see below), and the frame.

The panels in their modern frames

All seven scenes are painted on poplar panels with a vertical grain. The surviving parts of the original frames, including the inner mouldings of the trefoil tops, are of softwood (silver fir).⁶ A narrow (1–2 mm) band of bole and gold leaf running along the periphery of the painted surface between the gesso ground and the paint layer indicates that the panels were already fixed in their frames when the frames and backgrounds were gilded in a single operation. The painting in Chantilly (fig. 4) retains its original frame and pastiglia decoration in the spandrels, but the seven National Gallery pictures were, at an unknown date after 1903 (see below), separated from their original frame mouldings and spandrels. The panels were planed and cradled, and then reset in modern frames incorporating the original spandrels.⁷ There is evidence of original engaged capitals which have been removed on the right and left edges. It is impossible to be certain how much of the pastigliadecoration was replaced when the spandrels were regilded.⁸

NG 4758 
Saint Francis renounces his Earthly Father

On the right, Bishop Guido of Assisi covers the naked Francis with his cope. Saint Francis’s discarded boots, shirt and hose lie in a heap on the floor to the left; his father has snatched up Francis’s costly outer garment, while his companion seeks to restrain him from attacking his son. Other figures watch in consternation. In the background of the pink architectural complex a cleric walks peacefully, apparently unaware of the events taking place in the foreground.

Technical Notes

Panel construction

Maximum height of panel 89.3 cm; maximum height of painted surface 87.5 cm, including a band of approximately 0.5 cm of retouching along the base. Maximum width of panel 54.4 cm, maximum width of painted surface 52.4 cm; thickness of original panel 0.7 cm, thickness of panel including cradle 3.4 cm.

Condition and technique

The overall condition is good. There is some abrasion of the blue marbling of the step and in the father’s blue robe and his vermilion left hose. There are scattered losses in the vermilion headdress of the left‐hand figure and across his shoulder, in the pink of the father’s robe, in the architecture and in the two horizontal bands to the left and above Saint Francis’s head.

Silver leaf has been used extensively, either left plain or glazed. Silver has been detected under the father’s blue robe,¹² and the saint’s discarded robe of silver with a red glaze is the same as in the first two scenes. The windows on the left are silver leaf, whereas the windows above the reading figure in blue are silver over gold over bole, possibly originally gilded in error.

sgraffito, similar to that used for Saint Francis’s bed cover in NG 4757, has been used for the bishop’s cope, where the green glaze, which has darkened, has flaked badly, as has that on the back of his mitre; red lake has flaked from the border of his cope and from the shadowed side of the canopy behind him. The sgraffito is particularly elaborate in the canopy, which has been identified as having three layers over the gold – lead white, vermilion and a red glaze – producing a lavish brocade effect.¹³ The cushion is white lead with sgraffito, and the cloth hanging from the throne is gold leaf, incised and painted with a brown glaze.

The water‐gilding of the background is badly worn and all the silver damaged, and the contour of the tree on the left has flaked from the gold.

The architectural lines have been incised, but not always followed, as elsewhere in the altarpiece, and there is a slight pentimento in the position of the father’s left foot. Underdrawing is visible in Saint Francis’s robe held by his father.

Subject

This incident occurred not long after that shown in NG 4757 and was a further step in Saint Francis’s renunciation of the world. Saint Francis had given the Church some money belonging to his father. His father appealed to the civil courts and then to the bishop of Assisi. Francis tore off his clothes and restored them to his father, saying that he no longer recognised any father but God. The bishop covered the naked saint with his cope.

The episode is recounted by both Celano and Bonventura.¹⁴ It is significant that Francis’s father has snatched up the costliest garment (depicted with silver leaf with a red lake glaze), leaving the rest discarded in a heap on the floor.¹⁵

NG 4762 
The Wolf of Gubbio

The scene takes place before the town gate of Gubbio. The wolf, the remains of whose victims are scattered around the background, puts his right paw into Saint Francis’s hand and agrees to stop terrorising the inhabitants of Gubbio in return for being fed at public expense. A notary writes down the pact. Saint Francis is shown with his stigmata. Behind the saint are the male inhabitants of the town and one of Francis’s friar companions. The women watch from a safe distance, peeping between the battlements of the city gate.

Technical Notes

Panel construction

Maximum height of panel 89.3 cm, maximum height of painted surface 87 cm; maximum width of panel 54.5 cm, maximum width of painted surface 52.4 cm. Like the others in the series, the panel has been planed and cradled: thickness of original panel 0.8 cm, thickness of panel including cradle 3.5 cm.

In the right‐hand spandrel of the original frame, now encased in a modern frame, are the traces of a dowel (visible in the X‐radiograph).

On the frame is a label: 99119F/ Duveen. On the cradle is the number 7534 in ink.

Condition and technique

The condition is uneven. Some areas are relatively well preserved; for example, the sky, which has only a few losses and some heavy cracks in the ground caused by knots.

The painting has suffered extensively from flaking. Circular losses, as in NG 4761, again suggest damage from mould. The areas of the paint surface badly affected include much of the gate wall, although the survival of fragments of paint and the incised lines mean that none of the reconstruction is conjectural. In the figures the damage is particularly in the areas of red, such as the notary’s hat, the red drapery of the figure behind the man with the tall hat, and the figure in red behind Saint Francis, whose robe has been almost entirely reconstructed. Damage to this figure has affected the contours of both Saint Francis and the friar. Also damaged are the face of the figure in red (whose left eye has been reconstructed) and that of the young boy behind (partly reconstructed), and the contour along the back of the head of the fair‐haired man, as well as his forehead, ear and neck. There are small flake losses around the wolf’s muzzle and paw and around Saint Francis’s hand. Saint Francis and the friar are relatively well preserved, but have suffered damage to their contours and small flake losses. The onlooking women are well preserved apart from the last one, who has a slightly damaged eye.

In the landscape there are losses immediately to the left of the group of trees and in the path. The shape of the small lump of flesh lying beyond the path is determined by the fact that it is the only surviving fragment of paint in the centre of a large loss and may originally have been larger and more recognisable as a limb.

As elsewhere, Sassetta has used silver leaf to convey richness of fabric. The notary wears blue over silver leaf with a few small losses, and the lining of his robe is red lake over silver. The fair‐haired man behind the notary wears a tabard of red lake (of which only fragments survive) over silver leaf, and sleeves of blue over silver leaf. The tall hat of the man beside him is blue or purple over silver, the tabard is blue over silver and the undersleeves are red lake over silver.

Sassetta originally incised a straight line for the flight of birds, although in the final painting they fly in a sublime curve. The flight of cranes, although this time in a straight line, similarly incised, had earlier been used by Sassetta in his Journey of the Magi (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art).²⁷

Subject

This is the only scene of the nine narratives that is not in the Legenda Maior, but it precisely follows the account in the Fioretti (The Little Flowers of Saint Francis), Chapter XX, where it says that the wolf lifted his right paw and placed it in the hand of Saint Francis. The notary is not mentioned in the text.²⁸

The History of the High Altarpiece of San Francesco, San Sepolcro, before the commission was given to Sassetta

The church of San Francesco, Borgo San Sepolcro (see plan, fig. 6), was founded in 1258 and the fabric of the church completed by 1300.³² The high altar table or mensa was, according to its inscription, constructed in 1304,³³ when the local Blessed Raniero Rasini died and was buried in the altar below (fig. 5).³⁴ In 1306 Cardinal Napoleone Orsini granted 100 days’ indulgence to whoever visited the high altar of the church,³⁵ and it became a centre of pilgrimage. According to Vasari, Giotto painted an altarpiece for it, which was dismantled and taken to Arezzo by Pier Saccone Tarlati in 1327.³⁶

On 2 August 1426 the operai of San Franceso contracted a local carpenter, Bartolomeo di Giovannino d’Angelo, to build a wooden altarpiece with ‘floribus’ and embellishments; it was to be like the altarpiece of the abbey church of San Sepolcro, except that it was to be double‐sided and could be painted on both sides.³⁷ It is interesting that from the very outset it was intended to be double‐sided; the friars may have wanted it to emulate the altarpiece in San Francesco al Prato, Perugia, painted by the Sienese artist Taddeo di Bartolo in 1403, although this is never specified. Another possible model could have been an altarpiece in San Francesco, Città di Castello (see discussion below).³⁸

On 9 October 1430 the friars and operai of San Francesco, Borgo San Sepolcro, commissioned a local painter, Antonio di Giovanni d’Anghiari, to paint the front side of the wooden structure already in place on the high altar with figures and stories, according to the wishes of the friars.³⁹ The painter was to be paid 140 florins and was to complete the work within [page 347]three and a half years. Piero della Francesca, who was then working as an assistant to Antonio d’Anghiari, began work on the altarpiece between June and December 1432, when he and his father were credited 56 florins for materials and for Piero’s labour.⁴⁰ How far Piero advanced the altarpiece is not known: in the contract with Sassetta of 1437 the altarpiece is described as already constructed and gessoed (‘iam constructe et ingesate’).⁴¹ For some unknown reason, d’Anghiari did not complete the commission⁴² and a new commission was awarded to Sassetta in September 1437, although d’Anghiari did not relinquish his right to paint the altarpiece until January 1438.⁴³

The Contract of 1437

Two copies survive of the contract with Sassetta of 5 September 1437, one for the painter and one for the friars.⁴⁴ Sassetta agreed to make and construct a wooden altarpiece identical in proportion, ornaments (that is, ornament on the frame, such as finials, crockets, etc.) and dimension to that already in existence,⁴⁵ and to paint it on both sides with stories and figures according to the dictates of the Guardiano and friars of San Francesco, with gold, the best ultramarine (‘azurrum finum’)⁴⁶ and other fine colours, to the best of his skill and ingenuity. Sassetta agreed to hand over the completed altarpiece in the city of Siena within four years.⁴⁷ He was to be paid 510 florins in three instalments: at the beginning of the commission, halfway through it, and on completion.⁴⁸ Sassetta agreed to transfer the altarpiece to Borgo San Sepolcro in person, set it up on the high altar, and adapt it as necessary. He would be lodged in Borgo San Sepolcro at the friars’ expense and make good any damage incurred during transport.⁴⁹ The method of construction of the altarpiece meant that it was relatively easy to transport in separate units, the main tier and pinnacles consisting of five separate vertical planks, painted on both sides and dowelled together.⁵⁰ This system had been used by Taddeo di Bartolo in his altarpiece for San Francesco al Prato, Perugia, which, as mentioned above, was probably one of the models for Sassetta’s altarpiece.⁵¹ The two predella panels and the two columns (painted on three sides, except at the top, where they seem to have been painted on four sides; see Reconstruction, figs 9 and 10) were probably separate items. The whole would therefore have been assembled in situ.

The Scripta of 1439

In 1991 James Banker published an important set of documents recording the intervening stages between the contract of 1437 and the final installation of the altarpiece.

On 11 February 1438, a month after d’Anghiari had relinquished his right to paint the altarpiece, Sassetta was paid the first instalment.⁵² On 23 January 1439, nearly one year after the initial payment, two friars – Fra Francesco di Simone da Borgo San Sepolcro and Fra Michelangelo d’Asciano – journeyed to Siena with a scripta detailing the commission from the Guardiano, Operai and friars, to convey to Sassetta their wishes regarding the subject matter of the altarpiece and the disposition of the scenes. Fra Francesco and Fra Michelangelo were to assist the painter (‘de ordinare et componere le figure et l’istorie della taule sì como pare a noi et al maestro insiemi’).

According to the scripta, the altarpiece was to be arranged as follows: in the centre the Virgin and Child with angels, as seemed best to the painter;⁵³ on the right‐hand side Saint John the Baptist and on the left‐hand side Saint John the Evangelist; next to the Baptist, Saint (sic) Ranieri;⁵⁴ next to the Evangelist, Saint Anthony of Padua; above the Virgin and Child, the crucified Christ with the Virgin Mary and John, with Saint Francis at the foot (of the cross), and above them God the Father; in the predella, four scenes of the Passion; in the pinnacles (‘colmi’), Saints Peter, Paul, Louis of Toulouse and Clare; in the columns, Saints Lawrence, Stephen, Michael and Christopher; at the base of the columns in the predella, half‐length figures of Saints Benedict and Dominic.

On the back, in the centre, were to be Saint Francis enthroned (‘in trono’), as in Castello (that is, Città di Castello),⁵⁵ with the virtues above him and the vices at his feet. At the sides were to be eight stories of Saint Francis: In the predella were to be four stories of Blessed Raniero, to be sent to Sassetta by Fra Francesco and Fra Michelangelo; in the central pinnacle, the story of the Annunciation, and above, the Redeemer; in the other pinnacles, Saints Nicholas, Augustine, Gherardo and Elizabeth; in the columns, Saints Matthew, Bartholomew, Catherine and Agatha, and at the base two half‐figures of Saints Anthony Abbot and Ambrose; at the sides of the columns, Blessed Robert and Blessed Bonaventura cardinal, Saint Lucy and Saint Margaret, Saint Jerome and Saint Gregory; in the top (‘principio’) of the columns (which must each have had four facets), Saint Blaise, Saint Ansanus, Saint Peter of Siena, Blessed Margaret of Cortona, Saint Florido bishop, Saint Donato, Saint Silvester and Saint Andrew.⁵⁷

• 1. when Saint Francis was shown the palace (‘quando a San Francescho fo demostrato quello palagio’);
• 2. when he refused the inheritance/patrimony of his father in the arms of the bishop (‘quando rifiutò ala heredita del padre in mano de’vescovo’);⁵⁶
• 3. when the indulgence of Assisi was confirmed by the pope (‘quando fo confirmato el perdono d’Asesi dal papa’);
• 4. when he received the stigmata (‘quando recevè le stimate’);
• 5. when he reconciled the people of Gubbio with the wolf (‘quando repacificò el popolo d’Ugubio col lupo’);
• 6. when he espoused the three virtues (‘quando sposò quelle tre virtù’);
• 7. when he appeared before the Sultan and entered the fire (‘quando andò innanzi al sodano et che intrò ne’fuocho’);
• when he died (‘quando morì’).

In the predella were to be four stories of Blessed Raniero, to be sent to Sassetta by Fra Francesco and Fra Michelangelo; in the central pinnacle, the story of the Annunciation, and above, the Redeemer; in the other pinnacles, Saints Nicholas, Augustine, Gherardo and Elizabeth; in the columns, Saints Matthew, Bartholomew, Catherine and Agatha, and at the base two half‐figures of Saints Anthony Abbot and Ambrose; at the sides of the columns, Blessed Robert and Blessed Bonaventura cardinal, Saint Lucy and Saint Margaret, Saint Jerome and Saint Gregory; in the top (‘principio’) of the columns (which must each have had four facets), Saint Blaise, Saint Ansanus, Saint Peter of Siena, Blessed Margaret of Cortona, Saint Florido bishop, Saint Donato, Saint Silvester and Saint Andrew.⁵⁷

‘principio’) of the columns (which must each have had four facets), Saint Blaise, Saint Ansanus, Saint Peter of Siena, Blessed Margaret of Cortona, Saint Florido bishop, Saint Donato, Saint Silvester and Saint Andrew.⁵⁷

) of the columns (which must each have had four facets), Saint Blaise, Saint Ansanus, Saint Peter of Siena, Blessed Margaret of Cortona, Saint Florido bishop, Saint Donato, Saint Silvester and Saint Andrew.⁵⁷

⁵⁷

Ten days later, on 3 February 1439, the two friars recorded in a general way their agreement with Sassetta, repeating some of the clauses of the contract of 1437, and stating that the figures and stories were to be as had been described in the ‘scripta vulgare’ by the Guardiano and friars, and that Sassetta had kept ‘simulacra’ (presumably drawings) of the figures and stories.⁵⁸

The Completion of the Altarpiece

The altarpiece is documented as having been installed on the third day of Pentecost, 2 June 1444,⁵⁹ when it was formally accepted by the operai, with Sassetta given quittance on 5 June 1444.⁶⁰ Christa Gardner von Teuffel has published a drawing by Johann Anton Ramboux of c. 1842 (fig. 7), showing that the altarpiece was signed and dated: OPUS·M·STEFANI· DE·SENIS·ANO·1444.⁶¹

The Patrons and Payments for the Altarpiece

The benefactor of the first altarpiece was Donna Lucia, widow of Baldo di Vivo di Baldo Iacopini, who agreed to pay d’Anghiari 140 florins through the concession of two houses.⁶² Saint Lucy was one of the saints shown in the side columns of Sassetta’s altarpiece.⁶³

Later, in 1443, Marcholino de’ Pichi purchased land from the Franciscans for 994 lire with the stipulation that the money was to go to Sassetta for the high altarpiece.⁶⁴

Banker makes the point that the Franciscans were exceptionally unencumbered by the wishes or stipulations of benefactors, and entirely free to choose their own images.⁶⁵ The tight control exercised by the friars throughout the commission is evident from the very outset, with the carpenter required to follow the specifications of one of the friars of the convent in 1426, and with the friars stating their right to determine the subject matter in 1430, and again in the contract, scripta and résumé in 1437 and 1439.

The final inscription, recorded in the nineteenth century beneath the central panel with Saint Francis (see figs 7 and 8) and presumably by that date remaining only as a fragment of a longer inscription, named the two operai responsible for the commission: CRISTOFORVS FRANCISCI FEI E[T] ANDREAS IOHANNIS TANIS OPERARIVS A.[D]. MCCCCXXXXIIII,⁶⁶ who had their patron saints, Christopher and Andrew, represented on the columns of the altarpiece.

The Dismantling of the Altarpiece

The altarpiece was dismantled between 1578 and 1583; the convent was suppressed during the Napoleonic suppressions of 1808–10, and the altarpiece taken over by the Sergiuliani family and the fragments eventually dispersed.⁶⁷

Reconstruction of the Front Main Tier, Pinnacles and Predella

The organisation of the subject matter as described in the scripta is in many ways eccentric and has confounded several seemingly logical aspects of the reconstructions of the altarpiece proposed by scholars prior to its discovery.

Main tier

• The Virgin and Child with Angels (Paris, Louvre)

• Blessed Raniero Rasini (Settignano, Berenson Collection)
• Saint John the Baptist (Settignano, Berenson Collection)

• Saint John the Evangelist (Paris, Louvre)
• Saint Anthony of Padua (Paris, Louvre)

Predella

• The Agony in the Garden (Detroit, Institute of Arts)
• The Betrayal (Detroit, Institute of Arts)
• The Ascent to Calvary (Detroit, Institute of Arts)

Pilasters

• Saint Lawrence (Moscow, Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts)

• Saint Stephen (Moscow, Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts)

• Saint Christopher (Assisi, Sacro Convento, Mason Perkins Collection)

Pinnacle

• Saint Francis before the Crucifix (Cleveland Museum of Art)

Left pilaster

• Saint Peter of Siena; Saint Blaise; Saint Bonaventura; Saint Margaret, Saint Michael; Saint Gregory; Saint Benedict

Pinnacles

• Saint Louis of Toulouse; Saint Peter; Saint Paul; Saint Clare

Right pilaster

• Saint Andrew, Saint Ansanus; Saint Dominic

Main tier

• Saint Francis in Glory (Settignano, Berenson Collection)

Narrative scenes

• Saint Francis meets a Knight poorer than himself and Saint Francis’s vision of the founding of the Franciscan Order (NG 4757)
• Saint Francis renounces his Earthly Father (NG 4758)

• Saint Francis before the Pope: The Granting of the Indulgence of the Portiuncula (NG 4759)
• The Mystic Marriage of Saint Francis with Lady Poverty (Chantilly, Musée Condé)

• Saint Francis before the Sultan (NG 4761)
• Saint Francis and the Wolf of Gubbio (NG 4762)

• The Stigmatisation of Saint Francis (NG 4760)
• The Funeral of Saint Francis and Verification of the Stigmata (NG 4763)

Predella

• The Liberation of the Prisoners of Florence (Paris, Louvre)
• The Apparition of Blessed Raniero Rasini to a Cardinal (Paris, Louvre)
• Raniero Rasini shows the Friars the Miser of Citerna’s Soul carried by Demons to Hell (Paris, Louvre)

Pilasters

• Saint Matthew (Venice, Cini Collection)

Pinnacles

• The Annunciation (New York, Metropolitan Museum, Lehman Collection)

• Saint Augustine (private collection)

Left pilaster

• Blessed Margaret of Cortona; Saint Florido; Blessed Robert; Saint Lucy; Saint Catherine; Saint Jerome; Saint Anthony Abbot

Pinnacles

• Saint Gherardo; Saint Nicholas; Saint Elizabeth

Right pilaster

• Saint Silvester; Saint Donato; Saint Bartholomew; Saint Agatha; Saint Ambrose

The first plausible reconstruction of the front of the altarpiece was made by Enzo Carli, who in 1951 identified the front main tier as having been composed of the Virgin and Child (fig. 11) now in the Louvre, Paris, with Saint Anthony of Padua and John the Evangelist, also in the Louvre, and Blessed Raniero and John the Baptist, now in the Berenson Collection, Settignano.⁶⁸ Other reconstructions followed,⁶⁹ varying the placement of these four saints, until their correct positions were arrived at by Dominique Thiébaut,⁷⁰ and by Henk van Os, who plotted the position of dowel holes recorded by Van Asperen de Boer,⁷¹ and eventually confirmed by Banker’s discovery of the scripta (see reconstruction, fig. 9). Of the four front predella scenes from the Passion of Christ required in the scripta, only three survive. They are probably identifiable as the Agony in the Garden (fig. 13), the Betrayal of Christ (fig. 14) and the Ascent to Calvary (fig. 15) (all in Detroit), first identified as part of the altarpiece by Michel Laclotte⁷² and previously thought by scholars to have been on the back, until the publication of the scripta. Given that the extant scenes measure approximately 63 cm each, and that the scripta specifies four scenes, that leaves a discrepancy of 92 cm. Christa Gardner von Teuffel has suggested that missing from the centre is a fifth scene showing the Entombment – or, less likely, the Resurrection – which would directly refer to the town’s name, San Sepolcro (Holy Sepulchre), a connection established later in the predella of Piero della Francesca’s Misericordia polyptych, commissioned in 1445.⁷³ Another argument in favour of a missing central Passion scene is that the Ascent to Calvary unusually shows Christ moving from right to left rather than left to right, perhaps because it was intended to show him moving towards his Crucifixion or Entombment in the centre. However, the scripta explicitly calls for only four scenes on each face of the predella, and it is therefore difficult to argue for a fifth scene. The possibility therefore remains that the centre of the predella was purely decorative, as has been suggested may be the case with Piero della Francesca’s polyptych for Sant’Agostino in Borgo San Sepolcro, commissioned in 1454, or that it carried an inscription.⁷⁴

It was previously assumed that the Annunciation (fig. 16) in the Lehman Collection, thought to have been part of the altarpiece, would have gone above the panel with the Virgin and Child.⁷⁵ However, the scripta calls for a Crucifixion in this position, with Saint Francis at the foot of the cross; this must be the panel in the Cleveland Museum of Art (fig. 12), a panel which had originally been thought to fit perfectly above the figure of Francis in Glory (the alter Christus) on the back.⁷⁶ Although the scripta required the Virgin and John the Evangelist in the Crucifixion scene, it is possible that the painter decided to omit them on compositional grounds. The scripta makes it clear that the details were a matter for the friars and the painter to resolve (‘de ordinare et componere le figure e l’istorie della taule sì como pare a noi et al maestro insiemi’). There are some incontrovertible deviations from the scripta, such as the addition of an episode to the first scene (see NG 4757 above), so it is possible that subsequent changes may have been made according to verbal agreement. If the Lehman Annunciation and Cleveland Crucifixion were indeed [page 354] the pinnacles of the altarpiece, then their shape does not allow for yet another panel above them and it must be assumed that this was one of the adjustments made by the painter, and that the God the Father and Blessing Redeemer detailed in the scripta were omitted.⁷⁷

Reconstruction of the Back Main Tier and Predella

While the discovery of the scripta solves many of the problems of the original appearance of the front of the altarpiece, the reconstruction of the back is more problematic. The front and back of the main tier were painted on five vertical panels,⁷⁸ each approximately 4 cm thick, which were sawn in half when the altarpiece was dismantled. The centre of the main tier showed Saint Francis in Glory (fig. 17)⁷⁹ and is now in the Berenson Collection, Settignano, corresponding precisely in its dimensions to the Virgin and Child panel in the Louvre. Above the central panel was the Annunciation, probably the Annunciation (fig. 16) now in the Lehman Collection, which in the past was thought to have been situated on the front.⁸⁰ In the side pinnacles, Saints Peter and Paul were on either side of the central panel above the two Saint Johns, while the two Franciscan saints, Louis of Toulouse and Clare, were situated above the two Franciscan saints in the main tier.

The back predella showed scenes from the Life of Blessed Raniero Rasini which had previously been placed by scholars on the front of the altarpiece, where the main tier panels included the image of Raniero Rasini. Three of the four panels survive: the Liberation of the Prisoners of Florence (Paris, Louvre; fig. 18), the Apparition of Blessed Raniero Rasini to a Cardinal (Berlin, Dahlem; fig. 19), and Raniero Rasini shows the Friars the Miser of Citerna’s Soul carried by Demons to Hell (Paris, Louvre; fig. 20).⁸¹ Again the combined width of four scenes, each originally some 63 cm, leaves a gap of 92 cm, but again, since only four scenes were asked for, it is difficult to argue for a fifth.⁸² It may be that the centre was purely decorative or carried an inscription.

The main problem of the reconstruction of the back of the altarpiece concerns the disposition of the eight scenes from the life of Saint Francis that were ranged on either side of the central panel. Even before the discovery of the scripta it had been recognised that these were the seven scenes in the National Gallery and the Mystic Marriage of Saint Francis with Lady Poverty (fig. 4) now in the Musée Condé, Chantilly.⁸³ The narrative scenes were probably painted in pairs on the backs of the four vertical planks of wood showing the four standing saints on the other side. However, evidence of their order which might have been obtained from X‐radiographs showing the wood grain has been destroyed, since all seven National Gallery panels have been cut from their spandrels, planed and cradled, as described under NG 4757. Photographs of the National Gallery panels published by Bernard Berenson in 1903, when they were all in the Chalandon Collection (with the exception of the Wolf of Gubbio, which was in the collection of Count Mantel), show the paintings in their correct frames before this process was undertaken.⁸⁴ Of the seven paintings in the Gallery, four (NG 4757, 4758, 4761, 4762) have chamfered corners, indicating that they came from the top register, and three (NG 4759, 4760, 4763) are rectangular and must have come from the lower register. The Chantilly Mystic Marriage panel, which retains its original trefoil stepped frame and pastiglia spandrels, is rectangular in shape and must therefore have been in the lower register, as is confirmed by the presence of candle burns; since Saint Francis is shown with the stigmata, the scene has been placed after the Stigmatisation, in the group on the right (but see below).⁸⁵ Braham had already pointed out that the Funeral of Saint Francis also had to be a lower tier panel, since it fits into only one of the frames, which is a rectangular one. Banker reconstructed the scenes according to the order listed in the scripta.⁸⁶

However, if the scenes are arranged in approximately chronological order according to the written sources and the events of Saint Francis’s life – Legenda Maior, I:2 and 3; II:4; year 1216 (the year the indulgence was awarded); VII:6; IX:8; Fioretti, XX; Legenda Maior, XIII:1–3 = year 1224 (the year of the stigmatisation); Legenda Maior, XV:4) – and organised in pairs from left to right, taking into account the chamfered and rectangular shapes, they not only make visual and thematic sense but they also form a visual pattern, as adduced by Braham, alternating gold backgrounds and blue skies.⁸⁷ Confirmation that this system of alternating blue and gold skies was intended lies in the anomaly of the background in Saint Francis before the Sultan, where the sky seen through the arch of the building is blue, while the sky above the building is gold leaf.

The reconstruction proposed here (fig. 10) results in a different position for the Mystic Marriage from that in the reconstructions by Braham and Banker (and most previous ones), which show the Stigmatisation in the lower tier, immediately to the left of the central panel and the Mystic Marriage in the corresponding position on the right.⁸⁸ Van Os points out that the indentations left by the four dowels in the Mystic Marriage (fig. 3) fit on the back of either the Saint John the Baptist or the Saint John the Evangelist.⁸⁹ If the Marriage is placed on the left of the central panel (see Reconstruction), opposite the Stigmatisation,⁹⁰ then the three virtues of Poverty, Chastity and Obedience fly up to the right towards the central panel to crown the figure of Saint Francis.⁹¹

This visually and thematically logical arrangement means that all the scenes on the left concern Saint Francis’s renunciation of the material world and establishment of a new religious Order, while the scenes on the right relate to his miracles.⁹² The demonstrable changes to the programme of the scripta, such as the inclusion of the saint giving his cloak to the poor knight, and the depiction of Saint Francis in the central panel of the main tier not enthroned but crowned by Poverty, Chastity and Obedience, underline the theme of the renunciation of the material world, appropriate for an Observant convent.⁹³

The Columns and Side Pinnacles

Other surviving panels from the altarpiece are a pinnacle panel with Saint Augustine (private collection, on loan to the Metropolitan Museum, New York; fig. 21)⁹⁴ and pilaster figures of Saint Lawrence (fig. 22) and Saint Stephen (fig. 23) (both in the Pushkin Museum, Moscow), Saint Christopher (Assisi, Sacro Convento, Mason Perkins Collection; fig. 24),⁹⁵ and an Evangelist (Venice, Cini Collection; fig. 25) now identifiable as Saint Matthew, asked for in the scripta. The columns were painted on three sides where level with the main tier and predella, and on four sides where level with the pinnacles at the very top. The wording of the scripta of 1439 reflects the way in which the pairs of saints were to balance each other: for example, Peter and Paul, Louis and Clare, Lawrence and Stephen, etc. The major female saints, apart from those belonging to the Franciscan Order, were grouped in pairs at the side and back of the lower tier of the columns. Gardner von Teuffel has shown that in addition to the commemoration of the local cult figure, Blessed Raniero Rasini, in the front main tier and in the back predella, the programme of the columns helped to anchor the altarpiece in its locality: Saint Floridus was bishop of Città di Castello, in whose diocese San Sepolcro lay, and he is paired with Saint Donatus of Arezzo, the neighbouring diocese.⁹⁶ Other saints in the pinnacles and columns reflect the name saints of those involved in the commission; as well as the saints for the operai, Christopher and Andrew, all the name saints of the friars were represented, namely John the Baptist for the Guardiano in the main tier, and in the subsidiary elements Augustine, Anthony, Blaise, Louis and Michael.

Setting, Design and Iconography

The high altar of San Francesco stands before a thirteenth‐century rectangular cappella maggiore (now obscured by a semi‐circular partition, see fig. 6)⁹⁷ originally decorated with frescoes painted in 1403.⁹⁸ The original position of the fifteenth‐century choir stalls, now in the Pinacoteca in San Sepolcro, is uncertain.⁹⁹ The present width of the main tier is approximately 347 cm and the width of the altar mensa is approximately 344 cm, so the fit was a tight one, and the columns would have overhung on either side, with supporting columns attached to the floor in the type of ‘buttressed’ altarpiece discussed by Gardner von Teuffel.¹⁰⁰ Allowance was made for the ‘spranghe’ (iron bars) needed to support the columns, mentioned in the specifications given to the carpenter of the first altarpiece in 1426.¹⁰¹

The formula of representing standing saints with narrative scenes from their lives was common from the thirteenth century.¹⁰² The design of a trefoiled top with pastiglia in the spandrels was also common in Sienese painting and is found in one of the surviving scenes from a now lost altarpiece in Città di Castello, suggested by van Os as having been the model for the design of the back of Sassetta’s altarpiece.¹⁰³ Van Os first noted that a model for the altarpiece itself was Taddeo di Bartolo’s altarpiece in Perugia. Donal Cooper has convincingly argued that Sassetta’s altarpiece was a hybrid of that in Città di Castello and that in Perugia.¹⁰⁴ The iconography of the narrative scenes of the life of Saint Francis is on the whole probably the product of Sassetta’s imagination, drawing on the written sources.¹⁰⁵ However, he also used visual sources in an eclectic way. Although Sir John Pope‐Hennessy claimed that ‘there is good reason to think that Sassetta never visited Assisi’,¹⁰⁶ it seems highly likely that he did. The influence is not pervasive, but small details appear to have come from the equivalent scenes in San Francesco, Assisi. For example, the man restraining Saint Francis’s father in NG 4758 and the way in which the father carries Francis’s clothes over his arm are found in the equivalent scene in Assisi. The pose of the saint, save for the turn of his head, in the Stigmatisation seems also to derive from the Upper Church version in Assisi, as do the winged seraph and Brother Leo reading, except that in the Assisi version he is absorbed in his book, whereas in Sassetta’s version he is involved in the vision: one would expect Sassetta to have taken a model for this, the quintessential Franciscan scene. The Funeral of Saint Francis seems to owe something to the funeral of Saint Martin in the frescoes by Simone Martini in the Lower Church.¹⁰⁷ For the scenes which have no equivalent in Assisi, Berenson noted the derivation of the Mystic Marriage from the version of that scene (fig. 26) by the Gubbian painter Ottaviano Nelli in part of an altarpiece painted c. 1425 for the church of San Francesco, Gubbio (Rome, Pinacoteca Vaticana),¹⁰⁸ and that a version of the legend of the Wolf of Gubbio was in a fresco attributed to the school of Bartolo di Fredi in San Francesco, Pienza;¹⁰⁹ in the fresco the accompanying friar makes a gesture similar to that of the friar in Sassetta’s version.

Sassetta’s route between Siena and San Sepolcro may have exposed him to new influences; in 1437 Santa Margherita in [page 357] Cortona acquired a new altarpiece signed and dated by Andrea di Giusto (now Florence, Accademia, inv. no. 1890.3236) with the Assumption in the centre, on the left Saint Catherine and on the right the standing Saint Francis showing his stigmata. Certainly the iconography of the central panel in Sassetta’s altarpiece seems to owe more to this image than to the altarpiece by Taddeo di Bartolo (particularly in the outstretched hands, although Sassetta has shown the palms turned more upward), and Gardner von Teuffel has discussed the influence of the Volto Santo in San Sepolcro.¹¹⁰ As mentioned above, Sassetta almost certainly saw Taddeo di Bartolo’s altarpiece in Perugia, and he probably also saw there Gentile da Fabriano’s altarpiece for San Domenico (now in the Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, Perugia), since the gold‐leaf throne of the Virgin with thorny branches at the sides and roses at the top seems to stem from the throne in that altarpiece, itself a motif rooted in north Italian tradition.¹¹¹

The high quality of the painting, even in the pilaster panels, and the overall coherence of style indicate the control exercised by Sassetta over the execution of the altarpiece. Although he seems to have had assistance in some parts of the altarpiece, for example in the figure of Saint Anthony of Padua, all the Saint Francis scenes in the National Gallery seem to be attributable exclusively to him.¹¹²

The altarpiece was not only inventive in its iconography and evocative in its compositions, but also extremely rich in its colouring and elaborate in its technique. This, added to its impressive size, made it one of the outstanding commissions of the fifteenth century.

Provenance

The altarpiece is thought to have remained in San Francesco, Borgo San Sepolcro, until probably 1808, and then to have been bought by Cavalier Sergiuliani of Borgo San Sepolcro.¹¹³ Sergiuliani presented what may have been the whole altarpiece to the Canonico (Giulio Anastasio?) Angelucci of Arezzo, who in turn gave some parts at least to his brother, Priore Pietro Antonio Angelucci, of Montecontieri, near Asciano, who still owned them c. 1823.¹¹⁴ It is probable that Canonico Angelucci’s gift to his brother did not include NG 4757–4763 or the Chantilly panel: what were obviously these eight panels are stated to have been sold in 1819 or later by the Abate Angelucci of [page 358] Arezzo to the Florentine dealer Carlo del Chiaro.¹¹⁵ A few years before 1840 they are stated to have passed into the collection of Count Anatole Demidoff at Florence.¹¹⁶ In 1840 Frederic Reiset bought the panel now at Chantilly.¹¹⁷ Six of the National Gallery panels are stated to have been acquired from a church in Corsica by Emmanuel Chalandon of Lyon, who lent them to the Exposition Rétrospective at Lyon in 1877 .¹¹⁸ NG 4758 and NG 4761 were lent by Chalandon to the exhibition at Siena in 1904 (catalogue p. 335, nos 10108 and 10107); the six Chalandon pictures were purchased by Duveen from Georges Chalandon in 1925.¹¹⁹ NG 4762 passed by inheritance from the Comte de Martel at Cour‐Cheverny to the Comtesse de Féligonde,¹²⁰ from whom Duveen purchased it in 1926. All seven were bought in 1927 by Clarence Mackay of Long Island, New York; purchased from him through Duveen, Grant‐in‐Aid and Temple‐West Funds, with contributions from the NACF , Benjamin Guinness and Lord Bearsted, 1934.

Exhibited

London 1945–6, NG , National Art Collections Fund Exhibition (34); London 1995, NG , Shadows: the Depiction of Cast Shadows in Western Art (E.H. Gombrich), pp. 47–9 (NG 4760 only). See also under Provenance for loans.

Select Bibliography

• J. Pope‐Hennessy, Sassetta, London 1939, pp. 96–111.
• E. Carli, ‘Sassetta’s Borgo San Sepolcro Altarpiece’, BM , 93, no. 578, 1951, pp.145–52.
• H.W. van Os, ‘St. Francis of Assisi as a second Christ in early Italian painting’, Simiolus, 7, no. 3, 1974, pp. 123–7.
• M. Wyld and J. Plesters, ‘Some Panels from Sassetta’s Sansepolcro Altarpiece’, NGTB , 1, 1977, pp. 3–17.
• A. Braham, ‘Reconstructing Sassetta’s Sansepolcro Altarpiece’, BM , 120, no. 903, 1978, pp. 386–90.
• S. Béguin in Retables italiens du XIIIe au XVe siècle, exh. cat., Les dossiers du département des peintures, 16, Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Paris 1978, pp. 28–34.
• H.W. van Os, Sienese Altarpieces 1215–1460, vol. 2 (1344–1460), Groningen 1990, pp. 89–97.
• K. Christiansen in Gothic to Renaissance. European Painting 1300–1600, Colnaghi catalogue, London 1988, pp. 41–52.
• D. Thiébaut, ‘Sassetta’, in Polyptyques: le tableau multiple du Moyen Âge au vingtième siècle, exh. cat., Paris 1990, pp. 79–85.
• J. Banker, ‘The Program for the Sassetta Altarpiece in the Church of S. Francesco in Borgo S. Sepolcro’, I Tatti Studies. Essays in the Renaissance, vol. 4, 1991, pp. 11–58; reprinted as a separate volume, Florence 1991.
• D. Gordon, ‘The reconstruction of Sassetta’s altar‐piece for S. Francesco, Borgo San Sepolcro, a postscript’, BM , 135, 1993, pp. 620–3.
• C. Gardner von Teuffel, ‘Niccolò di Segna, Sassetta, Piero della Francesca and Perugino: Cult and Continuity at Sansepolcro’, Städel Jahrbuch, Band 17, 2000, pp. 163–208.
• D. Cooper, ‘Franciscan Choir Enclosures and the Function of Double‐sided Altarpieces in pre‐Tridentine Umbria’, JWCI , LXIV, 2001, pp. 1–54.

Notes