Story of David Panels from a Pair of Cassoni (?):
Catalogue entry

Catalogue contents

About the catalogue

Full title: Story of David Panels from a Pair of Cassoni (?)
Artist: Francesco Pesellino
Author: Dillian Gordon and Susanna Avery-Quash
Extracted from: The Fifteenth Century Italian Paintings, Volume 1 (London, 2003)

Pesellino
NG 6579 and NG 6580
Story of David Panels from a Pair of Cassoni

Dillian Gordon, 2003, updated June 2024

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

NG 6579
The Story of David and Goliath

c. 1445–55

Tempera on wood, 45.5 x 179.2 cm

The narrative, telling the story of David, is based on 1 Samuel 17:31–54 and runs more or less sequentially, reading from left to right. On the extreme left, in the background, David sits herding his flock of cattle, sheep and goats; flying above him is a duck. To the right of this, David is shown selecting five smooth stones from the brook and placing them in his shepherd’s scrip (fig. 1). Next, standing before King Saul, who is mounted on a white charger, David is protesting against wearing the armour that two servants are putting on him (fig. 2). In the centre of the painting, the battle between the Israelites and the Philistines continues as David takes aim with his sling (fig. 3) against the giant Goliath, whose forehead is bleeding. In the foreground Goliath has fallen face down, and David, having drawn the giant’s sword, cuts off his head (fig. 4). The lions, beasts and birds shown in the landscape represent the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth to whom Goliath threatened to feed David’s flesh. The crucial incidents are cleverly linked by the brook which flows from the top left‐hand corner, out of the composition, and back again towards the right, with the figure of David, dressed in pink, punctuating the narrative. The background with a series of hills dominated by the walled city of Jerusalem is full of subsidiary incidents of the battle, and the crowded foreground shows horses and humans in a great variety of poses.

[page 289]

NG 6580
The Triumph of David

c. 1445–55

Tempera on wood, 45.3 x 179.8 cm

The second panel shows a long winding procession with the exhilarated David standing on a triumphal cart (fig. 5) riding towards Jerusalem, holding Goliath’s head by the hair, the body slung behind him on the chariot; the bloody stump of the giant’s neck is visible between David’s feet. David is preceded by King Saul. Outside the city walls a young man with his companions dressed in contemporary Florentine costume meets with a young woman and her companions (fig. 9). As in NG 6579, the composition is crammed with incident: horses, hounds (see fig. 7) and people seen in a variety of poses; a cheetah, a bear(?) (see fig. 6), and a page carrying a falcon, with a falcon attacking a duck decorating his giornea.

Technical Notes (both paintings)

Panel Structure

David and Goliath (NG 6579): Height 45.5 cm (max.), width 179.2 cm (max.), painted surface 43 x 177.5 cm (max.). The Triumph of David (NG 6580): Height 45.3 cm (max.), width 179.8 cm (max.), painted surface 43.3 x 177 cm.

Each panel is constructed from two horizontal planks, almost certainly poplar. The joins are slightly oblique, so that on David and Goliath the join is 25.2 cm down from the upper edge at the left, but only 24.7 cm down on the right, and on The Triumph of David it is 22.2 cm at the left and 20.7 cm at the right. At some time in the past both panels were divided vertically into two, more or less down the centre. They have also been planed down – David and Goliath to a thickness of 1–1.2 cm and The Triumph of David to 1.2–1.4 cm – and cradles attached. A label from a Royal Academy exhibition of 1902 is gummed to the cradle, which must therefore have been fitted before that date.

[page [290]]

**Fig. 1**
Detail from *The Story of David and Goliath* (NG 6579)

David herding his flocks and selecting five smooth stones (© The National Gallery, London)

[page 291]

Condition and technique

The edges of the paintings have been made up with new gesso, bole and gold paint, but the remains of a barbe can be found along all the edges, confirming that the dimensions of the painted areas have not altered. In areas where there are knots and faults in the wood, the gesso has developed long raised cracks – for example, across the figure of David picking up the stone on the left of David and Goliath, and in the trees and sky towards the left end of The Triumph of David as well as across the iron‐grey horse facing forwards in the centre.

Each panel has suffered a fairly large loss of paint and ground as a result of disruption of the gesso caused by defects in the wood. Losses on David and Goliath include the left thigh of David whirling his sling and the upper part of the legs of the chestnut horse to the right. There is also a smaller loss just below the standing Goliath’s left hand. On The Triumph of David a large loss occurs in the area between the legs of the dapple‐grey horse in profile at the centre, but on the animal itself only the nearside hind hoof is affected.

The alteration of all the retouchings, usually to a bluish‐purple colour, makes the areas of restoration easy to identify. The condition of the painted and gilded surfaces is uneven. Areas of gold leaf are generally well preserved, although in some places the superimposed painted decoration is damaged, and possibly even lost completely in the case of the hangings on the first triumphal car in The Triumph. The silver leaf, on the other hand, is in less good condition. Extensive retouching (with a marked purple cast) can be seen on much of the silvered armour, swords and horseshoes. It may cover areas of damage and exposed red bole, but it is possible that the retouching is excessive.

The painted areas also vary in condition. Where the paint film is reasonably thick (notably on some of the lighter‐coloured horses and on most of the landscape, including the foliage, plants and flowers in the foreground), it is well preserved. In the figures, and also in the brown horses and other animals, the tempera has been thinly applied with delicate hatched strokes, making it vulnerable to damage by cleaning. Some areas are now worn but have been left unretouched (for example, the head of Goliath carried by David in The Triumph), while others are heavily restored. On the David and Goliath panel repainted heads include that of David in the episode where he is rejecting the armour and also that of the attendant second from his right. The head and neck of the grey horse looking forward at the centre of the picture are now a strange blue colour as a result of repainting, which may cover some small pitted losses in this area. On The Triumph of David the most heavily restored heads are those of the men in armour seated on the second triumphal car. However, X‐radiographs confirm that the contours of these heads have not been lost, and in most cases the original features may also have survived.

The upper part of the sky is extensively retouched in both paintings; indeed, it is virtually repainted in the second panel, probably to cover abrasion and discoloration of the coarsely ground azurite pigment.

Function

The two rectangular panels are usually called cassone panels (painted scenes inserted into a chest, also known as forziere), but there is the possibility that they could have been spalliere panels (that is, wainscoting), which were situated above chests or seating, at shoulder height.

The insertion into the biblical narrative, in the right‐hand corner, of what appears to be a Florentine betrothal scene (fig. 9) could suggest that the panels were made as marriage paintings.

Attribution and Date

The attribution to Pesellino, now universally accepted, was first made in the nineteenth century by Sir Charles Eastlake¹ and also by Crowe and Cavalcaselle,² and endorsed by subsequent writers, including Bernard Berenson, Werner Weisbach, Lionello Venturi, Paul Schubring, Raimond Van Marle and Alfred Scharf.³

**Fig. 2**
Detail from *The Story of David and Goliath* (NG 6579)

David refusing armour (© The National Gallery, London)

[page 292]

**Fig. 3**
Detail from *The Story of David and Goliath* (NG 6579): David takes aim at Goliath (© The National Gallery, London)

**Fig. 4**
Detail from *The Story of David and Goliath* (NG 6579): David cuts off Goliath’s head (© The National Gallery, London)

The panels were probably painted after the predella panel for Filippo Lippi’s altarpiece for the Novitiates’ Chapel in Santa Croce, Florence, painted between 1439 and 1445,⁴ and before Pesellino undertook the commission for the Trinity altarpiece (see p. 260) in 1455. They are generally dated around 1450, for instance by Michel Laclotte.⁵

Patron

The original patron is not known. However, Francis Ames‐Lewis has made the plausible suggestion that the panels were painted for a member of the Medici family who owned other works by Pesellino.⁶ His argument is based on the possible identification of the Medici emblematic device of three feathers in a ring in the helmet of one of the soldiers, and the device of a torch‐holder (lucerna a gabbia) prominently displayed by one of the attendants (fig. 8). The latter is known to have been a device of the Medici and is still displayed on the south‐east corner of the Palazzo Medici; it appears on the reins of the ass ridden by Cosimo de’ Medici in the frescoes in the Medici Chapel by Benozzo Gozzoli.⁷ The Medici commissioned several works connected with the victorious David, including the bronze statues of David by Donatello and Verrocchio.⁸ It is recorded that Pesellino painted a number of works in the Palazzo Medici, presumably commissioned by Cosimo de’ Medici.⁹ Perhaps more significantly, the pre‐Vasarian lives in the Libro di Antonio Billi and the Codice Magliabechiano state that he painted a spalliera with animals in the Casa Vecchia of Cosimo’s nephew, Pierfrancesco de’ Medici, next door to the Palazzo Medici.¹⁰ Vasari records additionally: ‘…alcuni corpi di cassoni, con storiette piccole di giostre di cavalli.’¹¹ If there is indeed a betrothal taking place at the right‐hand side of NG 6580, and if the panels were painted for a member of the Medici family on the occasion of a marriage, then the contemporary possibilities are the marriages of Cosimo’s sons – either Piero, who married Lucrezia Tornabuoni in 1448,¹² or Giovanni, who married Ginevra degli Albizzi in 1453 – and that of Pierfrancesco, who married Laudomia Acciaiuoli in 1456.¹³

Provenance

In the Palazzo Pazzi, Florence, until the early nineteenth century, when acquired by the Marchese Luigi Torrigiani; recorded in the Palazzo Torrigiani in 1884;¹⁴ Palazzo Torrigiani until 1896, when purchased by Agnews, from whom the panels were bought later that year by Lord Wantage.¹⁵ On loan to the National Gallery from the Loyd (Wantage) Collection since 1974, from whom acquired with the assistance of the NACF (with a contribution from the Wolfson Foundation), 2000.

[page [293]]

**Fig. 5**
Detail from *The Triumph of David* (NG 6580) (© The National Gallery, London)

[page 294]

**Figs 6 and 7**
Details from *The Triumph of David* (NG 6580) (© The National Gallery, London)

Exhibited

London 1902, RA , Old Masters (10 and 18); London 1919, Burlington Fine Arts Club, Florentine Painting before 1500 (33 and 34); London 1924, Agnews, Old Masters (29 and 30); London 1930, RA , Italian Art (108 and 97); Oxford 1934, Ashmolean Museum, Pictures from Lockinge House, Wantage (23 and 26); Birmingham 1945–52, City of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (27 and 28).

Select Bibliography

F. Ames‐Lewis, ‘Francesco Pesellino’s “Story of David” panels in the National Gallery London’, Biuletyn Historii Sztuki, LXII, 1–2, 2000, pp. 189–203.

Dillian Gordon, June 2024

Curator’s Update

**Fig. i**
*The Story of David and Goliath* (NG 6579) after cleaning in 2023 (© The National Gallery, London)

**Fig. ii**
*The Triumph of David* (NG 6580) after cleaning in 2023 (© The National Gallery, London)

Cleaning of the two panels in 2023 revealed physical evidence which strongly indicates that they were cassoni and not spalliere (see Function, above): small pieces of wood plugging holes in the wood suggests the holes were originally cut for the insertion of keys, and damage around the holes was probably caused by the buffeting of dangling keys.¹⁶

Laura Llewellyn has convincingly suggested that the panels were commissioned around 1452–55 by Piero and Lucrezia de’ Medici for their new apartments in the Palazzo Medici, and gifted on at a later date to their daughter Bianca who married Guglielmo Pazzi around 1459, which would explain why they were in the Pazzi Palace by 1821 (confirmed by Fabio Gaffo, whose research on the Pazzi inventories is forthcoming).¹⁷

Addition to Exhibited: London 2023–4, National Gallery, Pesellino: A Renaissance Master Revealed (6).

Addition to Select Bibliography: Laura Llewellyn, Jill Dunkerton and Nathaniel Silver, Pesellino. A Renaissance Master Revealed, London 2023 (exh. cat. National Gallery, London, 7 December 2023–10 March 2024).

[page 295]

Notes

1. Notebooks of 1861 (1, fol. 16 recto) and 1862 (1, fol. 16 verso/17 recto). In 1861 Eastlake called them ‘apparently by Filippo Lippi’, but in 1862 he changed this to ‘in all probability the work of Pesellino’. See also Sir Charles Eastlake (ed.), Handbook of Painting. The Italian Schools, 5th edn, 1887, I, p. 152 (based on the handbook of Kugler), where he describes them as ‘well‐preserved and first‐rate works’. (Back to text.)

2. Crowe and Cavalcaselle 1864 , 1st edn, vol. II, pp. 366–7 and 504 (the panels were still in the Palazzo Torrigiani); idem, History of Painting in Italy. Umbria, Florence and Siena, vol. IV, 1911, p. 96, n. 5. (Back to text.)

3. B. Berenson, The Florentine Painters of the Renaissance, 1896, p. 124 (the panels were still in the Palazzo Torrigiani); Berenson 1932 , p. 443; Berenson 1963 , p. 168; W. Weisbach, Francesco Pesellino und die Romantik der Renaissance, Berlin 1901, pp. 84–90; Venturi 1911 , vol. VII, I, pp. 393–6; P. Schubring, Cassoni. Truher und Truhenbilder der italienischen Frührenaissance, Leipzig 1923, pp. 115 and 278–9, no. 264; Van Marle , vol. X, 1928, pp. 498–500 (where he says they were originally attributed to Benozzo Gozzoli), 506–7, 520; vol. XI, 1929, p. 229; A. Scharf, ‘Zur Kunst des Francesco Pesellino’, Pantheon, XIV, 1934, pp. 220–1. Most recently Alessandro Angelini in Pittura di Luce, exh. cat., Milan 1990, p. 127 (‘uno degli ultimi capolavori’). (Back to text.)

4. For which see J. Ruda, Fra Filippo Lippi. Life and work with a Complete Catalogue, London 1993, cat. 32, pp. 414–16. See also note 46 (under NG 727) on p. 285 of this catalogue. (Back to text.)

5. M. Laclotte, ‘Une “Chasse” du Quattrocento florentin’, Revue de l’Art, 40–41, 1978, pp. 65–70, esp. p. 69. (Back to text.)

6. F. Ames‐Lewis, Biuletyn Historii Sztuki, 2000, pp. 189–203. (Back to text.)

7. See Cristina Acidini Luchinat in Il Palazzo Medici Riccardi di Firenze, eds G. Cherubini and G. Fanelli, Florence 1990, pp. 86–7, and in eadem, Benozzo Gozzoli. La Cappella dei Magi, Milan 1993, p. 366. (Back to text.)

8. For a possible terminus ante quem of 1455–7 for Donatello’s David, see note 83 on p. 286. (Back to text.)

9. See note 31 on p. 395, although it is possible that the works by Pesellino recorded in the Medici Palace could, like the paintings of the Battle of San Romano (see p. 390), have been appropriated by Lorenzo de’ Medici. (Back to text.)

10. Although the references come under Pesello, it is clear from the reference to the Pistoia altarpiece that Pesellino is intended. See the Libro di Antonio Billi, ed. Fabio ~~Benedettuci~~ Benedettucci , Rome 1991, p. 88: ‘nella casa de’ medici uno lione a una grata e in casa Pierfrancesco de’ Medici una spalliera d’animali molto bella’ (the latter is differentiated from the Casa de’ Medici, so is presumably the Casa Vecchia); in the Anonimo Magliabechiano, p. 100: ‘E dipinse anchora presso a detto palazo [de’ Medici] in casa Piero Francescho de’ Medici una spalliera d’animalji molto bella.’ (Back to text.)

11. Vasari, Vite, ed. Milanesi , 1878, III, p. 37; Vasari, Vite, eds Bettarini and Barocchi , III, 1971, p. 372. (Back to text.)

12. It was suggested by Philip Hendy (European and American Paintings in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston 1974 p. 178) that the Triumphs of Love, Chastity and Death and the Triumphs of Fame, Time and Eternity by Pesellino were commissioned on the occasion of the marriage of Piero de’ Medici to Lucrezia Tornabuoni. He notes that they are identifiable as the ‘paio di forzieri messi d’oro di br. 3¹2 l’uno dipintovi dentro e Trionfi del Petrarcha’ listed in the Palazzo Medici inventory of 1492 (M. Spallanzani and G.G. Bertelà (eds), Libro d’inventario dei beni di Lorenzo il Magnifico, Florence 1992, p. 26), and suggests that the National Gallery panels are the jousts described by Vasari (see note 11 above). For chests ordered by Pierfrancesco in 1455 for his marriage, see note 31 on p. 155 of this catalogue. (Back to text.)

13. According to Cristelle Baskins (‘Donatello’s bronze David: Grillanda, Goliath, Groom?’, Studies in Iconography, 15, 1993, p. 120), the central woman may be identified as Michal greeting David; Baskins says that the woman’s large wreath hat decorated with peacock feathers identifies her as a bride. (Back to text.)

14. Gaetan Ostoya, Les anciens maîtres et leurs œuvres à Florence. Guide Artistique, Florence 1884, p. 300: ‘Galerie du palais Torrigiani, place dei Mozzi 6, Galleria dei Cassoni, 5 et 6, Benozzo Gozzoli. Le triomphe de David, deux magnifiques panneaux de bahuts, qu’on appelle cassoni.’ I owe this reference to Lorne Campbell. (Back to text.)

15. See Leslie Parris, The Loyd Collection of Paintings and Drawings, London 1967, p. 35. (Back to text.)

16. Jill Dunkerton, ‘Technical findings’, in Llewellyn, Dunkerton and Silver 2023, pp. 59–63: see pp. 59 and 63. (Back to text.)

17. Laura Llewellyn, ‘The Stories of David panels: a reappraisal’, in Llewellyn, Dunkerton and Silver 2023, pp. 25-32; see pp. 30–32. (Back to text.)

**Fig. 8**
The ‘*lucerna a gabbia*’ (torch‐holder), emblem of the Medici, from *David and Goliath* (© The National Gallery, London)

**Fig. 9**
Detail from *The Triumph of David*: a (Medici?) betrothal (© The National Gallery, London)

Glossary

barbe: The raised lip of gesso which remains on the painted surface after the removal of an engaged frame moulding when the panel and frame have been gessoed at the same time. Its presence is an indication as to whether the image (but not necessarily the panel) retains its original dimensions
bole: A red clay applied to the gessoed surface of a panel as an adhesive underlayer for gold leaf
cassone: A chest, often given on marriage
forziere: A chest, often given on marriage
giornea: A tabard or short tunic
scrip: A small bag carried by shepherds (and by pilgrims and beggars)
spalliera: From Italian ‘spalle’ (shoulders) – a rectangular panel placed at shoulder height above a cassone
terminus ante quem: AA fixed date before which (a painting must have been made)

Abbreviations

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)
Crowe and Cavalcaselle 1864: J.A. Crowe and G.B. Cavalcaselle, A History of Painting in Italy, 2 vols, London 1864
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
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, NG22/28: Sir Charles Eastlake, notebook (1861, no. 1), September–October 1861
London, National Gallery, Archive, NG22/30: Sir Charles Eastlake, notebook (1862, no. 1), August–October 1862

List of references cited

Acidini Luchinat 1993: Acidini Luchinat, C., ed., Benozzo Gozzoli. La Cappella dei Magi, Milan 1993
Ames‐Lewis: Ames‐Lewis, E., ‘Francesco Pesellino’s “Story of David” panels in the National Gallery, London’, Biuletyn Historii Sztuki, 2000, LXII, 1–2, 189–203
Baskins 1993: Baskins, C.L., ‘Donatello’s bronze David: Grillanda, Goliath, Groom?’, Studies in Iconography, 1993, 15, 113–34
Bellosi 1990: Bellosi, L., Pittura di Luce. Giovanni di Francesco e L’arte fiorentina di metà Quattrocento (exh. cat. Florence, Casa Buonarroti), Milan 1990
Benedettucci 1991: Benedettucci, F., Il Libro di Antonio Billi, Rome 1991
Berenson 1896: Berenson, B., The Florentine Painters of the Renaissance, 1896
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
Cherubini and Fanelli 1990: Cherubini, G. and G. Fanelli, eds, Il Palazzo Medici Riccardi di Firenze, Florence 1990
Crowe and Cavalcaselle 1864: Crowe, Joseph Archer and Giovanni‐Battista Cavalcaselle, A New History of Painting in Italy, 2 vols, London 1864
Crowe and Cavalcaselle 1911: Crowe, J.A. and G.B. Cavalcaselle, A History of Painting in Italy, eds R. Langton Douglas and G. de Nicola, London 1911, IV
Dunkerton 2023: Dunkerton, Jill, ‘Technical findings’, in Pesellino. A Renaissance Master Revealed, Laura Llewellyn, Jill Dunkerton and Nathaniel Silver (exh. cat. National Gallery, London, 7 December 2023–10 March 2024), London 2023, 59–63
Eastlake 1887: Eastlake, C., ed., Handbook of Painting. The Italian Schools, 5th edn, London 1887
Laclotte 1978: Laclotte, M., ‘Une “Chasse” du Quattrocentro florentin’, Revue de l’Art, 1978, 40–41, 65–70
Llewellyn 2023: Llewellyn, Laura, ‘The Stories of David panels: a reappraisal’, in Pesellino. A Renaissance Master Revealed, Laura Llewellyn, Jill Dunkerton and Nathaniel Silver (exh. cat. National Gallery, London, 7 December 2023–10 March 2024), London 2023, 25-32
Llewellyn, Dunkerton and Silver 2023: Llewellyn, Laura, Jill Dunkerton and Nathaniel Silver, Pesellino. A Renaissance Master Revealed (exh. cat. National Gallery, London, 7 December 2023–10 March 2024), London 2023
Parris 1967: Parris, Leslie, The Loyd Collection of Paintings and Drawings at Betterton House, Lockinge near Wantage, Berkshire, London 1967
Ruda 1993: Ruda, Jeffrey, Fra Filippo Lippi: Life and Work with a Complete Catalogue, London 1993
Scharf 1934: Scharf, A., ‘Zur Kunst des Francesco Pesellino’, Pantheon, 1934, XIV, 211–21
Schubring 1923: Schubring, P., Cassoni. Truhen und Truhenbilder der italienischen Frührenaissance, Leipzig 1923
Spallanzani and Bertelà 1992: Spallanzani, M. and G.G. Bertelà, eds, Libro d’inventario dei beni di Lorenzo il Magnifico, Florence 1992
Vasari 1878–85: Vasari, Giorgio, Le Vite de’più eccellenti pittori, scultori ed architettori, ed. Gaetano Milanesi, 9 vols, Florence 1878–85
Vasari 1967–71: Vasari, Giorgio, Le Vite de’più eccellenti pittori, scultori ed architettori, eds R. Bettarini and P. Barocchi, Florence 1967 (I and II), 1971 (III)
Venturi 1911: Venturi, A., Storia dell’arte italiana, 11 vols, Milan 1911, 7
Weisbach 1901: Weisbach, W., Francesco Pesellino und die Romantik der Renaissance, Berlin 1901

List of exhibitions cited

Birmingham 1945–52: Birmingham, City of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Paintings and Tapestries from Lockinge House, Wantage…, 1945–52
London 1919: London, Burlington Fine Arts Club, Florentine Painting before 1500, 1919
London 1924: London, Agnew’s, Old Masters, 1924
London 2023–4: London, National Gallery, Pesellino: A Renaissance Master Revealed, 7 December 2023–10 March 2024
Oxford 1934: Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, Pictures from Lockinge House, Wantage, 1934

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/0E8Y-000B-0000-0000
Permalink (latest version): https://data.ng.ac.uk/0E6E-000B-0000-0000
Chicago style: Gordon, Dillian. “ NG 6579 and NG 6580 , Story of David Panels from a Pair of Cassoni ”. 2003, updated June 2024, online version 1, March 9, 2025. https://data.ng.ac.uk/0E8Y-000B-0000-0000.
Harvard style: Gordon, Dillian (2003, updated June 2024) NG 6579 and NG 6580 , Story of David Panels from a Pair of Cassoni . Online version 1, London: National Gallery, 2025. Available at: https://data.ng.ac.uk/0E8Y-000B-0000-0000 (Accessed: 19 March 2025).
MHRA style: Gordon, Dillian, NG 6579 and NG 6580 , Story of David Panels from a Pair of Cassoni (National Gallery, 2003, updated June 2024; online version 1, 2025) <https://data.ng.ac.uk/0E8Y-000B-0000-0000> [accessed: 19 March 2025]

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Story of David Panels from a Pair of Cassoni (?):Catalogue entry