Catalogue entry
Antonio Pisano, called Pisanello c.1394(?)–1455
NG 1436
The Vision of Saint Eustace
2003
,Extracted from:
Dillian Gordon, The Fifteenth Century Italian Paintings, Volume I (London: National Gallery Company and Yale University Press, 2003).

© The National Gallery, London
c. 1438–42
Egg tempera on wood, 54.8 x 65.5 cm
Saint Eustace, carrying a decorated hunting horn and wearing a golden fur‐edged giornea, a blue headdress and golden spurs, is out hunting with his hounds, one of which is coursing a hare. Before him is a stag with a crucifix between its antlers. To the left and centre are two more stags, and in the upper left part of the picture a doe; to the right is a bear. The various birds and animals on either side of the wooded ravine that divides the composition include a hoopoe, pelicans, swans, herons, a kingfisher and an egret, none of them painted to scale.
The cross is inscribed INRI (= Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudeorum) – repainted, but possibly reflecting the original. No traces of an inscription can be detected on the white scroll at the bottom (fig. 30).
Technical Notes
Restoration
Restored at an unknown date before acquisition by the National Gallery. Cleaned in 1895.
Panel construction
Height 54.4/54.8 cm, width 65.5 cm. The panel has a vertical grain. It seems to be made up of two planks of wood, perhaps joined where there is a large area of vertical damage through the centre. It has been thinned to approximately 1 cm, and cradled.
There are the remains of a barbe on the left edge and possibly on the right edge. The panel may have been trimmed slightly at the base. It has been cut at the top: the X‐radiograph shows that ragged rectangular patches of canvas were applied irregularly over the surface, possibly to cover knots in the wood; a triangular remnant is visible at the top right‐hand corner, indicating that the panel was originally taller, although it is impossible to estimate by how much (see below).
On the back is a label: Albrecht Dürer. A. Finke (Berlin). And written in pencil: Drawing Room – opposite window Right. March 15 1888 (see Provenance).
Condition and technique
The condition of the painting is deceptive.1 The figure of Saint Eustace and the animals and birds are abraded and have mostly been extensively retouched, although faithfully following the original forms. The landscape background is less abraded but has darkened considerably, obscuring much of the detail, probably because of darkening of the malachite pigment itself, underpainted in the traditional way with black,2 and also because malachite, which is translucent, was the main green pigment; the paint is raised in places, owing partly to the thick and crusty nature of malachite. Otherwise the background is well preserved, particularly the flowers and foliage around the horse and hounds. The light pebbled foreground is extensively repainted; a very few fragments of original paint remain.
In the figure of Saint Eustace and his horse all the gold has been renewed, possibly over traces of original gold; the saint’s jacket has been completely regilded, incised with a pattern, and the folds modelled in a brownish glaze.3 The areas of pastiglia have been regilded, but the pastiglia itself is clearly original. The saint’s hat and face are largely well preserved, with minor retouchings, while the fur of his jacket, and his hose, have been entirely repainted over traces of original paint. His horse was originally a whitish grey,4 but the extensive retouching has discoloured, resulting in a brownish dappled effect.
In contrast to the thick painting of the landscape background, the animals were relatively thinly painted in order to maintain the reflectance of the ground. Some (such as the bear at the top right) have been almost entirely repainted, with a paint now a reddish brown used elsewhere by the restorer – for example, in the stag with the crucifix, the hare, the stag behind Saint Eustace, and in the hound standing behind the saint. Another distinctive feature of the restoration is the use of a white paint with a characteristic viscous texture, which has been used, for example, to reconstruct the white velveting near the head of the left antler of the stag with the crucifix (whereas the white velveting of the upper part of the antler, and of the antlers of the other stag, is original and has been subtly done). It has also been used on the left end of the scroll and the white highlight along the top of its central part; the right end is original but there is no remaining evidence that the scroll ever bore any lettering.
Some underdrawing can be seen around the contours of the animals, but because of the dark underpainting of the surrounding landscape, outlines are likely to be obscured in infra‐red examination. The underdrawing is similar in character to that of NG 776.
Original Appearance
The vertical grain of the panel, the fragment of canvas at the top right‐hand corner, and a painting formerly in the Cini Collection, Venice (fig. 1), which seems to derive closely from it, all suggest that NG 1436 originally extended considerably further upward, and that originally the composition was not so claustrophobic, but included a stretch of sky above.5 Its original shape, before it was cut down, is reflected in the ex‐Cini Collection painting, which appears to be a nineteenth‐century copy of a sixteenth(?)‐century painting. The copyist has made some radical changes: notably moving up the stag so that it towers above the saint; the costume of Saint Eustace has been changed to a northern fashion, and a northern type of landscape inserted behind the main focus of the narrative. Presumably unhappy with the unrealistic background and the discrepancies in scale, the copyist has also adjusted the composition of NG 1436 by moving birds around to different positions. For example, the swan has been moved from the top left to the centre front, the bird in flight in the forest above the fleeing hare has been moved to the right behind the crucifix, and the bird in flight above the crucifix has been transferred to the centre, in front of the horse’s head. The fact that the painting certainly reflects NG 1436 is confirmed by the [page 311][page 312]inclusion of a heron in the bottom right‐hand corner, with its neck and beak stretched upwards; this is not found in NG 1436, but is found in one of a series of sketches from Pisanello’s workshop (Paris, Louvre, inv. no. 2471).6
It is possible that the painting originally included a hanged man on a gibbet. The preparatory sketch for the crucifix (fig. 7), discussed below, includes a cursory study of a single figure hanging on a gibbet, and this motif is included in one of the versions by Jacopo Bellini (fig. 2). The motif complements that of the crucified Christ – sinful man on a gibbet redeemed by the Son of God on a cross.
Subject and Iconography
The story of Saint Eustace is told in the Golden Legend : while out hunting, Placidus, a soldier of the Emperor Trajan, had a vision of a stag with a shining cross, with an image of Christ upon it, between its antlers. Christ spoke to him, saying: ‘O Placidus, why are you pursuing me? For your sake I have appeared to you in this animal. I am the Christ whom you worship without knowing it. Your alms [that is, good deeds] have risen before me, and for this purpose I have come, that through this deer which you hunted, I myself might hunt you.’ Placidus was converted to Christianity, changing his name to Eustace.7 NG 1436 closely follows the details of the Golden Legend : Pisanello shows the stag standing at the top of a high peak with Christ on the cross between its antlers.
The theme of Saint Eustace was rarely treated in Italian art. The cult of the saint was most fervent in the Abruzzi (the saint had his vision near Subiaco in the Abruzzi) and in Rome, where he was buried in the church of Sant’Eustachio, founded in the twelfth century.8 Earlier versions had shown the figure of Christ between the antlers as a half‐length blessing Redeemer rather than on the cross.9 The change to Christ on the cross may have been prompted by the iconography of the Crucifix speaking to Saint Francis or of the Crucifix speaking to Saint John Gualberto,10 although Christ is shown as Christus patiens (as opposed to triumphans), head slumped, eyes closed. Pisanello characteristically emphasises the imminent moment prior to speech. The three drawings of the subject by Jacopo Bellini, who, like Pisanello, worked at the court of the Este, seem to reflect a knowledge of Pisanello’s painting (see fig. 2).11

Anonymous 16th‐ (or 19th‐?) century northern painter, The Vision of Saint Eustace, copy after Pisanello’s Vision of Saint Eustace (NG 1436). Venice, formerly Cini Collection.
© Courtesy National Gallery Photographic Archive, London
Photo: © Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice

Jacopo Bellini, The Vision of Saint Eustace,
c.
1445–6, from ‘The Paris Sketchbook’,
ff. 41 verso and 42
ff. 37 verso and 38 recto
. Pen and ink over metalpoint (?) on parchment, 58 x 42.7 cm. Paris, Musée du Louvre.
Photo: P.Bernard
© GrandPalaisRmn (musée du Louvre) / Gérard Blot

Greyhounds (‘lévriers’) from the Livre de Chasse de Gaston Phébus, 1387–9. Tempera and gold on parchment, 35.7 x 25 cm. Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Ms français 616, folio 46 verso. © Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris

Spaniels (‘chiens doysel’) from the Livre de Chasse de Gaston Phébus, folio 50 recto. © Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris

Running hounds (‘chiens courants’) from the Livre de Chasse de Gaston Phébus, folio 47 verso. © Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris

Alaunts (‘alanz’) from the Livre de Chasse de Gaston Phébus, folio 45 verso. © Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris
A similar story of the vision of the stag with the crucifix between its antlers is told of Saint Hubert (see fig. 28),12 and indeed NG 1436 was in the past sometimes identified as depicting that saint.13 The identification here of the figure as Saint Eustace rather than Saint Hubert is based partly on the fact that Pisanello painted Saint Eustace opposite Saint George on the exterior wall of the Pellegrini Chapel in Sant’Anastasia, Verona. The fresco, now lost, was described by Vasari.14
The subject served as a pretext for painting a number of animals within a hunting scene,15 and Pisanello has painted Saint Eustace not as a Roman soldier but as a fifteenth‐century Italian prince, out hunting alone with his hounds. The painting would have recalled the type of lavishly illustrated hunting treatise written by Gaston de Foix, using the pseudonym Phébus, between 1387 and 1389, of which forty‐four manuscripts have survived to this day.16 The treatise covers the hunting of hares and stags, among other animals, with forest particularly recommended as the best location for tracking down the stag.17 The different breeds of dog accompanying Eustace would have been recognised for their particular skills:18 the greyhound (‘lévrier’) coursing the hare and the brown greyhound behind it were esteemed for their swiftness (see fig. 3);19 behind the brown greyhound is what seems to be a running hound (‘chien courant’), which pursued its quarry not by sight but by scent, and was particularly used in the hunting of stags (see fig. 5).20 At the horse’s hindquarters may be an alaunt (‘alanz’); these dogs were more massive, especially in the head, and were used for hunting bears, wild boars and wolves (see fig. 6).21 At the bottom left‐hand corner are spaniels (‘chiens doysel’), used for flushing out birds and small game, especially partridge and quail (see fig. 4).22
[page 314]
Pisanello, Studies for a crucifix and a gibbet. Pen and ink on red prepared paper, 19.5 x 26 cm. Paris, Musée du Louvre, 2368 verso.
Photo: J.G. Berizzi
© GrandPalaisRmn (musée du Louvre) / Jean-Gilles Berizzi

Pisanello, Horse and rider. Pen and ink on red prepared paper, 19.5 x 26 cm. Paris, Musée du Louvre, 2368 recto
respectively.
Photo: J.G. Berizzi
© GrandPalaisRmn (musée du Louvre) / Jean-Gilles Berizzi
Composition
The use of an illustrated treatise, such as that of Gaston Phébus or one of its derivatives, as a visual source is suggested by the position and pose of the bear at the right‐hand side, which appears at the right of the illumination depicting the hunting of a bear in one such treatise.23 The arrangement of animals and landscape is also very similar to that in Franco‐Flemish tapestries, many of which were documented at the Gonzaga and Este courts.24 In the representation of the tipped‐up landscape and the placing of the birds, Pisanello may also have been influenced by French illuminated manuscripts, such as the Belles Heures of c. 1405–8 by the Limbourg brothers (New York, Cloisters): see, for example, Saint Anthony seeks Saint Paul’s Hermitage (f.191 verso) and Saint Anthony guided by a Centaur (f.192).25 Kurt Barstow also relates the landscape with its individual studies of birds to God creating the Birds and the Fishes in the Bible of Nicolò d’Este, illuminated in Ferrara before 1434(?) by Belbello of Pavia (Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Barb. Lat. 613, f.5 verso).26
Attribution, Date and Related Drawings
NG 1436 was previously attributed to Dürer (label on the back). It was first given to Pisanello by Bode and Tschudi,27 and since then the attribution has been widely accepted.28 The painting is not dated and has been placed at various stages in Pisanello’s career. Raimond Van Marle saw it as ‘a production of his very earliest activity’;29 Ferdinando Bologna [page 315] considered it an early work still influenced by Gentile da Fabriano.30 Coletti thought that it preceded the frescoes in San Fermo, Verona (1426);31 Adolfo Venturi discussed it between Pisanello’s activity in San Fermo and in Rome in 1431;32 George Hill saw it as falling between the San Fermo frescoes and the Sant’Anastasia frescoes (probably begun c.1434?).33 Alfred Hentzen and Enio Sindona dated it c.1440;34 Giovanni Paccagnini also saw it as a late work, executed at the Gonzaga court,35 as did Bernhard Degenhart, who dated it after 1447.36

Pisanello, Croup of a horse. Pen and ink over metalpoint(?) on red prepared paper, 23.8 x 17.6 cm. Paris, Musée
du Louvre, 2365.
Photo: © Michèle Bellot

Pisanello, Croup of a horse. Pen and ink, light brown wash and watercolour over stylus on paper, 25.6 x 20.2
cm. Paris, Musée du Louvre, 2366 recto.
Photo: © J.G. Berizzi
GrandPalaisRmn (musée du Louvre) / Jean-Gilles Berizzi
The related studies are of limited help in dating the pictures because Pisanello frequently reused and adapted sketches and drawings. Moreover, there is no consensus of opinion regarding the attribution of the studies.37 However, the majority of scholars consider NG 1436 to be roughly contemporary with the Sant Anastasia frescoes, as there are numerous studies common to both of them.38 This was argued by Degenhart in 1945, who called NG 1436 an echo of the frescoes (although he subsequently changed his mind regarding the date), and afterwards by other scholars, such as Brenzoni, and most recently Annegrit Schmitt.39 A sheet in pen and ink (the hands first done in black chalk) with studies for the crucified Christ (Paris, Louvre, inv. no. 2368; fig. 7), which are probably studies for NG 1436, also has a minimal sketch for the hanged figures on a gibbet in the Sant’Anastasia frescoes; the recto has a pen and ink study of a horse and rider (fig. 8) very close to Saint Eustace in the painting.40 Two other studies, which are very similar in style (Paris, Louvre, inv. nos 2365 and 2366; figs 9 and 10), are for the hindquarters of the horse in the painting, with one hoof raised, one study being particularly close to the final version.41
The study of the horse and rider (Paris, Louvre, inv. no. 2368) shows the rider’s hand lowered on the reins (in NG 1436 one hand is concealed and one raised, apparently in astonishment, or perhaps to hush the sounds of the forest). A study in black chalk which appears to be for the hound turning his back on the spectator and facing backwards (Paris, Louvre, inv. no. 2429 verso; figs 24 and 25) includes a study of a left hand which may have been for the hand holding the reins; on the recto of the sheet is a coloured drawing of a hound’s muzzle, also preparatory for NG 1436.42 Close in technique to the study of the hound, with a similar sporadic touching in with watercolour, is the study of a horse’s head in profile (Paris, Louvre, inv. no. 2356): none of the large‐scale studies of horses’ heads43 precisely mirrors the position of the horse’s head in NG 1436, which is very slightly angled away from the spectator, with the neck tightly arched, but close to NG 1436 is the Louvre drawing (inv. no. 2356; figs 26 and 27), which includes a study for a horse’s leg standing still and has been considered as preparatory to NG 1436.44
As well as making studies for the crucifix, Pisanello made detailed studies for the head of the stag with the crucifix between its antlers (Paris, Louvre, inv. no. 2490; figs 11 and 12).45 Dominique Cordellier also agrees with previous scholars that Louvre 2489, a deer seen from the back lying down, is a preliminary study for NG 1436, since he has detected a very light and barely visible metalpoint drawing of the stag holding the crucifix between its antlers on the same sheet.46 As noted above, the bear (see Louvre, inv. no. 2414; figs 13 and 14) used for the upper right‐hand side of the painting seems to have been taken from the hunting treatise of Gaston Phébus.47
[page 316]
Pisanello, Three studies of deer heads. Pen and ink over black chalk, 15.8 x 20.8 cm. Paris, Musée du Louvre, 2490.
Photo: C. Jean
© GrandPalaisRmn (musée du Louvre) / Christian Jean

Detail of the crucifix in NG 1436 (© The National Gallery, London)

Pisanello, Two studies of a bear. Black chalk over stylus, traces of pen and ink, 24.3 x 17.2 cm. Paris, Musée du
Louvre, 2414.
Photo: Michèle Bellot
© GrandPalaisRmn (musée du Louvre) / Michel Urtado

Detail of the bear in NG 1436 (© The National Gallery, London)

Pisanello, Studies of a kingfisher. Pen and ink over black chalk or leadpoint on red prepared paper, 24.9 x 18 cm. Paris,
Musée du Louvre, 2509.
Photo: Michèle Bellot
© GrandPalaisRmn (musée du Louvre) / Michèle Bellot

Detail of the kingfisher in NG 1436 (© The National Gallery, London)

Detail of the fleeing hare in NG 1436 (© The National Gallery, London)

Pisanello, Running hare. Watercolour over black chalk on paper, 13.7 x 22.3 cm. Paris, Musée du Louvre, 2445.
Photo: C. Jean
© GrandPalaisRmn (musée du Louvre) / Christian Jean
The running hare seems to come from a pattern book: a study exists of a hare identical to the one in NG 1436, but running in the opposite direction (Paris, Louvre, inv. no. 2445; figs 17 and 18).48 It is similar to the hare in the sketchbook of Giovannino de’ Grassi (Bergamo, Biblioteca Civica, MS D.VII, 14 (Cassaf. I.21), folio 16), but was evidently adjusted after studying a dead hare. Although there is no direct study for the hound coursing a hare – a common subject, which Pisanello or his workshop elsewhere copied from a Lombard fourteenth‐century study (Paris, Louvre, inv. nos 2547 and 2568)49 – Pisanello seems to have used a coloured drawing of a hound with a red muzzle and collar, standing still and facing in the other direction (Paris, Louvre, inv. no. 2435),50 as a basis for the hound in the foreground of the painting. A study [page [318]][page 319] of plants recently identified in Montauban (Musée Ingres, MIC 69.2.D; figs 21 and 22)51 was used for the tiny plants in the left foreground. Similarly, a large‐scale watercolour of a hoopoe (Louvre 2467; fig. 19) was presumably used for the small hoopoe in the lower right (fig. 20).52 Pisanello made a number of coloured studies of birds – for example, a stork (Louvre 2451),53 wrynecks and goldfinches (Louvre 2466)54 and a duck (Louvre 2461) – as well as pen and ink sketches – for example, of kingfishers (Louvre 2507 and 2509; fig. 15),55 herons (Louvre 245056 and 2472)57 and a swan (Modena, Galleria Estense, inv. no. 895)58 – and drew on these for his small‐scale depictions of birds in NG 1436. Any discussion of the relationship between surviving studies and the birds in the painting is complicated by the fact that the painting has been considerably cut down, and the sky probably contained a larger number of birds, as suggested by those in the copy formerly in the Cini Collection (see fig. 1), which have been moved to the lower part of the painting.

The Vision of Saint Eustace (NG 1436), detail (© The National Gallery, London)

Pisanello, Two studies of a hoopoe. Pen and ink over leadpoint (right‐hand study) and brown wash and watercolour with
white heightening (left‐hand study), 16.1 x 21.7 cm. Paris, Musée du Louvre, 2467.
Photo: J.G. Berizzi
© GrandPalaisRmn (musée du Louvre) / Jean-Gilles Berizzi

Detail of hoopoe in NG 1436 (© The National Gallery, London)

Pisanello, Study of plants. Pen and ink, brown wash and white heightening on red prepared paper, 23.3 x 17.6
cm. Montauban, Musée Ingres
Bourdelle
, MIC 69.
2
4
.D verso.
© Musée Ingres, Montauban. Cliché Roumagnac
Photo: Montauban, musée Ingres Bourdelle/cliché Marc Jeanneteau

Detail of plants in NG 1436 (© The National Gallery, London)

Pisanello, reverse of portrait medal of Domenico Malatesta Novello, showing him kneeling before a crucifix, c. 1446–52. Cast bronze, 8.6 cm diameter. London, Victoria and Albert Museum, inv. 4577‐1857. © The Board of Trustees of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Besides the lost part of the painting, there are likely to be lost drawings: one of the pair of small brown spaniels in the foreground also appears in the left foreground of the Sant’Anastasia frescoes and it may be that there was a drawing similar to the studies of small dogs (Louvre 2432).59 A number of other drawings have been related to NG 1436, probably incorrectly.60
Function and Patronage
The choice of Saint Eustace in the frescoes of the Pellegrini Chapel in Sant’Anastasia has been explained by the fact that, like Saint George, Saint Eustace personified ideals of aristocratic Christianity.61 Furthermore, Saint Eustace’s association with hunting – a popular aristocratic pastime – must have appealed to courtly taste. The subject matter of NG 1436 suggests, therefore, that the painting originated in the context of secular patronage. Paccagnini saw it as belonging with the chivalric Mantuan frescoes.62 Bernhard Degenhart saw the figure of Saint Eustace as a portrait of Lodovico Gonzaga (see p. 301, fig. 8).63 Other scholars have argued that it was made for a member of the Este family.64 Chiarelli wrongly argued that Vasari was referring to NG 1436 in his description of the Saint Eustace scene in the Pellegrini Chapel, and that the painting was the altarpiece for the chapel.65 This is unlikely on grounds of scale, and Hans‐Joachim Eberhardt has convincingly shown that the lost figure of Saint Eustace in Sant’Anastasia was, together with the figure of Saint George sheathing his sword, an iconic figure, not part of a narrative scene, and that both were painted on pilasters on the exterior of the chapel.66 Moreover, the chapel itself was dedicated to the Apostles.67 However, it remains a possibility that a member of the Pellegrini family commissioned the painting for personal use.68
A possible court patron is Filippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan from 1413 until his death in 1447, whose portrait Pisanello painted and of whom he also made a medallic portrait.69 Visconti’s biographer, Pier Candido Decembrio, made a point of emphasising how highly he prized his horses and hounds, and how passionate he was about hunting in the woods and pursuing boars, stags and birds.70 Another possibility is Borso d’Este, the younger brother of Leonello, who was so enamoured of hunting that he ennobled the keeper of his hounds and his falconer.71
In his discussion of the description of Pisanello’s paintings by Bartolomeo Facio in De Viris Illustribus of 1456, Kurt Barstow suggests that Facio’s description of a painting by Pisanello of Saint Jerome and his description of a wilderness, [page 321] in which there are animals of different kinds, are closely linked.72 Although Barstow makes it clear that the assumption that the latter refers to a painting of Saint Eustace is mere conjecture, he proposes that the two subjects were meant to be viewed as a pair, pointing out that elements from both are combined in Taddeo Crivelli’s Saint Jerome (Los Angeles, Getty Museum) and in Saint Jerome adoring the Crucifix, attributed to the Master of the Gesuati, c. 1450 (Turin, private collection). He suggests that the two subjects were complementary, with the theme of hunting serving as a metaphor for spiritual search. He interprets the dog coursing the hare in NG 1436 as an allusion to the spiritual hunt and suggests that the cartello at the bottom was originally intended to carry Christ’s words spoken to Eustace. Barstow hypothesises that such a pair of paintings could have been made for Giovanni Tavelli (for whom see p. 56), although he stops short of suggesting that NG 1436 was one of such a pair.73

Pisanello, Study of a hound. Black chalk on paper, 18.2 x 21.9 cm. Paris, Musée du Louvre, 2429 verso.
Photo: J.G. Berizzi
© GrandPalaisRmn (musée du Louvre) / Jean-Gilles Berizzi

Detail of the hound turning back in NG 1436 (© The National Gallery, London)

Pisanello, Horse’s head and hoof. Pen and ink, brown wash and watercolour over stylus on paper, 25.8 x 19.7 cm. Paris,
Musée du Louvre, 2356.
Photo: J.G. Berizzi
© GrandPalaisRmn (musée du Louvre) / Jean-Gilles Berizzi

Detail of the horse in NG 1436 (© The National Gallery, London)
A connection is often made between the landscape, flora and fauna in NG 1436 and the various evocative landscapes praised by Pisanello’s contemporaries, such as the humanist poets and writers Guarino da Verona, Tito Vespasiano Strozzi and Basinio da Parma.74 Luke Syson has suggested that the cartello was never meant to be painted, but was included as part of the humanist debate on the relative merits of art and literature to underline the fact that a painting could describe nature just as well as, if not better than, the written word.75
Provenance
According to the label on the back, in the collection of A. Fincke, Berlin.76 In the Ashburnham Collection, London, by 1878;77 purchased from the Earl of Ashburnham, 1895.
Exhibited
London 1893/4, New Gallery (163); London 2001, NG , Pisanello: Painter to the Renaissance Court (75).
Select Bibliography
- G.F. Hill, Pisanello, London 1905, pp. 62–8.
- A. Hentzen, Die Vision des heiligen Eustachius, Berlin 1948.
- R. Chiarelli, L’opera completa del Pisanello, Milan 1972, pp. 94–5, no. 66.
- G. Paccagnini, Pisanello e il ciclo cavalleresco di Mantova, Milan 1972, pp. 222–7.
- B. Degenhart and A. Schmitt, Pisanello und Bono da Ferrara, Munich 1995, pp. 206–20.
- T. Franco in Pisanello. Una poetica dell’inatteso, ed. Lionello Puppi, Milan 1996, cat. no. 5, pp. 72–5 (with full bibliography).
- K. Barstow, The Gualenghi‐d’Este Hours: Art and Devotion in Renaissance Ferrara, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles 2000, pp. 58–68 and 169–77, esp. p. 176.
- L. Syson and D. Gordon, Pisanello: Painter to the Renaissance Court, exh. cat., National Gallery, London 2001, pp. 156–89.
Notes
1. For an account of the technique and the condition, see Jill Dunkerton, ‘L’état de restauration des deux Pisanello de la National Gallery de Londres’, in Pisanello. Actes du colloque organisé au musée du Louvre, 1996, eds D. Cordellier and B. Py, Paris 1998, vol. II, pp. 665–81. (Back to text.)
2. Samples have not been taken, but the underpainting is visible in some areas, for example around the hindquarters of the hare. (Back to text.)
3. This is likely to reflect the original technique. This type of texturing of gold or silver leaf is common in the work of Gentile da Fabriano (see p. xv), with whom Pisanello probably trained (see biography). It is also found in the frescoes for Sant’Anastasia (for example, on the background of the pilgrim coat of arms). (Back to text.)
4. In the note on the cleaning of 1895, which seems to have involved the thinning of the varnish, the horse was described as white. See NG conservation record. (Back to text.)
5. See M. Salmi’s review of Paccagnini 1972 in Commentari, anno XXIV, no. 5, fasc. IV, 1973, p. 340. The copy formerly in the Cini Collection was said by Bernard Berenson to have been in the shop of a Venetian dealer, Barazzi, until 4 June 1937 (see letter of 23 March 1950 in the NG archives). This may be the copy said by Hill (1905, p. 65) to be in a private collection in Marseille. (Back to text.)
6. See D. Cordellier in Pisanello. Le Peintre aux Sept Vertus, exh. cat., Musée du Louvre, Paris 1996, cat. no. 156, p. 248. (Back to text.)
7. The Golden Legend (trans. W.G. Ryan), 1993, II, pp. 266–71. The Golden Legend says that Christ spoke to Eustace through the stag’s mouth or ‘there are others who say that the words were pronounced by the image which appeared between the stag’s antlers’ (‘vidit inter cornua eius formam sancte crucis supra solis claritatem fulgentem et ymaginem Ihesu Christi qui per os cerui sicut olim per asinam Balaam sic ei locutus est dicens… “O Placide, quid me insequeris? Ego tui gratia in hoc animali tibi apparui. Ego sum Christus quem tu ignorans colis. Elemosine tue coram me ascenderunt et ob hoc veni, ut per hunc quem venabaris ceruum ego quoque te ipse venaret?” Alii tamen dicunt quod ipsa imago Christi que inter cornua cerui apparuit hec verba protulit.’ – see Iacopo da Varazze, Legenda Aurea (ed. G.P. Maggioni), Tavarnuzze 1998, pp. 1090–1). (Back to text.)
8. A. Monteverdi, ‘La Leggenda di S. Eustachio’, Studi Medievali, III, 1908–11, pp. 217ff. (Back to text.)
9. For example, the fresco of 1351 in Pomposa Abbey by Vitale da Bologna, and in the cycle in the late fourteenth‐century shutters from Campodigione in the Abruzzi. See G. Kaftal with the collaboration of F. Bisogni, Iconography of the Saints in the Painting of North East Italy, Florence 1978, no. 98. For the Campodigione shutters, which have been stolen, see M. Eisenberg, ‘A Late Trecento Custodia with the Life of S Eustace’, in Studies in Late Medieval and Renaissance Painting in Honor of Millard Meiss, eds I. Lavin and J. Plummer, vol. I, New York 1977, pp. 143–51. For the cycle in Pomposa, see also Roberto Longhi, Lavori in Valpadana dal Trecento al Primo Cinquecento, Florence 1973, pp. 30–1 and figs 30–2. (Back to text.)

Master of the Life of the Virgin, The Conversion of Saint Hubert, c. 1480–5. Oil on oak, 123 x 83.2 cm. London, National Gallery (NG 252). © The National Gallery, London
10. See Kaftal 1952 , no. 122, col. 390, and no. 166, col. 574–5. (Back to text.)
11. See C. Ricci, Iacopo Bellini e i suoi Libri di Disegni, Florence 1908, I, Il Libro del Louvre, pp. 42–3, and II, Il Libro del British Museum, pp. 161–2 and 246–7; C. Eisler, The Genius of Jacopo Bellini. The Complete Paintings and Drawings, New York 1989, pls 251–4. In all three drawings, which probably date from c. 1445–60, Saint Eustace is mounted and raises his right hand, as in NG 1436. (Back to text.)
12. See, for example, NG 252 (see fig. 28), attributed to the Master of the Life of the Virgin and probably painted in the 1480s (M. Levey, National Gallery Catalogues: The German School, London 1959, p. 88). The white hound at the bottom left‐hand corner is remarkably similar in pose and type to the pair of brown hounds in the bottom left‐hand corner of NG 1436. The episode does not occur in the Life of Saint Hubert until the fifteenth century, and was probably grafted onto his legend from the legend of Saint Eustace, possibly because before the feast‐day of Saint Eustace was fixed as 20 September it was sometimes celebrated on 3 November, the feast‐day of Saint Hubert (Monteverdi, Studi Medievali, 1908–11, cited in note 8, p. 202). Monteverdi further suggests that the episode was added to the life of Saint Hubert because he was the patron saint of hunters. Generally, Saint Hubert is shown dismounted, kneeling before the crucifix. (Back to text.)
13. See Davies 1961 , p. 441, n. 1. (Back to text.)
14. ‘E perchè si dilettò particolarmente di fare animali, nella chiesa di Santa Nastasia di Verona, nella cappella della famiglia de’ Pellegrini, dipinse un Sant’Eustachio che fa carezze a un cane pezzato di tanè e bianco, il quale co’ piedi alzati et appoggiati alla gamba di detto Santo si rivolta col capo indietro, quasi che abbia sentito rumore…Sotto la qual figura si vede dipinto il nome d’esso Pisano…’ (‘And because he delighted in painting animals, in the church of Sant’Anastasia in Verona, in the chapel of the Pellegrini family he painted a Saint Eustace stroking a white and tan dappled dog, which had its paws raised and resting against the saint’s leg and its head turned back as if it had heard a sound…Beneath that figure is painted the name of Pisano.’); Vasari, Vite, ed. Milanesi , III, 1878, pp. 8–9; Vasari, Vite, eds Bettarini and Barocchi , III, 1971, p. 367. Vasari was basing himself on information provided by the Dominican Fra Marco de’ Medici; see Hans‐Joachim Eberhardt in Pisanello, exh. cat. (Museo di Castelvecchio), ed. Paola Marini, Verona 1996, p. 167. (Back to text.)
15. As pointed out by Wolfgang Grape, ‘Pisanello und die unvollendeten Mantuaner Wandbilder’, Pantheon, 1976, pp. 14–17, esp. p. 15. (Back to text.)
16. For a facsimile of Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Manuscrit français 616, see The Hunting Book of Gaston Phébus, with an introduction by Marcel Thomas and François Avril, London 1998. (Back to text.)
17. Ibid. , chapters 34, 35, 36. (Back to text.)
18. The information on the dogs cited here is taken from the notes of Wilhelm Schlag in The Hunting Book (cited in note 16), pp. 33–6. (Back to text.)
19. The Hunting Book, chapter 18, f.46 verso. (Back to text.)
20. Ibid. , chapter 19, f.47 verso. (Back to text.)
21. Ibid. , chapter 17, f.45 verso. (Back to text.)
22. Ibid. , chapter 20, f.5. (Back to text.)
23. Ibid. , f.93 verso. This correspondence was first noticed by Luke Syson. (Back to text.)
24. See Salmi in Commentari, 1973, cited in note 5, p. 340, and L. Syson in Syson and Gordon 2001, pp. 61–2 and 80. (Back to text.)
25. Millard Meiss, French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry. The Limbourgs and their Contemporaries, London 1974, text vol. pp. 331–6; pls 478 and 479. (Back to text.)
26. Barstow 2000, p. 59. (Back to text.)
27. W. Bode and H. von Tschudi, ‘Anbetung der Könige von Vittore Pisano und die Madonna mit Heiligen aus dem Besitz des Cav. dal Pozzo’, Jahrbuch der königlich preussischen Kunstsammlungen, VI, 1885, p. 16. (Back to text.)
28. Although Kurt Zoege von Manteuffel (Die Gemälde und Zeichnungen des Antonio Pisano aus Verona, Halle am Saale 1909, pp. 46–9) thought it was by an imitator of Pisanello making use of Pisanello’s drawings, and the attribution to Pisanello was also doubted by G.M. Richter (‘Pisanello Studies – II’, BM , 55, no. 318, 1929, pp. 134–9). (Back to text.)
29. Van Marle , vol. VIII, 1927, p. 76. (Back to text.)
30. F. Bologna, Napoli e le rotte mediterranee della pittura, Naples 1977, pp. 41–2. (Back to text.)
31. E. Coletti, Pisanello, Milan 1953, p. XIX. (Back to text.)
32. A. Venturi, Pisanello, Rome 1939, pp. 20–2. (Back to text.)
33. Hill (1905, p. 62) saw it as earlier than the Sant’Anastasia frescoes, which he dated not later than the first half of 1438. (Back to text.)
34. Hentzen 1948, p. 13; E. Sindona, Pisanello, Milan 1961, pp. 32–3 and 120; idem, Pisanello (trans. John Ross), New York 1968, pp. 32–3 and 126. (Back to text.)
35. Paccagnini 1972, pp. 222ff. – a dating accepted by C. Tellini Perina, ‘Considerazioni sul Pisanello. La monografia di Giovanni Paccagnini’, Civiltà Mantovana, VI, 1972, p. 316. See also V. Juřen, ‘Pisanello’, Revue de l’Art, 27, 1975, p. 59. Dated 1440–5 by Stefano Zuffi, Pisanello, Milan 1996, p. 52. (Back to text.)
36. B. Degenhart, ‘Pisanello in Mantua’, Pantheon, XXXI, 4, 1973, p. 401; idem, ‘Pisanellos Mantuaner Wandbilder’, Kunstchronik, 26, 1973, pp. 69–74. (Back to text.)
37. See L. Syson, review of Paris and Verona Pisanello exhibitions cited in notes 6 and 14, in BM , November 1996, pp. 766–9. (Back to text.)
38. See exh. cat., Paris 1996 (cited in note 6), p. 469. The studies that relate to the Sant’Anastasia frescoes and to NG 1436 fall roughly into four categories: studies that appear to have been made with this specific painting in mind, studies that seem to have been taken from pattern books, studies in their own right, and copies of studies by Pisanello’s workshop. See Paola Marini in exh. cat., Verona 1996 (cited at end of note 14), p. 236. (Back to text.)
39. B. Degenhart, Pisanello, Turin 1945, pp. 34–6; R. Brenzoni, Pisanello, Florence 1952, pp. 159–61; Schmitt in Degenhart and Schmitt 1995, p. 227; see also Cordellier in exh. cat., Verona 1996 (cited in note 14), p. 286. (Back to text.)
40. Exh. cat., Paris 1996 (cited in note 6), cat. 194 verso, pp. 301–2; exh. cat., Verona 1996 (cited in note 14), cat. 40, pp. 264–5. It is generally agreed that this is a direct study for NG 1436. Maria Fossi Todorow (I Disegni del Pisanello e della sua cerchia, Florence 1966, p. 25) had felt that there was a discrepancy in style between the frescoes and NG 1436, despite their being linked by drawings, and that there was a discrepancy between these drawings and NG 1436; she suggested that the drawings might not be for NG 1436 at all but for the frescoes, despite the fact that the saint was described by Vasari as caressing a dog, since she thought that the central episode in the legend would not have been omitted – and she suggested that NG 1436 might derive from the lost fresco. This has been disproved by Eberhardt (see note 66 below). A number of studies used for the Sant’Anastasia frescoes relate generically, though not precisely, to NG 1436. The studies for the crucifix were used again in the medal (see fig. 23) of Domenico Malatesta Novello (exh. cat., Paris 1996, cat. 275, p. 399). (Back to text.)
41. Exh. cat., Paris 1996 (cited in note 6), cats 177 and 178, pp. 273–8. See also Cordellier in exh. cat., Verona 1996 (cited in note 14), p. 264. Cordellier observes that the pose of the hind legs of the horse was also used in the medal of Filippo Maria Visconti of c. 1441 (Paris 1996, cat. 127). He also notes (exh. cat., Paris 1996, p. 468) that a number of preparatory studies for NG 1436 (Paris 1996, cats 156, 169–71, 176, 178) share the same watermark, and that the paper is used for works datable to 1438–9 (Paris 1996, cats 114, 116, 137). They may also have been used for the medal of John VIII Paleologus (cat. 119) and for sketches related to the Council of Churches (cats 112, 113), and others (cat. 131). The drawing of the hindquarters (cat. 178) is tantalisingly close to the position of the horse’s legs in Dürer’s engraving of Saint Eustace (fig. 29). (Back to text.)
42. Exh. cat., Paris 1996 (cited in note 6), cat. 176, p. 273. Cordellier points out that the technique of the verso is the same as that found in the drawing of two bears (Paris 1996, cat. 185); see also below. He also relates another study of a hound to the painting (Louvre 2432: Paris 1996, cat. 190; Verona 1996, cat. 50, p. 286). (Back to text.)
43. Exh. cat., Paris 1996, p. 468, Group X. (Back to text.)
44. Exh. cat., Paris 1996, cat. 179, p. 278. As Cordellier points out, although the pose of the head is not precisely similar to that of the horse in NG 1436, the watercolour technique applied to the pen and ink drawing is similar to other studies for NG 1436, such as cats 176 and 178. (Back to text.)
45. Exh. cat., Paris 1996, cat. 170. Cordellier ( ibid. , pp. 92–3) points out that those critics who have associated a drawing in Vienna (Graphische Sammlung Albertina, inv. no. 4855) and one in the Louvre (2492) (Paris 1996, cat. nos 43 and 44) as studies for the deer in NG 1436 are wrong. (Back to text.)
46. Paris 1996, cat. 171. Cordellier rightly dismissed cat. 184 as having any direct connection with NG 1436. (Back to text.)
47. Paris 1996, cat. 185. (Back to text.)
48. Paris 1996, cat. 183. (Back to text.)
49. Paris 1996, cat. nos 181 and 182. Schmitt in Degenhart and Schmitt 1995, p. 208, points out that Vespasiano Strozzi praises Pisanello’s depiction of a hound coursing a hare as if he had NG 1436 before him – however, there were other versions of this theme, such as the copy of the Lombard drawing mentioned here. (Back to text.)
50. Paris 1996, cat. 192. Cordellier dismisses any direct relationship between this and NG 1436 and the Sant’Anastasia frescoes. He also rightly dismisses any connection between Paris 1996, cat. 175 and NG 1436. (Back to text.)
51. Exh. cat., Paris 1996, cat. 64, pp. 121–2. It is significant that among the studies which Cordellier notes as being on paper of the same orange colour and with the same format is one of the studies of a horse’s hindquarters (Louvre 2365: Paris 1996, cat. 177) that relates directly to NG 1436 (see above). See Cordellier in exh. cat., Paris 1996, p. 462, Group III. (Back to text.)
52. Paris 1996, cat. 169. (Back to text.)
53. Paris 1996, cat. 155. (Back to text.)
54. Paris 1996, cat. 168. (Back to text.)
55. Paris 1996, cat. nos 200 and 199. (Back to text.)
56. Paris 1996, cat. 154. Although no comparable bird appears in NG 1436, Cordellier points out that the paper is the same type as that of studies for the painting. (Back to text.)
57. Paris 1996, cat. 158. Cordellier considers it incorrect to see this sheet of studies as preparatory for NG 1436, but notes (p. 258) the similarity of composition, in the isolation of each bird, surrounded by foliage, with that of the birds and animals in NG 1436. (Back to text.)
58. Paris 1996, cat. 187. The attribution of the swan is debated. (Back to text.)
59. Paris 1996, cat. 190. (Back to text.)
60. These include Paris 1996, cat. nos 30, 55, 95, 144, 165, 172, 175, 180, 203, 205, 221, 235, 237, 247, 249. (Back to text.)
61. Varanini in exh. cat., Verona 1996 (cited in note 14), p. 39. It has been noted by several authors that the Pellegrini family would have been aware that in the Golden Legend , the literary source for the fresco, the etymology for the name George shows it to mean Peregrinus (= pellegrino = pilgrim) (Bauer‐Eberhardt in exh. cat., Verona 1996, p. 155; Cordellier, ibidem, p. 202). (Back to text.)
62. Paccagnini 1972, pp. 156, 219–20 and 222–7. In 1462 Lodovico Gonzaga was presented with a ‘tavoletta’ described as ‘opus Homeri pictorum’, thought to be possibly by Pisanello; D. Cordellier (ed.), ‘Documenti e Fonti su Pisanello (1395–1581 circa)’, Verona Illustrata, 8, 1995, doc. 79, pp. 172–3. (Back to text.)
63. Degenhart, Pantheon, 1973 (cited in note 36), p. 410, n. 95. (Back to text.)
64. For example, Bode and Tschudi, Jahrbuch der königlich preussischen Kunstsammlungen, 1885 (cited in note 27), p. 17. (Back to text.)
65. R. Chiarelli, ‘Due questioni Pisanelliane. Il Pisanello a Firenze e gli affreschi “perduti” della Cappella Pellegrini’, in Atti e memorie della Accademia di Agricoltura, Scienze e Lettere di Verona (1965–6), Serie VI, vol. XVII, 1967, p. 381. Chiarelli’s argument is based on the [page 324]supposition that Vasari mistakenly thought that the depiction of Saint Eustace was a fresco when in fact it was a panel painting, and that the painting was in fact NG 1436 because it contains a similar dog, and a hound turning back as if it had heard a sound. However, the subject is not identical, and it has since been shown that Saint Eustace was painted on a pilaster and presumably matched the now lost standing figure of Saint George (see note 66). (Back to text.)

Albrecht Dürer, The Vision of Saint Eustace. Engraving, 35.5 x 25.9 cm. London, The British Museum. © Copyright The British Museum, London
66. Eberhardt had argued that the figures of Saints George and Eustace were originally painted above the fresco of Saint George and the Princess (Eberhardt in Degenhart and Schmitt 1995, pp. 184–5). However, investigation of the intonaco showed that this was impossible, and in the interim Varanini discovered a nineteenth‐century transcription of a seventeenth‐century document describing the figures on a pilaster; Varanini in exh. cat., Verona 1996 (cited in note 14), p. 183, and Eberhardt, op. cit. , pp. 167–9). (Back to text.)
67. See Bauer‐Eberhardt in exh. cat., Verona 1996, p. 151. (Back to text.)
68. It is interesting that the immediate reflections of the painting are in northern works. The painting by the Master of the Life of the Virgin has been mentioned above (note 12). Dürer’s engraving of the Vision of Saint Eustace (see note 41) shows the hind leg of the saint’s horse raised exactly as it is in Pisanello’s painting. The iconography may have spread with the circulation of drawings. And Dürer himself visited Italy. If the Gonzaga provenance proposed tentatively by Marinelli (see note 77 below) is incorrect, which seems likely, then it is not impossible that the painting was taken north relatively soon after it was painted. It could be significant that the earliest certain record of the painting is in Germany with an attribution to Dürer. (Back to text.)
69. Paris 1996, cats 125 and 127. (Back to text.)
70. Petri Candidi Decembri, Vita Philippi Mariae (eds Attilio Butti, Felice Fossi and Giuseppe Petraglione), Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, vol. XX, part I, Milan 1731, chapters LIX and LX; and Vita di Filippo Maria Visconti (ed. Elio Bartolini), Milan 1983, pp. 110–13. (Back to text.)
71. See Cordellier in exh. cat., Paris 1996 (cited in note 6), p. 109. (Back to text.)
72. ‘picturae in tabellis ac membranulis, in quibus Hieronymus Christum cruci affixum adorans… et item haeremus in qua multa diversi generis animalia…’ (‘pictures on panel and vellum, in which Saint Jerome is adoring Christ nailed to the cross… and also [paintings of] a wilderness in which there are many kinds of animal’) – see under Bono da Ferrara NG 771, p. 57, note 20. (Back to text.)
73. Barstow 2000, pp. 169–77, esp. p. 176; see also Hill 1905, p. 68. (Back to text.)
74. Cordellier, Verona Illustrata, 1995 (cited in note 62), commentary on p. 38, verses on p. 41; commentary on p. 114, verses on p. 116; commentary on p. 138. See also B. Mesdijan, ‘Tito Vespasiano Strozzi et la peinture: un éloge humaniste de Pisanello, illustration de l’art du portrait’, Studi umanistici piceni, XV, 1995, pp. 145–57. I owe this reference to Dominique Cordellier. (Back to text.)
75. Oral communication. (Back to text.)
76. Martin Davies ( Davies 1961 , p. 442, n. 10) records a letter in the Victoria and Albert Museum from John Sheepshanks to William Smith, of 11 October 1851, referring without details to a Mr Finke (apparently of Vienna) who was sending an Albert (sic) Dürer for sale to England. (Back to text.)
77. MS catalogue in the NG Library. See also Bode and Tschudi, Jahrbuch der königlich preussischen Kunstsammlungen, 1885 (cited in note 27). Bode saw it in 1882 or earlier (letter from Burton to Layard, 14 June 1885, British Library, Add. MS 39038, Layard Papers, vol. CVIII). The picture had been attributed to Dürer and also to Fouquet. It has been suggested that it is identifiable with ‘un quadro di S. Eustachio che viene da Alberto Duro’ that was in the collection of Cardinal Scipione Gonzaga in February 1593 by Sergio Marinelli (‘Pisanello, mode d’emploi’, in Pisanello. Actes du colloque organisé au musée du Louvre, 1996, eds D. Cordellier and B. Py, Paris 1998, vol. I, p. 219 and pp. 229–30, n. 9), citing Alessandro Luzio, La Galleria dei Gonzaga Venduta all’Inghilterra nel 1627–28, Milan 1913, p. 18 (which should be p. 273). However, Lorne Campbell, who kindly read this entry for me, has pointed out that this needs to be treated with extreme caution, given that the cardinal collected works by Dürer, and that ‘che viene da’ implies a copy after Dürer, since the portrait of Giulia Gonzaga is described in the same letter as ‘di mano di’ Sebastiano del Piombo. For Dürer’s engraving of Saint Eustace, see note 68 above. (Back to text.)

Detail of hound and blank scroll in NG 1436 (© 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
- cartello/cartellino
- A painted scroll or piece of paper, usually bearing an inscription
- giornea
- A tabard or short tunic
- 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
Abbreviations
Institutions
- NG
- National Gallery, London
Periodicals
- BM
- Burlington Magazine, London, 1903–
Frequently cited works are given in abbreviated form throughout, as listed below:
- Davies 1961
- M. Davies, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, 2nd revised edn, London 1961
- Golden Legend
- Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend, trans. W.G. Ryan, Princeton, NJ, 1993
- Kaftal 1952
- G. Kaftal, Iconography of the Saints in Tuscan Painting, Florence 1952
- Vasari, Le Vite, ed. Milanesi
- G. Vasari, Le Vite de’ più eccellenti pittori, scultori ed architetti, ed. G. Milanesi, 8 vols, Florence 1878–85
- Vasari, Le Vite, eds Bettarini and Barocchi
- G. Vasari, Le Vite de’ più eccellenti pittori, scultori e architettori nelle redazioni del 1550 & 1568, eds R. Bettarini and P. Barocchi, vol. II, Florence 1967; vol. III, Florence 1971
List of archive references cited
- London, British Library, Add. MS 39038: Layard Papers vol. CVIII, letter from Burton to Layard, 14 June 1885
- London, National Gallery, Archive: letter, 23 March 1950
- London, National Gallery, Conservation Department, conservation dossier for NG1436
- London, National Gallery, Library: Ashburnham Collection, London, MS catalogue
List of references cited
- Barstow 2000
- Barstow, K., The Gualenghi‐d’Este Hours: Art and Devotion in Renaissance Ferrara, Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2000
- Bartolini 1983
- Bartolini, Elio, ed., Vita di Filippo Maria Visconti, Milan 1983
- Bode and Tschudi 1885
- Bode, W. and H. von Tschudi, ‘Anbetung der Könige von Vittore Pisano und die Madonna mit Heiligen aus dem Besitz des Cav. dal Pozzo’, Jahrbuch der königlich preussischen Kunstsammlungen, 1885, VI, 10–22
- Bologna 1977
- Bologna, F., Napoli e le rotte mediterranee della pittura: da Alfonso il Magnanimo a Ferdinando il Cattolica, Naples 1977
- Brenzoni 1952
- Brenzoni, R., Pisanello: pittore (1395 circa – ottobre 1455), Florence 1952
- Chiarelli 1967
- Chiarelli, R., ‘Due questioni Pisanelliane. Il Pisanello a Firenze e gli affreschi “perduti” della Cappella Pellegrini’, Atti e memorie della Accademia di Agricoltura, Scienze e Lettere di Verona (1965–6), 1967, Serie VI, XVII, 373–81
- Chiarelli and dell’Acqua 1972
- Chiarelli, R. and G.A. dell ’Acqua, L’Opera Completa del Pisanello, Milan 1972
- Coletti 1953
- Coletti, E., Pisanello, Milan 1953
- Cordellier 1995
- Cordellier, D., ed., ‘Documenti e Fonti su Pisanello (1395–1581 circa)’, Verona Illustrata, 1995, 8
- Cordellier 1996
- Cordellier, D., ed., Pisanello: Le Peintre aux Sept Vertus (exh. cat. Musée du Louvre, Paris), Paris 1996
- Davies 1961
- Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, 2nd revised edn, London 1961 (1st edn, London 1951)
- Decembri 1731
- Decembri, Petri Candidi, Vita Philippi Mariae, eds Attilio Butti, Felice Fossi and Giuseppe Petraglione, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, XX, I, Milan 1731
- Degenhart 1945
- Degenhart, B., Pisanello, Turin 1945
- Degenhart 1973a
- Degenhart, B., ‘Pisanellos Mantuaner Wandbilder’, Kunstchronik, 1973, 26, 69–74
- Degenhart 1973b
- Degenhart, B., ‘Pisanello in Mantua’, Pantheon, 1973, XXXI, 4, 364–411
- Degenhart and Schmitt 1968
- Degenhart, Bernhard and Annegrit Schmitt, Corpus der italienischen Zeichnungen. 1300–1450, 4 vols, Berlin 1968
- Degenhart and Schmitt 1995
- Degenhart, Bernhard and Annegrit Schmitt, Pisanello und Bono da Ferrara, Munich 1995
- Dunkerton 1998
- Dunkerton, J., ‘L’état de restauration des deux Pisanello de la National Gallery de Londres’, in Pisanello. Actes du collogue organisé au musée du Louvre, 1996, eds D. Cordellier and B. Py, Paris 1998, II, 657–81
- Eisenberg 1977
- Eisenberg, M., ‘A Late Trecento Custodia with the Life of S Eustace’, in Studies in Late Medieval and Renaissance Painting in Honor of Millard Meiss, eds I. Lavin and J. Plummer, New York 1977, I, 143–51
- Eisler 1989
- Eisler, C., The Genius of Jacopo Bellini. The Complete Paintings and Drawings, New York 1989
- Facio 1456
- Facio, Bartolomeo, in De Viris Illustribus, 1456
- Fossi Todorow 1966
- Fossi Todorow, M., I disegni del Pisanello e della sua cerchia, Florence 1966
- Grape 1976
- Grape, ‘Pisanello und die unvollendeten Mantuaner Wandbilder’, Pantheon, 1976, XXXIV, 1, 14–17
- Hentzen 1948
- Hentzen, A., Die Vision des heiligen Eustachius, Berlin 1948
- Hill 1905
- Hill, G.F., Pisanello, London 1905
- Jacopo da Voragine 1998
- Maggioni, Giovanni Paolo, ed., Iacopo da Varazze. Legenda Aurea, 2 vols, 2nd edn, Florence 1998
- Juřen 1975
- Juřen, V., ‘Pisanello’, Revue de l’Art, 1975, 27, 58–61
- Kaftal 1952
- Kaftal, George, Iconography of the Saints in Tuscan Painting, Florence 1952
- Kaftal and Bisogni 1978
- Kaftal, G., with the collaboration of F. Bisogni, Iconography of the Saints in the Painting of North East Italy, Florence 1978
- Levey 1959
- Levey, Michael, National Gallery Catalogues: The German School, London 1959
- Manteuffel 1909
- Manteuffel, K. Zoege von, Die Gemälde und Zeichnungen des Antonio Pisano aus Verona, Halle am Saale 1909
- Marinelli 1998
- Marinelli, S., ‘Pisanello, mode d’emploi’, in Pisanello. Actes du colloque organisé au musée du Louvre, 1996, eds D. Cordellier and B. Py, Paris 1998, 215–49
- Marini 1996
- Marini, P., ed., Pisanello (exh. cat. Museo di Castelvecchio), Verona 1996
- Meiss 1974
- Meiss, M., French Painting in the time of Jean de Berry. The Limbourgs and their Contemporaries, 2 vols, London 1974
- Mesdijan 1995
- Mesdijan, B., ‘Tito Vespasiano Strozzi et la peinture: un éloge humaniste de Pisanello, illustration de I’art du portrait’, Studi umanistici piceni, 1995, XV, 145–57
- Monteverdi 1908–11
- Monteverdi, A., ‘La Leggenda di S. Eustachio’, Studi Medievali, 1908–11, III, 169–229
- Paccagnini 1972
- Paccagnini, G., Pisanello e il ciclo cavalleresco di Mantova, Milan [1972?]
- Puppi 1996
- Puppi, L., ed., Pisanello. Una poetica dell’inatteso, Milan 1996
- Ricci 1908
- Ricci, C., Iacopo Bellini e i suoi libri di disegni (vol. I, Il libro del Louvre; vol. II, Il Libro del British Museum), Florence 1908
- Richter 1929
- Richter, G.M., ‘Pisanello Studies – II’, Burlington Magazine, September 1929, 55, 318, 128–39
- Salmi 1973
- Salmi, M., ‘review of G. Paccagnini, Pisanello e il ciclo cavalleresco di Mantova’, Commentari, October–December 1973, anno XXIV, no. 5, fasc. IV, 337–41
- Schlag 1998
- Schlag, Wilhelm, in The Hunting Book of Gaston Phébus, M. Thomas and F. Avril, London 1998, 33–6
- Sindona 1961
- Sindona, E., Pisanello, Milan 1961 (trans. by Ross, J., New York 1968)
- Syson 1996
- Syson, L., ‘review of the Pisanello exhibitions in Paris and Verona’, Burlington Magazine, November 1996, 138, 1124, 766–9
- Syson and Gordon 2001
- Syson, L. and D. Gordon, Pisanello: Painter to the Renaissance Court (exh. cat. National Gallery), London 2001
- Tellini Perina 1972
- Tellini Perina, C., ‘Considerazioni sul Pisanello. La monografia di Giovanni Paccagnini’, Civiltà Mantovana, 1972, VI, 305–17
- Thomas and Avril 1998
- Thomas, M. and F. Avril, The Hunting Book of Gaston Phébus, London 1998
- 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 1939
- Venturi, A., Pisanello, Rome 1939
- Zuffi 1996
- Zuffi, S., Pisanello, Milan 1996
List of exhibitions cited
- London 2001–2
- London, National Gallery, Pisanello: Painter to the Renaissance Court, 2001–2
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/0EAF-000B-0000-0000
- Permalink (latest version)
- https://data.ng.ac.uk/0E66-000B-0000-0000
- Chicago style
- Gordon, Dillian. “NG 1436, The Vision of Saint Eustace”. 2003, online version 1, March 9, 2025. https://data.ng.ac.uk/0EAF-000B-0000-0000.
- Harvard style
- Gordon, Dillian (2003) NG 1436, The Vision of Saint Eustace. Online version 1, London: National Gallery, 2025. Available at: https://data.ng.ac.uk/0EAF-000B-0000-0000 (Accessed: 19 March 2025).
- MHRA style
- Gordon, Dillian, NG 1436, The Vision of Saint Eustace (National Gallery, 2003; online version 1, 2025) <https://data.ng.ac.uk/0EAF-000B-0000-0000> [accessed: 19 March 2025]