Scenes of the Virgin; The Trinity; The Crucifixion:
Catalogue entry

Catalogue contents

About the catalogue

Full title: The Coronation of the Virgin; The Trinity; The Virgin and Child with Donors; The Crucifixion; The Twelve Apostles
Artist: Barnaba da Modena
Inventory number: NG2927
Author: Dillian Gordon
Extracted from: The Italian Paintings before 1400 (London, 2011)

Barnaba da Modena active 1361–86
NG 2927
The Coronation of the Virgin
The Trinity
The Virgin and Child with Donors
The Crucifixion
The Twelve Apostles

Dillian Gordon, 2011

Extracted from:
Dillian Gordon, The Italian Paintings Before 1400 (London: National Gallery Company and Yale University Press, 2011).

Egg tempera on wood, 82.0 × 60.7 cm

Signed on the step of the Virgin’s throne: barnabas · de mutina pinxit ·1374

The panel consists of four scenes and a predella.

Top left, the Coronation of the Virgin with music‐making angels who wear a pallium (stole): they are playing a bagpipe, a shawm, a double recorder, a fiddle, a lute, a portative organ, nakers (kettle drums), and straight trumpets.¹

Top right, the Trinity: Christ is shown within a mandorla on a cross inscribed ·I·N·R·I· (Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudeorum = Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews), supported by God the Father; above Christ’s head is a dove symbolising the Holy Spirit. At the corners are the symbols of the four Evangelists; each holds a book inscribed with the opening words of his respective Gospel (except Luke, who has the opening words of his Chapter II).² The mourning Virgin and Saint John the Evangelist are seated on the ground.

Bottom left, the Virgin and Child are enthroned on a simple wooden bench; two angels hold up a cloth of honour behind them. The Virgin’s halo is inscribed AVE·GRATIA·PLEN[A] [?] (Hail [Mary] full of grace); the scroll held by the blessing Child was once inscribed, but the inscription is now illegible. On the right are two kneeling supplicants; the woman wears a red dress embroidered with pearls and a golden crown, with a string of pearls in her hair; the man, dressed in a red cloak, is being presented by Saint Raphael Archangel, whose halo is inscribed SANCTUS·RAFAELIS.

Bottom right, the Crucifixion: Christ is on a cross inscribed ·I·N·R·I· and surmounted by a Pelican in its Piety. Angels carry off the soul of the Good Thief (Saint Dismas), devils that of the Bad Thief (Gestas). Mary Magdalene, dressed unusually in a blue cloak over her red dress, kneels at the foot of the cross. In the left foreground the swooning Virgin is attended by the Holy Women and Saint John the Evangelist; in the right foreground soldiers are casting lots for Christ’s robe. Below the cross are soldiers, scribes and Pharisees, Longinus, and a figure holding a sponge on a stick.

The predella, divided into two parts, shows the twelve Apostles, not individually distinguished except for Saint Bartholomew (fourth from the right), who holds a knife.

[page 21][page 22]

**Fig. 1**
Composite X‐radiograph of NG 2927. © The National Gallery, London

Technical Notes

Panel structure and condition

Total size, including the strip of non‐original framing around the edges, 82.0 × 60.7 cm at the base, 60.6 cm in the middle, 61.2 cm at the top. Thickness, including non‐original moulding, 3.5 cm.

The panel is made up of two boards with a vertical grain, with a central vertical join secured with four dowels, as visible in the X‐radiograph (fig. 1), indicating that the panel was always one piece and not the two wings of a diptych later joined together as previously thought.³ The X‐radiograph also reveals the remains of two hinges on the right‐hand side, approximately 9 cm from the top of the panel to the centre of the hook, and approximately 10 cm from the bottom of the panel (but nothing on the left‐hand side). This was therefore originally the left wing of a diptych, or possibly a triptych. The entire exterior surrounding moulding is not original, nor is the central vertical moulding; the internal horizontal frame mouldings, which are formed of gesso, are original.

The internal dimensions of the picture surfaces are all very similar: the Coronation of the Virgin 34.0 × 27.2 cm; the Trinity 34.2 × 27.6 cm; the Virgin and Child 34.5 × 26.8 cm; the Crucifixion 34.4 × 27.3 cm; the left predella 6.5 × 27.0 cm, and the right predella 6.5 × 27.3 cm.

The back is covered with a dirty layer of gesso. At the top and bottom are bands of bare wood c. 4/4.5 cm deep; along the top of the lower band the gesso forms a slight barb, which [page 23]suggests that two horizontal battens may have been attached to the back of the panel at some stage and the gesso applied subsequently.

**Fig. 2**
The seal on the back of NG 2927. © The National Gallery, London

**Fig. 3**
Photomicrograph of a four‐petal rosette punch mark in the Virgin’s halo in the *Coronation of the Virgin*. © The National Gallery, London

**Fig. 4**
Photomicrograph of a quatrefoil punch mark in God the Father’s halo in the *Trinity*. © The National Gallery, London

On the back is a damaged seal with a papal triangular fringed canopy with a ball on top, over two five‐point stars and some letters (fig. 2), a very rough cross in black paint, and two paper labels:

1. a purple label: Art Treasures 1857. Proprietor: The Lord Wensleydale
2. a small white label: For George Howard from Grandmama.

**Fig. 5**
Infrared reflectogram detail of the angel playing a portative organ in the *Coronation of the Virgin*. © The National Gallery, London

**Fig. 6**
Photomicrograph of the Child’s face in the *Virgin and Child*. © The National Gallery, London

Painting condition and technique

Cleaned and restored in 1971.

Examination with infrared reflectography (fig. 5) reveals a simple underdrawing in a liquid medium applied with a brush (similar to that in NG 1437, see p. 30, fig. 2, but less extensive). There are some changes to the composition, particularly in the Coronation of the Virgin, including changes to the left arm of the left‐hand angel holding a pole of the canopy, and the outline of Christ’s back, which was first drawn slightly further to the left and the figure made more upright.

The water gilding on red bole is quite worn.

The pattern of the punched borders around each scene consists of a row of outer dots, and a cusped arch tipped with a ring.

A four‐petalled rosette punch has been used for the haloes in the Coronation of the Virgin (fig. 3) and the Trinity and a quatrefoil punch for the halo of God the Father (fig. 4).⁴ The other haloes have been executed with a simple ring punch interspersed with stippling. The lettering in the haloes of the Virgin and Saint Raphael in the Virgin and Child has been achieved by stippling around the incised letters.

The mordant gilding is generally well preserved; for details see commentary on the individual scenes below.

The overall condition of all four scenes is generally good, although there are localised areas of paint loss.

Intensely coloured ultramarine dominates three of the scenes; it is less prominent in the Crucifixion, where the ultramarine of the Virgin’s robe has been mixed with a larger proportion of white. The flesh has throughout been underpainted with green earth (fig. 6). All the pink draperies have been painted with red lake mixed with white; there has been some fading of the red lakes and blackening of vermilion. Other pigments used include verdigris and lead‐tin yellow.

[page 24]

**Fig. 7**
Photomicrograph of the mordant‐gilded pattern of the cloth of honour in the *Virgin and Child*. © The National Gallery, London

**Fig. 8**
Photomicrograph of the mordant‐gilded crown threaded with pearls of the female supplicant Juana Manuel(?). © The National Gallery, London

The Coronation of the Virgin is the best preserved of the four scenes. Mordant gilding has been used for Christ’s and the Virgin’s garments, Christ’s crown, the pattern on the canopy and the supporting poles, the angels’ wings, the shawm, pipes, fiddle, lute, nakers and trumpets, and the rays below the kneeling angels. The mordant‐gilded portative organ and bagpipe have mordant‐silvered pipes. The crown being placed on the Virgin’s head was mordant gilded over the water gilding of the halo; the painted outlines of the crown are so abraded that it is now very difficult to distinguish.

The dark blue behind Christ and the Virgin is painted with ultramarine over a layer of very dark grey paint. Their robes have been modelled merely by applying mordant gilding to the ultramarine of the background. Examination under a stereomicroscope shows that the lining of the Virgin’s cloak was originally green, like that of Christ’s cloak, and has been repainted a deep red; the Virgin’s purple dress and the face of the angel at the centre of the group of three angels at the top left have also been repainted.

The robe of the angel playing a lute, now somewhat repainted, is painted with verdigris and lead‐tin yellow. The robe of the angel playing double pipes is painted with red lake and vermilion, some of which has begun to blacken. The angel playing a fiddle is dressed in pink made with a mixture of red lake and white with blue in the shadows (fig. 10). The robes of the angel playing a portative organ have been painted with ultramarine. The angel supporting the nakers on its back is wearing orange painted with red lead modelled with vermilion, which has begun to blacken. The angel playing the nakers wears a purple robe made of red lake and ultramarine with some white. The foremost angel with the trumpet wears a robe painted with lead‐tin yellow with red lake modelling, which has faded and is now very difficult to see.

In the Trinity mordant gilding has been used for the cloak of God the Father, the rays emanating from his mouth and around the mandorla, the feathering of the wings of Matthew and of John’s eagle, and the borders of robes.

There is a large loss in the foreground and in the robe of John the Evangelist. The dark blue mandorla is painted with ultramarine over a layer of very dark grey paint. The eagle, ox and Matthew originally had spotted peacock wings; the eagle’s were originally green with mordant gilding, but the green has gone brown and has therefore been repainted brown; the ox’s wings were orange with mordant gilding, and Matthew’s blue; there are no wings on the lion (Mark). The ox originally had horns; these are no longer easily visible on the picture surface.

In the Virgin and Child mordant gilding has been used for the pattern of the cloth of honour (see fig. 7) and for the borders of the garments of the Virgin, Raphael and the angels, as well as for the feathers on their wings and the crown of the female supplicant (fig. 8). The paint of the floor around the throne has almost all flaked off, and there is some damage to the face of the Virgin and part of the Child’s robe; the lettering on Christ’s scroll is abraded and no longer legible. The signature appears to have been written in ink with a quill pen.

In the Crucifixion mordant gilding has been used for the borders of the cloaks worn by the Virgin and the Marys, for the decoration on the garments of the two figures on horseback, and for the harnesses of the horses. Mordant silver has been used for the soldiers’ armour and weapons, and in some cases their tunics, and for the robe of the man standing on the right.

The paint of the foreground around the figures has flaked away. In the background the area around the cross of the Good Thief and around the figure in red hose at top left has been completely repainted. The pelican is very abraded but traces remain of her wing, of blood on her breast and of her chicks. There are losses from the devil’s head and from the faces of the souls of the Good Thief and Bad Thief; the eye of [page 25]the latter has been reconstructed, as has the right eye of the figure on a white horse, giving his face an uneven appearance. The figure in green seated on the ground, now holding a lance, must originally have been holding a sponge on the end of a stick; the area at the end of the stick has been completely repainted.

In the predella the water‐gilded background is somewhat rubbed, the left side more than the right. Saint Bartholomew’s knife and the pattern on his cloak, and the plain borders of the Apostles’ robes as well as the pattern on one of the sleeves, are mordant gilded. The halo patterns and palette are similar to those in the main scenes.

Iconography

One can only speculate as to what was shown in the supposed missing panel or panels: the scenes in NG 2927 seem relatively complete.⁵ They are arranged thematically in vertical pairs, with the Coronation of the Virgin above the Virgin and Child, and the Trinity above the Crucifixion. The plain wood of the bench on which the Virgin and Child sit, which clearly shows the wood grain, may be an allusion to the wood of the cross on which Christ is crucified in the neighbouring compartment and in the Trinity above that. It is relatively unusual to have the Virgin and Child enthroned in a subsidiary compartment, although there are Florentine and Sienese examples (see p. 38). Unusually, Christ’s hands in the Coronation of the Virgin have red stigmata.

The iconography of the individual scenes in NG 2927 is found in a number of other paintings by Barnaba da Modena. He painted several independent scenes of the Crucifixion similar to that in NG 2927;⁶ the figures of the Virgin and John the Evangelist on the ground, for instance, occur also in the Lavagnola polyptych.⁷

The pattern on the cloth of honour (fig. 7) behind the Virgin and Child appears to be based around an acorn motif.⁸ This is very common in large‐scale works by Barnaba from 1377 onwards,⁹ including the Coronation of the Virgin dated around 1374–7 by Giuliana Algeri on the basis of a stylistic comparison with NG 2927.¹⁰

Patron

It was suggested by Corrado Ricci that the kneeling supplicants (fig. 9) might be the Doge and Dogaressa of Genoa, Domenico Fregoso and his wife.¹¹ However, Franco Pesenti pointed out that this was unlikely since the wife of the Genoese doge would not have been shown wearing a crown. He made the more likely suggestion that they might be Juana Manuel ( c. 1335–1381), daughter of the Condé de Carrión, and her husband, Enrique II de Trastámara, whom she married in 1350 and who acceded to the throne of Castile in Spain in 1369.¹²

Barnaba da Modena painted two panel paintings that were sent to Spain, both of which also show two donors. One is a signed rectangular panel probably commissioned for the Manuel family chapel in Murcia Cathedral, built 1337–40 by Juan Manuel, the Condé de Carrión. It shows the Virgin and Child with the Annunciation, Christ of the Last Judgement and Half‐length Saints: in this painting the crowned woman dressed [page 26]in red being presented by Saint Clare had previously been identified by Salvador García de Pruneda as Queen Doña Juana Manuel, and the elderly man opposite her, being presented by Saint Lucy, as a posthumous portrait of her father, Juan Manuel (d. 1348).¹³ This painting was once joined with a polyptych showing Saint Lucy with Scenes from her Life, which is also signed and, additionally, is inscribed as having been painted in Genoa.¹⁴ Pesenti tentatively suggested that the kneeling man with a brown beard dressed in red and the woman also in red in the pinnacle panel showing the Crucifixion in the Saint Lucy polyptych, and evidently connected with the figures in the other panel, might be Juana Manuel and her husband, the identification being less certain, since neither figure wears a crown.¹⁵ On stylistic grounds the panel with the Virgin and Child has been dated to around 1370–7; Victor Schmidt has suggested that the two works are in fact an ensemble of an altar piece and an altar frontal.¹⁶

**Fig. 9**
Details of the supplicants: Juana Manuel(?), Queen of Castile, and either her father, Juan Manuel, or her husband, Enrique II,(?) presented by Saint Raphael. © The National Gallery, London

A slightly different, and probably less likely, identification of the figures has been proposed by Juan Torres‐Fontes and Cristina Torres‐Fontes Suárez. In the panel with the Virgin and Child the donors are said to be Juana Manuel and her cousin Don Juan Sánchez Manuel, Condé de Carrión and adelantado of Murcia (the highest judicial officer and representative of the king), painted for the Manuel chapel in the cathedral around 1372–8,¹⁷ while in the Saint Lucy polyptych the donors have been identified as Fernando Oller (magistrate of the city of Murcia) and his wife Juana Pérez, commissioned for the Saint Lucy Chapel around 1394–6.¹⁸

The crowned woman in red in NG 2927 (Juana Manuel) strongly resembles the woman being presented by Saint Clare to the Virgin in the Murcia panel, and the man kneeling in front of her may well be her husband, Enrique. He has a hood thrown over his head, and wears what appears to be a travelling cloak, identified by Pesenti as a pilgrim’s garb, and is being presented to the Virgin and Child by Saint Raphael, patron saint of travellers.¹⁹

However, if the man with Juana Manuel is indeed her husband, it remains puzzling that only she is shown wearing a crown. It is possible, despite the fact that he has a brown rather than a white beard, that this is also a posthumous portrait of her father, possibly commissioned earlier than the two works for the Manuel chapel, and that Raphael is there in his capacity as an archangel, introducing him to the Virgin and Child in Heaven.

Exhibited

Manchester 1857, Art Treasures, lent by Lord Wensleydale (provisional catalogue no. 300; definitive catalogue no. 46).

Provenance

Acquired by Séroux d’Agincourt, c. 1785.²⁰ By 1857 in the collection of Sir James Parke, Lord Wensleydale, who died in 1868;²¹ his widow, who died in 1879, bequeathed the picture to her grandson, George Howard, 9th Earl of Carlisle.²² Presented by his widow, Rosalind, Countess of Carlisle, 1913.

**Fig. 10**
Detail of the angels playing a fiddle, a lute, a portative organ and nakers in the *Coronation of the Virgin*. © The National Gallery, London

[page 27]

Notes

1. Brown 1984, p. 214, no. 34. (Back to text.)

2. Davies 1961, p. 45. (Back to text.)

3. Davies rev. Gordon 1988, p. 8. (Back to text.)

4. Although Skerl del Conte 2003, p. 84, note 45, says the six‐petalled rosette with a centre found in the Virgin and Child in Turin, signed and dated 1370, in the Virgin and Child in the Thyssen‐Bornemisza Collection, Madrid, and in the halo of Christ in the Last Supper of the Lavagnola polyptych is a rosette punch mark also found in the Coronation of the Virgin in NG 2927, in fact the punch mark is a four‐petal rosette (see fig. 3). (Back to text.)

5. The remote possibility that the Nativity and Flight into Egypt in Bologna, Collezioni Comunali d’Arte (see p. 31, note 3), were part of the same diptych or triptych would seem to be ruled out by their differently punched inner borders. (Back to text.)

6. For example, the Crucifixion formerly in the collection of Lady Jekyll, London, and now in a private collection, Milan, and, even closer to NG 2927, that in the John Herron Art Institute, Indianapolis, both dated by Alvar Gonzalez‐Palacios to shortly before 1374. He points out that old photographs of the Indianapolis panel show that before restoration it had a Pelican in its Piety, like NG 2927 (see González‐Palacios 1965, pp. 30–1). (Back to text.)

7. See Rotondi 1962, pp. 181–4, esp. fig. 62; also Algeri 1989, pp. 189–210, esp. pp. 189–91, for the Lavagnola altar piece. (Back to text.)

8. The oak tree is associated with both Christ and the Virgin (Levi d’Ancona 1977, p. 250). (Back to text.)

9. See Skerl del Conte 2003, p. 83, note 44. For example, behind the Virgin and Child signed and dated 1377, in San Giovanni Battista, Alba (see p. 31, fig. 6); the signed Virgin and Child in the Thyssen‐Bornemizsa Collection, Madrid; the Virgin and Child in the Duomo, Ventimiglia; the Madonna del Latte, formerly in San Francesco, Pisa, and now in the Galleria Nazionale di San Matteo, Pisa; on the robes of Saint Bartholomew and the supplicant bishop in the altar piece for San Bartolomeo del Fossato, Genoa, painted 1377–82; on the cloth of honour behind the Coronation of the Virgin in the ex‐Hurd Collection, New York (see also note 10 below), and on that in the Saint Catherine altar piece dated by Roberto Longhi around 1375 (see note 14 below). See also Simonetti and Zanelli 2005, pp. 9–17, where the date on the latter painting is shown to be not 1352 but MDLII. (Back to text.)

10. Identified by Algeri 1989, p. 194, and p. 204, note 20, as the signed Coronation of the Virgin with Saints Francis, Louis of Toulouse, Anthony of Padua and Beato Gherardo Villamagna described by Da Morrona as being in San Francesco, Pisa; she cites Da Morrona 1793, p. 73. (Back to text.)

11. Ricci 1913, pp. 65–9, esp. p. 66. (Back to text.)

12. Pesenti 1968, pp. 22–7, esp. p. 24. (Back to text.)

13. De Pruneda 1947, pp. 79–88. Illustrated in de Bosque 1968, pp. 150–2. See also Navarro and Albaladejo 1990–1, pp. 19–36, who note (p. 22) that the family were devoted to the Clare convents of Santa Lucia in Elche and Santa Chiara in Murcia. (Back to text.)

14. The Saint Lucy altar piece is inscribed: ‘Barnabas de mutina pinxit in ianua…’; the signature on the Virgin and Child painting is fragmentary. It was proposed by Roberto Longhi that the painting by Barnaba of Saint Catherine in the collection of Carlos Cruz, Santiago, Chile, had also originally been in Spain (Longhi 1960, pp. 31–3). (Back to text.)

15. Excellent colour illustrations after their cleaning are to be found in the exh. cat. Obras maestras restauradas 1993, esp. pp. 22–3, and p. 29 for the donor portraits. (Back to text.)

16. See ibid. , pp. 24–8; Schmidt 2009, pp. 211–12. (Back to text.)

17. Torres‐Fontes and Torres‐Fontes Suárez 1997, pp. 87–116. Don Juan Manuel’s will refers to the Manuel chapel as one of four chaplaincies endowed by Doña Juana’s father, but the authors believe that Juan Sánchez Manuel was responsible for it during the years he was adelantado; he is known to have imported some cameos and other items of jewellery from Genoa. The work would have been commissioned through one of the many Genoese merchants based in Murcia. See note 18 below. (Back to text.)

18. Torres‐Fontes and Torres‐Fontes Suárez, 1997, pp. 87–116, esp. pp. 101–3, suggest that the relationship between Oller and Barnaba da Modena and the acquisition of an altar piece like the one purchased for the Manuel chapel a few years earlier must have been established through one of the many Genoese merchants based in Murcia. In August 1396 two Genoese merchants, Polo Usodemar and Jacomo Catáneo, appeared before the Council to declare that they had brought from Genoa, and from other places, supplies of dyeing materials. The authors consider it not impossible that they also brought the altar piece commissioned by Fernando Oller from Barnaba da Modena among those goods. However, such a late date, even if largely painted by Barnaba’s workshop, is unlikely. (Back to text.)

19. Pesenti 1968, p. 24. (Back to text.)

20. Séroux d’Agincourt 1827/9, Storia dell’arte, IV, pp. 408–9; VI, 1829, pp. 394–5, and pl. CXXXIII. For Séroux d’Agincourt see also p. 464 of this catalogue. (Back to text.)

21. Seen there by Waagen 1857, supplement, Vol. IV, pp. 169–70. Waagen wrongly says that Saint John the Baptist is with the Virgin in the Trinity and that the donor is being presented by Saint Catherine. (Back to text.)

22. Label on the back: ‘For George Howard from Grandmama.’ George Howard was a painter and a Trustee of the National Gallery from 1881 until his death in 1911. (Back to text.)

List of references cited

Algeri 1989: Algeri, Giuliana, ‘L’attività tarda di Barnaba da Modena: una nuova ipotesi di ricostruzione’, Arte Cristiana, 1989, 77, 732, 189–210
Brown 1984, 1985, 1986, 1988: Brown, Howard Mayer, ‘A corpus of Trecento pictures with musical subject matter: [part 1]’, Imago musicae, 1984, 1, 189–243; ‘[part 2]’, 1985, 2, 179–282; ‘[part 3]’, 1986, 3, 103–87; ‘[part 4]’, 1988, 5, 167–241
Da Morrona 1793: Da Morrona, Alessandro, Pisa illustrata nelle Arti del disegno, Pisa 1793, 2
Davies 1961: Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, 2nd revised edn, London 1961 (1st edn, London 1951)
Davies rev. Gordon 1988: Davies, Martin, revised by D. Gordon, National Gallery Catalogues: The Early Italian Schools Before 1400, revised edn of Davies 1961, London 1988
De Bosque 1968: Bosque, Andrée de, Artisti italiani in Spagna dal XIV Secolo ai Re Cattolici, Milan 1968
De Pruneda 1947: Pruneda, Salvador García de, ‘El retablo de Santa Lucía en la Catedral de Murcia. ¿Quiénes fueron sus donantes?’, Boletín de la Sociedad Española de Excursiones, 1947, 51, 79–88
Gonzalez‐Palacios 1965: Gonzalez‐Palacios, Alvar, ‘Una Crocefissione di Barnaba da Modena’, Paragone, March 1965, 16, 181, 30–1
Levi d’Ancona 1977: Levi d’Ancona, Mirella, The Garden of the Renaissance: Botanical Symbolism in Italian Painting, Florence 1977
Longhi 1960: Longhi, Roberto, ‘Una “Santa Caterina” di Barnaba da Modena’, Paragone, 1960, 11, 131, 31–3
Navarro and Albaladejo 1990–1: Navarro, Cristóbal Belda and Elías Hernández Albaladejo, ‘Don Juan Manuel. Retrato de un principe’, Imafronte, 1990–1, 7, 19–36
Padfield et al. 2002: Padfield, J., D. Saunders, J. Cupitt and R. Atkinson, ‘Improvements in the Acquisition and Processing of X‐ray Images of Paintings’, National Gallery Technical Bulletin, 2002, 23, 62–75
Pérez Sánchez 1993: Pérez Sánchez, Alfonso E., Obras maestras restauradas. Barnaba de Módena: Polípticos de la Virgen de la leche y de Santa Lucía, Catedral de Murcia. Rodrigo de Osona: Retablo del calvario, iglesia de San Nicolas, Valencia (exh. cat. Prado Museum, Madrid, 5 October – 7 November 1993), Madrid 1993
Pesenti 1968: Pesenti, Franco Renzo, ‘“Barnabas de Mutina pinxit in Janua”: I polittici di Murcia’, Bollettino d’Arte, January–March 1968, 53, 22–7
Ricci 1913: Ricci, Corrado, ‘Barnaba da Modena’, Burlington Magazine, 1913, 24, 128, 65–9
Rotondi 1962: Rotondi, P., ‘Contributo a Barnaba da Modena’, Arte Antica e Moderna, 1962, V, 18, 181–4
Saunders et al. 2006: Saunders, David, Rachel Billinge, John Cupitt, Nick Atkinson and Haida Liang, ‘A New Camera for High‐Resolution Infrared Imaging of Works of Art’, Studies in Conservation, 2006, 51, 277–90
Schmidt 2009: Schmidt, Victor M., ‘Ensembles of painted altar pieces and frontals’, in The Altar and its Environment 1150–1400, eds J.E.A. Kroesen and V.M. Schmidt, Turnhout 2009, 203–21
Séroux d’Agincourt 1827–9: Séroux d’Agincourt, Jean‐Baptiste‐Louis‐Georges, Storia dell’arte dimostrata coi monumenti dalla sua decadenza nel IV secolo fino al suo risorgimento nel XVI (vol. IV, 1827, vol. VI, 1829), 6 vols, Prato 1826–9
Simonetti and Zanelli 2005: Simonetti, Farida and Gianluca Zanelli, eds, La Santa Caterina di Barnaba da Modena (exh. cat. Galleria Nazionale di Palazzo Spinola, Genoa, 21 April – 3 July 2005), Rome 2005
Skaug 1994: Skaug, Erling, Punch Marks from Giotto to Fra Angelico, Oslo 1994, 1 and 2
Skerl del Conte 2003: Skerl del Conte, Serena, ‘La prima attività di Barnaba da Modena: un ipotesi alternativa’, Arte in Friuli. Arte a Trieste, 2003, 21–22, 73–84
Torres‐Fontes and Torres‐Fontes Suárez 1997: Torres‐Fontes, Juan and Cristina Torres‐Fontes Suárez, ‘Los retablos de Bernabé de Módena en la Catedral de Murcia y sus donantes’, Academia. Boletín de la Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, 1997, 84, 87–116
Waagen 1854–7: Waagen, Gustav Friedrich, Treasures of Art in Great Britain: Being an Account of the Chief Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illuminated Mss., &c. &c., ed. and trans. Lady E. Eastlake, 3 vols, London 1854 (Galleries and Cabinets of Art in Great Britain, London 1857, supplement (vol. 4))

List of exhibitions cited

London 1989–90: London, National Gallery, Art in the Making. Italian Painting before 1400, 29 November 1989–28 February 1990

The Organisation and Method of the Catalogue

Sequence

The artists are listed in alphabetical order. Paintings are catalogued in chronological order under the artist’s name. Some artists are identified only as the master of a particular work, such as the Master of the Borgo Crucifix; others are known only through their association with a particular area, such as Pisa, Venice or Umbria.

Attribution

A painting is discussed under the artist’s name where the authorship is not considered to be in doubt. ‘Attributed to’ implies a certain measure of doubt.

Dimensions

Dimensions are given in centimetres; height is preceded by width.

Technical information and method

The paintings listed here, except Segna di Buonaventura’s Crucifix (NG 567), Spinello Aretino’s fresco (NG 1216.1) and Jacopo di Cione’s Crucifixion (NG 1468), have been re‐examined for this catalogue in the conservation studios. The paintings have been remeasured and examined with X‐radiography and infrared reflectography wherever possible.

The X‐radiographs were made using conventional X‐ray sensitive film sheets (30 × 40 cm, Kodak Industrex AA400), which have been scanned to produce 16‐bit mono TIFF digital images and finally assembled using software to produce a mosaic.¹ A complete survey of the paintings in infrared was made using a Hamamatsu C2400 vidicon system, equipped with a N2606‐06 vidicon tube, which is sensitive between 500 and 2200 nm (radiation shorter than 900 nm was excluded using a Kodak 87A filter). Where features of interest were identified these were then recorded subsequently, when it became available, with SIRIS or OSIRIS, the Gallery’s digital infrared imaging systems, equipped with InGaAs detectors sensitive between 900 and 1700 nm.² The paintings were examined with a Wild M650 stereo‐binocular operating microscope at magnifications between 6× and 40×. Photomicrographs were taken using a Zeiss Axiocam HrC mounted on the Wild microscope.

Occasionally references are made to X‐radiographs and infrared images which are not illustrated; this is because once these images are reduced to page size the information they contain is often no longer decipherable.

Technique and condition are discussed together since the condition of a painting is often, among other factors, the result of the techniques employed in its making.

Support

Descriptions of construction and carpentry are based on direct physical examination, infrared images and X‐radiographs. The support is assumed to be poplar unless otherwise stated. Where the wood has been identified positively, this is noted.

Medium

The medium of the paint is assumed to be egg tempera unless otherwise stated. For some of the works, analysis of the binding medium in paint samples has been carried out using Fourier transform infrared microscopy (FTIR) and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS), usually during earlier examinations or in conjunction with conservation treatment. The results are described in the individual catalogue entries and, where published, the reference is given. Some further analysis of samples from a few of the paintings has been carried out specifically for this catalogue.

Gilding and tooling

Information on gilding is presented before that on painting, in keeping with the order of execution. Mordant gilding and silvering are included in the discussion on gilding, despite being applied in the later stages, so that all the techniques of metal leaf decoration could be discussed together. The individual punches are described, but the reader is also referred to Erling Skaug’s catalogue published in 1994. The particular gilding technique used by the artists has generally been identified from examination of the surface of the painting with a stereomicroscope. In some cases samples were available from previous examinations and were re‐examined, or occasionally a new sample was taken, particularly where analysis of the metal leaf or investigation of the composition of a mordant was of interest. Where metal leaf has been identified, this has been confirmed with energy dispersive X‐ray analysis in the scanning electron microscope (SEM‐EDX).

Punch mark illustrations

Unfortunately, when printed, some photomicrographs that show depressions in a paint surface appear to the reader reversed. This is particularly disturbing with some images of punch marks in gilding which may seem to show raised pastiglia. This phenomenon is a result of the way the human brain interprets visual signals; expecting a pattern of shadows and highlights to have been caused by raised areas (which would be more usual in normal life), this is the message sent to the reader by the brain.

[page xxiii]

Pigments

Descriptions of the pigments for many of the paintings were available from earlier research carried out during the preparation for the 1989 exhibition Art in the Making: Italian Painting before 1400. Information also existed from studies of new acquisitions or from analysis carried out in support of conservation treatment. The paint samples that existed from earlier examinations were re‐examined with optical microscopy, SEM‐EDX and occasionally Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) microscopy. A limited number of new samples were taken to address specific questions that arose during the research for the catalogue. The surface of the paintings was examined under a stereomicroscope wherever possible at magnifications of up to 40×. At this magnification many pigments can be identified with a reasonable degree of reliability, and these examinations greatly extended the information on pigments and pigment mixtures in areas of the paintings that were not sampled, and enabled the observations from samples to be correlated with the appearance of the painting itself.

Comments

As full an account as possible is given with regard to authorship, companion panels – particularly relevant for altar pieces – subject matter, iconography, original location, date, patronage and so on. The compiler has tried to make this information accessible to the lay reader as well as to the art historian. Inevitably there is a certain amount of speculation, but it is made clear where an argument is hypothetical. For ease of reference the comments are given subheadings, but their sequence varies according to the requirements of the argument.

Notes and references

1. X‐radiography and the associated scanning of the plates and processing were carried out by the photographic departments of the National Gallery. For a full description of the process see J. Padfield, D. Saunders, J. Cupitt and R. Atkinson, ‘Improvements in the ~~Acquisition and Processing~~ acquisition and processing of X‐ray images of paintings’, National Gallery Technical Bulletin, 23, 2002, pp. 62–75. (Back to text.)

2. For more details on SIRIS see D. Saunders, R. Billinge, J. Cupitt, N. Atkinson and H. Liang, ‘A new camera for high‐resolution infrared imaging of works of art’, Studies in Conservation, 51, 2006, pp. 277–90. (Back to text.)

About this version

Version 3, generated from files DG_2011__16.xml dated 06/03/2025 and database__16.xml dated 09/03/2025 using stylesheet 16_teiToHtml_externalDb.xsl dated 03/01/2025. Entries for NG564, NG566, NG579.6-NG579.8, NG752, NG1139-NG1140 & NG1330, NG1147, NG1468, NG2927, NG3897, NG5360, NG6572-NG6573 and NG6599 marked for publication; citations for NG6583 altered to include update date.

Cite this entry

Permalink (this version): https://data.ng.ac.uk/0EB8-000B-0000-0000
Permalink (latest version): https://data.ng.ac.uk/0E6P-000B-0000-0000
Chicago style: Gordon, Dillian. “NG 2927, The Coronation of the Virgin, The Trinity, The Virgin and Child with Donors, The Crucifixion, The Twelve Apostles”. 2011, online version 3, March 9, 2025. https://data.ng.ac.uk/0EB8-000B-0000-0000.
Harvard style: Gordon, Dillian (2011) NG 2927, The Coronation of the Virgin, The Trinity, The Virgin and Child with Donors, The Crucifixion, The Twelve Apostles. Online version 3, London: National Gallery, 2025. Available at: https://data.ng.ac.uk/0EB8-000B-0000-0000 (Accessed: 29 March 2025).
MHRA style: Gordon, Dillian, NG 2927, The Coronation of the Virgin, The Trinity, The Virgin and Child with Donors, The Crucifixion, The Twelve Apostles (National Gallery, 2011; online version 3, 2025) <https://data.ng.ac.uk/0EB8-000B-0000-0000> [accessed: 29 March 2025]

Main image

Scenes of the Virgin; The Trinity; The Crucifixion:Catalogue entry