Jacopo di Cione active 1362(?), documented 1365; died between 1398 and 1400
NG 1468 
The Crucifixion

Dillian Gordon, 2011

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

c. 1369–70

Egg tempera on wood, 154.0 × 138.5 cm

In the centre Christ hangs on the cross, which bears a plaque inscribed ·I·N·R·Y· (Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudeorum = Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews). On either side angels carrying basins receive the blood pouring from the wounds in his hands and side, while the blood from his feet trickles down the cross. On the left (Christ’s proper right) is the Good Thief, Saint Dismas: he has a polygonal halo and two angels are carrying his soul in the form of a small child up to Heaven. On the right is the Bad Thief, Gestas: two devils hold a brazier above his head, and a figure on horseback is smashing his legs (John 19:32).

In the foreground the swooning Virgin is supported by Mary Magdalene, dressed in red, and three other holy women, while Saint John the Evangelist stands grieving nearby.

On the left soldiers are drawing straws for Christ’s garment.

On the right are various figures, presumably scribes and Pharisees, and several soldiers, including one with a shield marked ·S·P·Q·R· (Senatus Populus Que Romanus = the Roman Senate and People). One man holds up a sponge on a stick; he assuaged Christ’s thirst with vinegar. Ranged between the crosses in groups are soldiers on horseback, carrying banners marked ·S·P·Q·R· and spears. The figure on horseback carrying a lance and raising his hand to his face is probably the soldier who pierced Christ’s side (John 19:34), sometimes identified as Longinus. Opposite him, the figure in yellow on horseback has a blue polygonal halo¹ and is probably the centurion who recognised Christ as the Son of God (Matthew 27:54).

In compartments on the left are: at the top, Saint John the Baptist, dressed in a camel skin under his cloak and holding a staff with a cross; and below, Saint Paul, holding the sword with which he was beheaded and a book. On the right, at the top Saint James the Greater carries a pilgrim’s staff hung with a black purse decorated with a small cross, and a book; below him is Saint Bartholomew, carrying the knife with which he was flayed alive, and a book.

The predella, decorated with pastiglia in a floral design, with coloured glass beads resembling jewels at the centres of the flowers, contains five roundels with figures. From left to right: a female saint with a red cross and a book, Saint Martha(?);² Saint Bernard, holding an open book inscribed: Dic. Mat’/ domini si/ in ierusale/ eras qua/do captus/fuit/ filius/tuus et ui/tus. Cui / illa R/it / In ierusalem era/ quado/ hoc aud[i] [?]ui et gres[su] [?] (see below);³ the Virgin and Child; Saint Benedict, bearded, wearing a white habit and holding a book and staff (the small black hog, fig. 8, transforming him into Saint [page 43][page 44] Anthony Abbot is almost certainly a later addition – see below);⁴ Saint Catherine of Alexandria, crowned and holding the wheel on which she was tortured and a martyr’s palm.

The pilasters on either side are also decorated with pastiglia, and contain quatrefoils with small shields, no longer legible, with only fragments remaining of red and blue. The unusual three‐dimensional baldachin with cusped ogival arches has vaults painted blue with gold stars.⁵

Technical Notes

Panel structure and condition

For the whole altar piece, including the framing, the greatest height is 154.0 cm, the greatest width 138.5 cm.

Main Crucifixion panel: painted surface (cusped top) 108.0 × 84.0 cm, measured to the top of the painted surface in the central cusp, which is higher than the others.

Side compartments, painted surface (pointed top): Saint John the Baptist 49.5 × 13.0 cm, Saint Paul 51.5 × 13.0 cm, Saint James 50.5 × 12.5 cm, Saint Bartholomew 50.5 × 12.5 cm. There are simple mouldings separating these compartments, not included in the measurements. Diameter of each of the roundels in the predella 15.0 cm.

The X‐radiograph (fig. 1) reveals the original structure.⁶ The central panel is constructed of three pieces of wood, 3.0 cm thick with a vertical grain: width of left board (recto) c. 43.5 cm, central board c. 35.0 cm, right board c. 37.5 cm.

Visible in the X‐radiograph at the height of Saint Bartholomew’s chest are the traces of a hole left by the removal of what was probably a Y‐shaped iron fitting, reminiscent of a fish‐tail hook, which extended from a large hole in the right edge into the main panel. Also visible in the X‐radiograph is an empty dowel hole at the left edge, level with the top of Saint Paul’s head.

The predella is a horizontal board 2.0 cm thick, c. 115 cm wide and 21.8 cm high (including frame mouldings top and bottom), glued and nailed to the front of the main panel.⁷ Each of the seven domes of the baldachin is composed of a separate block of wood, hollowed out to form the vaulting, and glued and nailed to the front of the main panel. The cusps, their traceried edges and the ogival arches have been carved separately and glued and nailed in place. Most, if not all, of the finials, many of the drop capitals, much of the decoration around the ogival arches and probably all the finials crowning the domes are later replacements.

The pilasters are carved out of separate solid blocks of wood, finishing at the top with curving spire‐like shapes; their top finials and side mouldings may be later replacements. At the base of each pilaster a cube‐shaped section has been cut away at the back edge, possibly related to the installation of the altar piece on an altar block.

The backs of the domes and back of the panel have been painted a dark grey at a later date.

The panel has suffered significant worm damage and has some splits.

Painting condition and technique

Cleaned and restored in 1955–6.

The main panel, but not the predella, was covered with a layer of canvas before the gesso was applied.

In the main scene there are no significant changes between the underdrawing and the painting, suggesting that this complicated composition had been carefully worked out before underdrawing commenced. As far as it is possible to tell, the underdrawing is by a single hand: in the infrared images it is difficult to distinguish the underdrawing from the modelling in the flesh paint, although there are some obvious underdrawn outlines for the features and the hair (figs 2 and 3). The draperies have basic outlines with a minimal amount of hatching. Infrared reflectography reveals changes in all the saints in the side compartments. There were at least two attempts to draw each of John the Baptist’s feet before the final position was fixed (figs 5 and 6). The whole of his right leg under his cloak was underdrawn, although the cloak has been incised and was therefore part of the early stages of design. The hemlines and feet of the other three saints were initially drawn slightly lower. These lower positions were incised, suggesting that the saints were originally intended to be standing on gold, or more likely a sgraffito textile. In the predella there is a small change to the Virgin’s left hand, which was drawn lower down but then moved further up so that the Child could be shown grasping her finger.

Water gilding on a red bole has been used for all the backgrounds and haloes and the frame. The gilding is fairly well preserved, although with some scratches and repairs. The outlines between paint and gold have been incised freehand, [page 45] including the shoulders of the foreground figures with haloes. Straight lines (spears, crosses, etc.) have been incised with the help of a straight edge, and haloes with compasses.

At least seven punches have been used for tooling the gold: two or three ring punches and at least two simple dot punches. A five‐petal rosette (Skaug no. 402) has been used for the polygonal halo of the Good Thief, and a six‐petal rosette (Skaug no. 557) for the borders and around the predella roundels (fig. 4).⁸ The stippling in the pastiglia has been done with a four‐prong punch; a smaller four‐prong punch and a small ring punch have been used in the haloes. The lettering above the cross and on the banners is executed with sgraffito.

Mordant gilding has been applied with an extremely thin off‐white, milky‐looking mordant for the borders of robes, the pattern on Christ’s loincloth, the stars on the Virgin’s cloak, the decoration of the books, the decoration of Saint Bartholomew’s cloak, the dots on the yellow tunics worn by two of the soldiers, the diadems, the handles of the swords and the tips of their scabbards, the horses’ bits, and the lettering · S·P·Q·R·. The vermilion cross carried by John the Baptist has a mordant‐gilded handle. Saint James’s black purse has a small mordant‐gilded cross with a dot above the top arm.

Mordant silver, which has tarnished, has been used for helmets and chain mail, the tips of lances, Saint Paul’s sword, Saint Bartholomew’s knife, and the spikes on Saint Catherine’s wheel. Details have been drawn in black and the helmets have blue hatching over the silver.

The flesh has been underpainted with a pale green of lead white and green earth. In the Bad Thief’s flesh the darker flesh tones are brownish mixtures of vermilion, black, yellow earth and lead white, or sometimes a slightly greener hue made from yellow earth, black and lead white, while the lighter mid‐tones and highlights are lead white and vermilion. The Bad Thief is still alive, whereas Christ and the Good Thief are dead and consequently they appear less pink, with little or no vermilion present in the flesh tones.

The paint surface is in good condition, apart from a few scattered losses, and some discoloration of pigments. The lining of the Virgin’s cloak was green with a black pattern over mordant gilding and has now discoloured.⁹ Her dress is red lake applied directly to the gesso layer, and fading accounts for its patchy appearance. There has been extensive blackening of vermilion,¹⁰ which was used for the garments of Mary Magdalene and the priest raising his arm, for the soldier’s shield, and for the tabards, flags, blood and harnesses. In the predella the partly blackened vermilion of Martha’s cross has been considerably retouched from the handle upwards. Where the vermilion has been mixed with red lead or glazed with red lake it has been protected from degradation. The vermilion in the darker areas of the floor textiles in the side compartments has also blackened slightly; the lighter horizontal planes have been painted with red lead. Red lead has also been used for the Child’s garment in the predella.

The vaulting of the baldachin has been painted with azurite on an underlayer of black paint, decorated with stars painted with shell gold.

All pale blue draperies have been painted with a mixture of ultramarine and lead white, for example, the robe of John the Evangelist.¹¹ The blue harness of the chestnut horse to the left of the cross has been painted with ultramarine ash (poorer quality ultramarine) over the brown of the horse, which is a mixture of charcoal black, red and yellow earths, with lead white.¹² The cloak of the Virgin is painted with high‐quality ultramarine over a grey undermodelling.

The yellow cuirass and skirt of the dismounted soldier on the left has been painted with a mixture of lead‐tin yellow ‘type II’ (giallorino),¹³ yellow earth and yellow lake over a paler base colour of lead‐tin yellow and lead white.¹⁴ A bright green used in some of the costumes has been made with lead‐tin yellow mixed with azurite.

In the predella the small black hog painted over the white of Saint Benedict’s robe, and over the punching of the border, was almost certainly added at a later date (see fig. 8). It has not been incised, but neither has Saint Martha’s cross, while Saint Benedict’s staff and Saint Catherine’s wheel and palm have been incised. The lettering on Saint Bernard’s book has been inscribed with ink (see fig. 7).

Attribution and Date

NG 1468 was attributed to Jacopo di Cione by Osvald Sirén in 1917,¹⁵ but was catalogued by Martin Davies as ‘style of Andrea Orcagna’.¹⁶ Richard Offner and Klara Steinweg returned to the attribution to Jacopo di Cione in 1965, devoting a long analysis to the composition and the various hands.¹⁷ They perceived the lower zone with the standing figures as [page 48]forming a horizontal band (see fig. 9), with above them the four groups of horsemen, subdivided by the vertical crosses. They attributed to Jacopo di Cione the upper parts of the picture with the three crosses, the group of mourning women and Saint John; they attributed to a second painter the groups of horsemen, and the figures to the left of the mourning women and to the right of Saint John. The second painter they considered superior to Jacopo di Cione and close to the Master of the Ashmolean Predella. This identification was fully accepted by Miklós Boskovits, who dated the painting about 1370–5. Boskovits agreed with Offner and Steinweg’s division of hands with the exception of the roundels in the predella, which they had attributed to workshop assistants but which he attributed to Jacopo di Cione himself.¹⁸ Although Offner and Steinweg considered Saints Paul and Bartholomew close to Jacopo’s style but inferior in quality, they considered Saint John the Baptist and Saint James Major, and also the roundels with the Virgin, Saint Benedict and Catherine, of higher quality and close to the second painter. Offner and Steinweg suggested that, as in the San Pier Maggiore altar piece, a third person might have been responsible for the design. They drew attention to the similarities between the baldachin of the frame and the design of the throne in the San Pier Maggiore altar piece, and considered NG 1468 to date possibly immediately after that altar piece, which is documented 1370–1 (see pp. 52–91). NG 1468 is dated around 1368 by Gert Kreytenberg, who sees Jacopo di Cione as responsible for the figure of Saint Matthew in the triptych in the Uffizi, Florence, completed by Jacopo after his brother Andrea’s death in 1368.¹⁹

Offner and Steinweg showed that NG 1468 is based on Andrea da Firenze’s frescoes in the Chapter House (Spanish Chapel) of Santa Maria Novella, Florence, painted in 1366–8.²⁰ The composition appears to be an immediate response to those frescoes. Moreover, Jacopo seems to have eschewed complex punching after 1368, and the rosette punch mark (Skaug no. 402) no longer appears in his work: in the San Pier Maggiore altar piece the punching of the borders includes a rosette made up of individual rings.

In the exhibition catalogue Art in the Making,²¹ the division of labour is discussed, based on the differences in handling and application of tempera, particularly in the flesh painting, and accords largely with that described by Offner and Steinweg, and Boskovits. The painting technique suggests two hands were involved, although insofar as it is possible to tell, a single hand, also to be found in the San Pier Maggiore altar piece, was responsible for the underdrawing. The first and principal painter (see fig. 9), identified as Jacopo di Cione, uses soft brush‐work, and paints hair in broad undulating waves and hands with long, elegant but unarticulated fingers. He was responsible for the group of mourners under the cross, the figure with the vinegar‐soaked sponge, all three crucified figures, and most of the draperies, the full‐length saints at the sides and the half‐length figures in the predella. The second painter (the Master of the Ashmolean Predella; see fig. 9) achieves a crisper, more enamel‐like finish, the paint is built up more solidly, hair and beards are rendered with great precision, often with tight curls and ringlets, and the hands are more realistically articulated.

Subject, Design and Iconography

Martin Davies pointed out that the inscription on the book held by Saint Bernard (see fig. 7) is from the Liber de Passione Christi et doloribus et planctibus matris eius, ascribed to Saint Bernard:²² the full text is: ‘Dic mihi Mater domini si in Jerusalem eras quando fuit captus filius tuus et vinctus et ductus ad Annam tractus. At illa: In Jerusalem eram quando hoc audivi et gressu quo potui ad Dominum meum flens perveni.’ (‘Tell me mother of God, if you were in Jerusalem when your son was captured and overcome and led before Annas. Yet she [says]: I was in Jerusalem when I heard this and with such progress as I could I came weeping to my Lord.’) The ‘planctus Mariae’, as it was known, was a liturgical composition expressing the lamentation of the Virgin and her suffering at the foot of the cross.²³ Evidently in NG 1468 there is an overt link between the Virgin holding her Child, in the central roundel of the predella, and the sorrowing Virgin below her crucified Son in the main tier above.

Such a comprehensive depiction of the Crucifixion scene, with the Good and Bad Thieves, the mourning Virgin, the scribes and Pharisees, the casting of lots for Christ’s garments, the centurion Longinus, and so on, is rare in small‐scale independent Florentine panel paintings and altar pieces.²⁴ The schema of the Crucifixion suggests that a fresco scheme and an altar piece programme have been condensed into a single unit. The two tiers of standing saints are reminiscent of pilaster figures in fresco schemes as well as pilaster figures from altar pieces (here the pilasters are decorated solely with pastiglia). The predella has no structural function but is there in an illustrative capacity, to accommodate the five roundels: these could be interpreted as alluding to the type of half‐length figures to be found in a polyptych. Offner and Steinweg interpret the starred baldachin as symbolising Heaven;²⁵ it most closely resembles the actual vaults of a church, often painted blue with gold stars (and symbolising Heaven).

Original Function and Location

Offner and Steinweg thought NG 1468 too small for an altar piece and therefore considered it to have probably been made for private devotion.²⁶ Davies also thought it too small for the altar of a chapel and suggested that it could have been painted for a sacristy or private oratory.²⁷

The presence of Saint Bernard and Saint Benedict almost certainly indicates a Cistercian patron, as first suggested by Davies.²⁸ He linked the inscription on the book held by Saint Bernard with the altar piece of the Vision of Saint Bernard (Florence, Accademia) attributed to Matteo di Pacino,²⁹ which, as Laura dal Prà has convincingly argued, must have come originally from the Badia a Settimo, the main Cistercian foundation just outside Florence.³⁰

The Badia a Settimo itself cannot be ruled out as the original location of NG 1468.³¹ There was a chapel there dedicated to Saint James, which could explain the inclusion of Saint James,³² and a nunnery dedicated to Saint Bartholomew came under the Badia (see below). However, in NG 1468 the presence of two female saints in prominent positions in the predella, in the company of the Virgin and the two foremost saints of the [page 49]Cistercian Order, Saints Bernard and Benedict,³³ suggests that it is linked with a Cistercian nunnery, rather than a monastery.

Three female foundations in Florence and its environs were dependants of the Badia a Settimo: San Donato in Polverosa, San Bartolomeo and Santa Maria Maddalena di Cestello (de’ Pazzi) on the Borgo Pinti.

San Donato in Polverosa came under the Badia a Settimo in 1259.³⁴ There is no evidence to suggest that NG 1468 was ever there.³⁵

San Bartolomeo was founded following a bequest of Masino del Migliore, who in his will of 1352 gave land for a monastery of nuns under the Badia a Settimo to be established; its altar was consecrated by the Bishop of Florence, Andrea Corsini, in 1361.³⁶ If NG 1468 was commissioned for this nunnery, this could perhaps explain the presence of Saint Bartholomew.

However, the iconography of NG 1468 makes it more likely to have come from Santa Maria Maddalena di Cestello, which was founded in 1257 in the parish of San Pier Maggiore; it became Cistercian in 1321/2 and was placed directly under the Badia a Settimo in 1324.³⁷ Mary Magdalene is commonly found in Crucifixion scenes supporting the Virgin at the foot of the cross, but in NG 1468 she is particularly prominent, especially in comparison with the fresco in the Spanish Chapel from which the composition apparently derives. Moreover, the female saint in the left‐hand predella roundel, identified by Offner and Steinweg as Saint Margaret, may in fact be identified as Mary Magdalene’s sister, Martha.

The church of Cestello as it was in the fourteenth century (probably still as originally built in 1257) is shown in a rough drawing in the Codice Rustici (f. 19).³⁸ The drawing, which is datable around 1457, shows the church before the radical rebuilding of 1480 onwards; it was a simple rectangular building, with an oculus above the main door, a campanile, a walled courtyard in front, and a cloister. Alison Luchs cites a document showing that in 1323 the church had altars dedicated to Saint Mary Magdalene, the Virgin Mary and Saint Michael Archangel, Saint Luke, Saints Vincent and Nicholas, and Saints Benedict and Bernard.³⁹

If NG 1468 indeed came from Cestello, then there is the possibility that it was painted either for the high altar or perhaps one of the side altars dedicated to Saints Benedict and Bernard. The primary importance of these two saints to the church is demonstrated by the position of the altars dedicated to them in the fifteenth‐century rebuilding, where they were on either side of the cappella maggiore.⁴⁰ The presence of John the Baptist is explained by his being the main patron saint of Florence. The other male saints could be the name saints of nuns at the nunnery or of patrons contributing to the cost of the altar piece; the pilasters evidently once bore coats of arms, presumably those of the patron/s. It is relatively rare for Saint Paul to be shown by himself: generally he is shown together with Saint Peter. Near Cestello was the Ospedale of San Paolo a Pinti, which was founded in 1065 for travellers, hence perhaps also the presence of Saint James.⁴¹ In 1442 the nuns of Cestello moved to San Donato in Polverosa and the nunnery [page 50]was taken over by Cistercian monks;⁴² the church was completely rebuilt from 1480 onwards with an intensive campaign of family chapels, each with its own altar piece, at which time presumably altar pieces from the old church would have become obsolete.⁴³ It could have been then that NG 1468 was removed.

Luchs has suggested that NG 1468 might also originally have been painted for the Chapter House in Cestello.⁴⁴ The scene of the Crucifixion was canonical for the decoration of chapter houses:⁴⁵ it is possible that Cestello wanted a replica of the frescoes of the Chapter House of Santa Maria Novella, hence the dependent iconography. A fresco of the Crucifixion was commissioned for the Chapter House of Cestello from Perugino in 1493 and completed on 20 April 1496; it showed Saint Bernard and the Virgin on the left of the crucified Christ, Mary Magdalene at the foot of the cross, and Saint Benedict and John the Evangelist on the right.⁴⁶ This would presumably have rendered the Crucifixion scene in NG 1468 superfluous.

Cestello became a venue for the confraternity of Sant’Antonio della Notte, which began renting a site there for its meetings in 1490.⁴⁷ It is possible that NG 1468 was given or sold to the confraternity. The altar piece would have been suitable since the confraternity commemorated Saint Bernard of Clairvaux in its offices,⁴⁸ and this would also explain why the figure of Saint Benedict was converted into Saint Anthony by adding the small black hog, suitable for the dedication of the confraternity to that saint.⁴⁹

Exhibited

London 1877, Royal Academy, Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters, lent by Revd J. Fuller Russell (151). London 1989–90, National Gallery, Art in the Making. Italian painting before 1400, 29 November–28 February (7).

Provenance

Collection of William Beckford at Fonthill Abbey; stated in John Rutter’s Description of Fonthill Abbey of 1822 as having come from the Camposanto at Pisa.⁵⁰ Not in the Beckford Sale catalogue, Fonthill 1822 (sale not held); but in the Beckford and Additions Sale, Fonthill, 10 October 1823 (lot 34), as Andrea Orcagna, bought by Bentley (= Fuller Russell?). Collection of Revd J. Fuller Russell where seen by Waagen.⁵¹ Fuller Russell Sale, 18 April 1885 (lot 123), as Spinello,⁵² bought by Ash. Bequeathed by the Revd Jarvis Holland Ash, 1896.⁵³

Notes