The Madonna of Humility:
Catalogue entry

Catalogue contents

About the catalogue

Full title: The Madonna of Humility
Artist: Lippo di Dalmasio
Inventory number: NG752
Author: Dillian Gordon
Extracted from: The Italian Paintings before 1400 (London, 2011)

Lippo di Dalmasio c.1353(?)‐1410
NG 752
The Madonna of Humility

Dillian Gordon, 2011

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

c. 1390

Egg tempera on canvas, 110.0 × 88.2 cm

Signed: lippus dalmasij pinxit¹

The Virgin is seated in a flowery meadow; her blue cloak, lined with green, has fallen back to reveal her hair, which is covered by a transparent veil, and her red dress; a golden sunburst is on her shoulder. She is wrapping the same red‐coloured fabric as her dress around the Child, who rests one arm on her shoulder, the other reaching for her veil as they gaze into each other’s eyes. They are both surrounded by the sun in glory. Twelve stars encircle the Virgin’s halo and the crescent moon is at her feet. In each corner at the top are three adoring angels.

Technical Notes

Canvas structure and condition

Overall height 109.7 cm (left side), 110.0 cm (right side); overall width 88.2 cm. Painted surface: height 109.2 cm (left side), 109.8 cm (right side); width 87.5 cm.

The relined canvas is on a modern stretcher. The original canvas support is a simple tabby weave with thirteen threads horizontally and seventeen threads vertically per square centimetre.² It is formed from two pieces of fabric sewn together with a horizontal join, visible in the X‐radiograph (fig. 4) approximately 56 cm above the bottom edge. In the past it was considered that NG 752 might originally have been painted on panel and transferred to canvas.³ However, the identification of the join, clearly distinct from the repairs to tears (which are glued, not sewn), together with the overall pattern of damages, which is consistent with torn canvas and not split wood, make it likely that the original support was canvas. A restoration reported to have taken place in 1773 must have been a relining of the pieces of original canvas that had torn in four, and not a transfer from panel to canvas.⁴

Painting condition and technique

Traces of underdrawing are visible to the naked eye around the Virgin’s forehead along the hair line, in her veil and around her ear. No other underdrawing could be distinguished with infrared reflectography.

The paint surface is much damaged, with various losses, tears and wearing, the whole covered with a thick layer of degraded varnish. In particular the Child’s head is seriously damaged, due to a complex tear which crosses his face.

Circles for the sun, moon and all the haloes have been incised using compasses. The gilding of the haloes has been [page 277][page 278] entirely replaced with ‘gold’ paint and the black decorations have been extensively reinforced. In the Virgin’s halo traces of original gold remain, sometimes with traces of a translucent red glaze over the gold, within the black circles.

**Fig. 1**
Detail of the mordant‐silvered moon. © The National Gallery, London

**Fig. 2**
Detail of the flowers in the foreground. © The National Gallery, London

Mordant gilding was used for the sun’s rays, the stars and the sunburst on the Virgin’s shoulder and for the decorative borders of the draperies. Most of the original gold has been lost and, especially in the Virgin’s robe, repaired with ‘gold’ paint. The mordant gilding was applied over a thick white opaque paint, clearly visible in the X‐radiograph wherever it remains intact. The moon is almost certainly silver leaf, now degraded and looking blackish, applied over thick white opaque paint like that used for the mordant gilding (fig. 1).

The flesh paint is very thin and worn, exposing canvas threads which appear dark. As a result, thin layers of repaint have been applied extensively to disguise the damage. The Virgin’s cloak is painted with azurite; the paint has darkened because of a reaction between pigment and medium. The Child’s red drapery is painted using vermilion and red lake (and white). The blue background in the upper part of the picture has been extensively overpainted, but the lower part of the picture is in better condition. The flowers and plants are quite thickly painted over a layer of black (fig. 2), using paint which has sometimes dried with trapped air bubbles (fig. 3). The signature, placed between parallel incised lines, is immaculate with the exception of a slight repair to the ‘l’ of ‘dalmasij’.

**Fig. 3**
Photomicrograph of plants, showing air bubbles trapped in the paint. © The National Gallery, London

Iconography and Date

The moon and the twelve stars link the Madonna of Humility with the Woman of the Apocalypse (Revelation 12:1), who is described as ‘clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet and upon her head a crown of twelve stars’ (see also NG 3897, p. 311, and NG 4250.1, p. 148). This combination was, according to Millard Meiss, most common in north Italian painting, as was the placing of the Madonna of Humility on a flowered ground.⁵ The Madonna of Humility seems in north [page 279][page 280] Italian painting of this period to have been particularly common in paintings on canvas. At least three examples by Lorenzo Veneziano survive: in Santa Corona, Vicenza (repainted), in Santa Maria Maggiore, Trieste, and in Sant’Anastasia, Verona (once wrongly thought to be a fresco transferred to canvas).⁶ The Madonna of Humility seems also to have been a speciality of Lippo di Dalmasio, and he painted versions in fresco and on canvas throughout his career. A fresco in San Domenico, Pistoia, showing the Madonna of Humility before a large sun, with Saints Dominic and Catherine on either side with two lay donors, dating from his time in that city (see biography above), has convincingly been attributed to Lippo by Robert Gibbs.⁷ A detached fresco of the Virgin suckling the Child (fig. 5), somewhat repainted, is in Santa Maria della Misericordia, Bologna, signed and dated 1397;⁸ it is similar to NG 752 in the depiction of the sun and twelve stars (one of which in the fresco has become the star on her shoulder). An extremely repainted Madonna of Humility signed by Lippo and again showing the Virgin suckling the Child (Bologna, Pinacoteca Nazionale; fig. 6) is close in date to the fresco and, like NG 752, is painted on canvas, with a similar flowered ground, a large round sun, stars, and a crescent moon at the Virgin’s feet.⁹ Dating late in Lippo’s career, but still very similar to NG 752, is a painting on canvas of comparable dimensions (private collection; 118 × 97 cm) in which the Virgin suckling the Child is seated on a cushion on a flowered ground, with a round sun behind her and the crescent moon at her feet, surrounded by twelve stars and with two angels at each corner, with the addition of the dove of the Holy Spirit above.¹⁰ It is not impossible that this last painting has lost its signature and so could be the version on canvas with the Virgin suckling the Child, signed by Lippo and dated 1405, that is mentioned by the seventeenth‐century writer Carlo Malvasia as being in Bologna.¹¹

**Fig. 4**
Composite X‐radiograph of NG 752. © The National Gallery, London

**Fig. 5**
Lippo di Dalmasio, *The Madonna of Humility*, signed and dated 1397. Fresco, 140 × 105 cm. Bologna, Santa Maria della Misericordia. BOLOGNA © Church of Santa Maria della Misericordia Bologna. Courtesy of MIBAC – Archivio Fotografico Soprintendenza BSAE – Bologna

In the above versions of the Madonna of Humility, the Virgin faces to her right, looking out at the spectator and suckling the Child. In NG 752 Lippo has diverged from the iconography generally associated with the Madonna of Humility: instead of suckling the Child, the Virgin clasps him towards her, and instead of looking out at the viewer she looks down at the Child as he rests his arm on her shoulder and gazes up into her face. The gesture of the Child resting his arm on his mother’s shoulder, and the motif of the mother and child gazing into each other’s eyes, were both extremely [page 281]widespread in Sienese painting.¹² It was an iconographic tradition maintained by Pietro Lorenzetti, for example in the Virgin and Child in the Museo Diocesano, Pienza,¹³ and NG 752 is strongly reminiscent of paintings by the Lorenzetti brothers in both style and iconography. It is unusual for the Virgin to be almost bare‐headed, with her cloak thrown back: all other surviving versions by Lippo show her cloak covering her head in the traditional manner. In paintings by both Lorenzetti brothers one finds the motif of the Virgin’s cloak slipping off her head to reveal her hair covered by a transparent veil, as in, for example, Pietro Lorenzetti’s Maestà in the Museo Diocesano, Cortona, and Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s Virgin and Child in the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan.¹⁴ An entirely bare‐headed Madonna of Humility is that of 1423 by Gregorio di Cecco (Siena, Museo dell’Opera del Duomo), where the Virgin and Child are carried by cherubim and seraphim and surrounded by music‐making angels, giving the iconography the nuance of an Assumption, which was shown directly above; Gregorio di Cecco was a comparatively minor painter and he may well have been copying an earlier, possibly fourteenth‐century, prototype,¹⁵ which could also have been an influence on NG 752.

**Fig. 6**
Lippo di Dalmasio, *The Madonna of Humility*, signed LIPPUS DALMAXIJ FECIT. Canvas, 175 × 103.5 cm. Bologna, Pinacoteca Nazionale (inv. 786). BOLOGNA Pinacoteca Nazionale Bologna © Pinacoteca Nazionale Bologna. Courtesy of MIBAC – Archivio Fotografico Soprintendenza BSAE – Bologna

The Child in NG 752 is close to the type of Child found in Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s paintings, and Lippo’s style is heavily dependent on that of Pietro Lorenzetti, as exemplified in Pietro’s Pienza Virgin and Child. The elaborate looping of the golden border along the hem of the Virgin’s cloak is more commonly found in Sienese examples,¹⁶ and is very different from the arrangement of the folds of the Virgin’s drapery usually found in north Italian examples (see, for example, NG 3897, p. 307). It seems that Lippo’s experience of looking at Tuscan paintings informs both the style (insofar as one can judge it, given the poor condition of much of the painting) and the iconography of NG 752,¹⁷ both of which suggest that it should be dated shortly after he had returned to Bologna in 1387 (see biography above). Although Raffaella Pini, Daniele Benati and Simona Tosini Pizzetti date NG 752 to the early fifteenth century,¹⁸ a date between 1387 and 1397, probably around 1390, seems likely. Flavio Boggi and Robert Gibbs consider the form of the signature to indicate an early date, citing later versions where Lippo has changed his signature from the ‘lippus dalmasij’ of NG 752 to ‘lipus dalmaxii’. The difficulty with this is that lost versions dating from 1405 and 1407 are recorded as being signed ‘lippus’, one of them with ‘dalmassi’, while a lost version of 1388 had ‘dalmaxii’; if these records are accurate, then the variations are not a reliable indication of chronology.¹⁹ Boggi and Gibbs consider that NG 752 could have been painted before or soon after Lippo’s return to Bologna.²⁰ Its comparatively early Bolognese provenance (see below) suggests that it was painted in Bologna rather than in Pistoia.

Function

The likely seventeenth‐century Bolognese provenance indicates that the painting was probably made for a Bolognese patron.²¹ The fact that it is on canvas could indicate that it may have been a confraternity banner, painted for one of the Bolognese confraternities.²² It is more likely, however, that it was an altar piece.²³ Two altar pieces on linen (‘in panno lineo’), both now lost, are recorded as having been painted by Lippo di Dalmasio: one possibly temporary altar piece of 1393 with figures of saints and framed with wood, for the altar of San Petronio in Bologna, and one probably permanent altar piece with Saint George, the princess and the dragon, of 1394, for the chapel dedicated to Saint George also in San Petronio.²⁴ The prominence of the signature, less suitable for a banner and more customary on an altar piece, could suggest that NG 752 was indeed an altar piece. Moreover, the fact that the lower half is in relatively good condition argues against its having been carried in processions.

Provenance

In the Malvezzi Collection in Bologna in 1773,²⁵ and therefore presumably the undescribed picture owned by Lucio Malvezzi in 1678.²⁶ Recorded in 1816 in the Ercolani/Hercolani Collection, Bologna,²⁷ where it still was in 1861.²⁸ Purchased from Michelangelo Gualandi, 1866.

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Notes

1. Lippo’s more usual signature was ‘dalmaxii/dalmaxij’, but the Madonna of Humility of 1397 in Santa Maria della Misericordia has ‘lippus dalmassi’. The signature ‘lipo de dalmase’ on the small devotional panel (Bologna, Pinacoteca Nazionale), dated 24 April 1394, showing the Coronation of the Virgin is exceptional. For a list of signatures on ten surviving works and five recorded works, see Pini 2000, p. 343, note 49, and p. 344. (Back to text.)

2. Thread count by Rachel Billinge. (Back to text.)

3. Davies 1961, p. 297. (Back to text.)

4. It was retouched by Domenico Pedrini in 1773; see Filippini and Zucchini 1947, p. 160, referring to Oretti, MS.B 123 in Bologna, Biblioteca dell’Archiginnasio, p. 72. The passage concerning the condition is: ‘ma tutta volta in quattro pezzi rimessa in una nuova tela, il Betusti (?) la fece ritoccare al Sr Domenico Pedrini l’anno 1773.’ If the seam had been the result of the stitching together of the four fragments during restoration, rather than the original stitching together of two pieces of canvas, one would expect at least one other seam. (Back to text.)

5. See the fundamental study by Meiss 1936, pp. 435–64, esp. pp. 462–4, for the Woman of the Apocalypse, and p. 448 for the flowered ground. (Back to text.)

6. See Guarnieri 1998, pp. 15–24. Guarnieri (p. 16) suggests that it was an image particularly favoured by the Dominican Order. (Back to text.)

7. Gibbs 1989, p. 33, note 49, p. 165, and fig. 105a, with a note on the popularity of the Madonna of Humility in Pistoia (p. 165, note 45). See further Gibbs 1992, p. 173, dating the fresco to the late 1370s; Boggi and Gibbs 2010, cat. 1, pp. 129–30. (Back to text.)

8. See Rosalba D’Amico in D’Amico and Grandi (1985) 1987, cat. 7, pp. 96–7, ill. p. 97; Boggi and Gibbs 2010, cat. 14, pp. 140–1. (Back to text.)

9. See D’Amico in D’Amico and Grandi (1985) 1987, cat. 6, pp. 94–6, ill. p. 95; D’Amico 1988, p. 142; D’Amico in Bentini, Cammarota and Scaglietti Kelescian 2004, cat. 51, pp. 164–5; and Boggi and Gibbs 2010, cat. 10, p. 138. (Back to text.)

10. Benati 2007, pp. 14–18, ill. pp. 15 and 17. (Back to text.)

11. Malvasia 1678 (1841), I, p. 35. (Back to text.)

12. For example, Stubblebine 1979, II, figs 202, 204, 215, 227, 277, 383. (Back to text.)

13. Illustrated in the exh. cat. Duccio 2003, cat. 70, pp. 408–9. (Back to text.)

14. Illustrated in ibid. , cat. 69, pp. 406–7, and cat. 72, pp. 416–7. (Back to text.)

15. For this painting see van Os 1969, pp. 122–3 and Abb. 75. It has been associated with the predella of which NG 1317 formed a part (see Michela Palmeri and Andrea De Marchi in the exh. cat. Le Arti a Siena nel primo rinascimento 2010, cat. nos A45 and 46, pp. 130–7; also Gordon 2003, pp. 118–21). (Back to text.)

16. For example Meiss 1936, figs 5 and 6. For the iconography of the Madonna of Humility in Sienese painting see van Os 1969, esp. pp. 101–42. (Back to text.)

17. See Longhi 1973, p. 99. (Back to text.)

18. Pini 1999, p. 520, no. 79. Pini dates NG 752 around 1410, that is, among Lippo’s last works; she incorrectly gives the signature as ‘Lippus Dalmassi pinxit’; see also Pini 2000, p. 339, where she puts it with the Madonna of Humility in the Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna, as one of his last works. Tosini Pizzetti 2001, p. 59; Benati 2007, pp. 14–18. (Back to text.)

19. Boggi and Gibbs 2010, pp. 61–2, and p. 61, note 15. (Back to text.)

20. Ibid. , p. 132, and cat. 5, pp. 133–4. (Back to text.)

21. Meiss 1936, p. 438, and notes 13 and 17, points out that none of the examples of the Madonna of Humility in Bologna or Pistoia dates before 1350. (Back to text.)

22. Surviving paintings on canvas, including altar pieces and confraternity banners, are rare. See Villers 1995, pp. 338–58, esp. pp. 351–2, for NG 752; for various case studies see Villers (1998) 2000, passim. For the technique of painting and gilding of banners see Cennino Cennini in his Libro dell’Arte, trans. Thompson, Ch. CLXII‐CLXV, pp. 103–4; ed. Brunello 1971, pp. 170–5; ed. Serchi 1991, pp. 144–8. (Back to text.)

23. See also Williamson 2009, p. 152. (Back to text.)

24. On 4 March 1393 Lippo, together with Giovanni di Ottonello, was paid 28 lire: ‘Philippo Dalmaxii et Johanni Octonello ambobus magistris pictoribus qui pinserunt unam tabulam magnam sanctorum cum multis figures, cum coloribus et aureo fino in panno lineo, et cum aliis ornamentis circum circa de lignamine deauratis, positam et deputatam ad altare dicte ecclesie Sancti Petroni, pro eorum labore et mercede secundum informationem habitam de predictis ab aliis pictoribus libr. viginti octo’, and on 21 May 1394 Lippo was paid for an image of Saint George for the chapel of Saint George in San Petronio under the patronage of the Dieci di Balia ‘more consueto in panno lineo cum domicella, equo et serpente’ (see D’Amico 1988, pp. 137–51, esp. pp. 139 and 141; also Pini 1999, pp. 469–70). (Back to text.)

25. Oretti, MS.B 123 in Bologna, Biblioteca dell’Archiginnasio. Oretti appears to record NG 752 twice: on p. 71, ‘Casa Maluezi del Sig^r Luzio, un altra Imag^e della Madonna’, and on p. 72 (an addition to the first form of the manuscript), ‘Casa del Senatore Maluezzi’ with identifying inscription and the record of the condition quoted in note 4 above. Oretti in another manuscript, Bologna, Biblioteca dell’Archiginnasio (B 104, Part I), again appears to record NG 752 twice: on p. 54, in the Palazzo Malvezzi, Palazzo del Sig^re Luzio, ‘è incontro alla Chiesa de PP. di S. Giacomo’, he mentions ‘Una Madonna di Lippo Dalmasio’, and on p. 100, in the Palazzo Malvezzi del S^r Senatore da S. Sigismondo ‘Aggiunta di altre pitture’ he notes ‘Una Madonna col Bambino di Lippo Dalmasio’. See Davies 1961, p. 298, note 3. These manuscript references have not been checked by the present writer. (Back to text.)

26. Malvasia 1678 (1841), I, p. 36. He does not describe it, but merely mentions ‘una [Madonna] entro il Palagio del sig. Lucio Malvezzi’. (Back to text.)

27. Bassani 1816, I, i, p. 211: ‘Q. La B.V. col Bambino ec, m.f. di Lippo Dalmasio’. On p. 206 the author records that Conte Astorre Hercolani married Marchesa Maria Malvezzi da San Sigismondo, through whom some of the Malvezzi property passed by inheritance into the Hercolani possession. (Back to text.)

28. The picture was seen by Eastlake in the Ercolani/Hercolani Collection in 1861 (Eastlake Notebook NG 22/28 1861‐I; see Susanna Avery‐Quash 2011, vol. 1, pp. 564 and 565). It was no. 9 of an inventory of January 1861, Collezione della Principessa Donna Maria Hercolani in Bologna (inventory communicated to Martin Davies by the Avv. Ambrosini of Bologna; see Davies 1961, p. 298, note 6); recorded in the Hercolani palace by Crowe and Cavalcaselle 1864, II, p. 209. (Back to text.)

List of archive references cited

Bologna, Biblioteca Comunale dell’Archiginnasio, MS B.104: Marcello Oretti, Le Pitture che si ammirano nelli Palaggi, e case de’ Nobili della città di Bologna …
Bologna, Biblioteca dell’Archiginnasio, MS B.123: Marcello Oretti, notizie de’ professori del disegno …
Bologna, Collezione della Principessa Donna Maria Hercolani: inventory of January 1861
London, National Gallery, Archive, NG22/28: Sir Charles Eastlake, notebook (1861, no. 1), September–October 1861

List of references cited

Avery‐Quash 2011b: Avery‐Quash, Susanna, ed., ‘The Travel Notebooks of Sir Charles Lock Eastlake’, The Walpole Society, 2 vols, centenary edition, 2011, 73
Bagnoli, Bartalini, Bellosi and Laclotte 2003a: Bagnoli, A., R. Bartalini, L. Bellosi and M. Laclotte, eds, Duccio. Alle origini della pittura senese (exh. cat. Santa Maria della Scala, Siena – Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, 4 October 2003 – 11 January 2004), Milan 2003
Bassani 1816a: Bassani, Petronio, Guida agli amatori delle Belle Arti, Architettura, Pittura e Scultura per la Città di Bologna, suoi sobborghi e circondario, Bologna 1816, 1, 1
Benati 2007: Benati, Daniele, ed., Quadreria Emiliana. Dipinti e disegni dal quattrocento al settecento, Bologna 2007
Bentini, Cammarota and Kelescian 2004: Bentini, Jadranka, Gian Piero Cammarota and Daniela Scaglietti Kelescian, eds, Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna. Catalogo generale, Venice 2004
Boggi and Gibbs 2010: Boggi, Flavio and Robert Gibbs, The Life and Career of Lippo di Dalmasio, a Bolognese Painter of the Late Fourteenth Century, Lewiston (NY) and Lampeter 2010
Cennino Cennini 1932–3: Cennini, Cennino, Il Libro dell’Arte. The Craftsman’s Handbook, ed. Daniel V. Thompson Jr., 2 vols, New Haven 1932–3
Cennino Cennini 1971: Cennini, Cennino d’Andrea, Il Libro dell’Arte, ed. F. Brunello, Vicenza 1971
Cennino Cennini 1991: Cennini, Cennino, Il Libro dell’Arte, ed. M. Serchi, Florence 1991
Crowe and Cavalcaselle 1864: Crowe, Joseph Archer and Giovanni‐Battista Cavalcaselle, A New History of Painting in Italy, 2 vols, London 1864
D’Amico 1987: D’Amico, Rosalba, in Il Tramonto del Medioevo a Bologna. Il Cantiere di San Petronio, eds Rosalba D’Amico and Renzo Grandi (exh. cat. Pinacoteca Nazionale, Museo Civico Medioevale, Bologna, October‐December 1985), Bologna 1987, cat. 7, 96–7
D’Amico 1988: D’Amico, Rosalba, ‘Dipinti su tela a Bologna tra ’300 e ’400. Note su una tipologia artistica’, Strenna Storica Bolognese, 1988, 38, 137–51
D’Amico 2004: D’Amico, Rosalba, in Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna. Catalogo Generale. 1. Dal Duecento a Francesco Francia, eds Jadranka Bentini, Gian Piero Cammarota and Daniela Scaglietti Kelescian, Venice 2004, cat. 51, 164–5
D’Amico and Grandi 1987: D’Amico, Rosalba and Renzo Grandi, eds, Il Tramonto del Medioevo a Bologna. Il Cantiere di San Petronio (exh. cat. Pinacoteca Nazionale, Museo Civico Medioevale, Bologna, October‐December 1985), Bologna 1987
Davies 1961: Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, 2nd revised edn, London 1961 (1st edn, London 1951)
Filippini and Zucchini 1947: Filippini, Francesco and Guido Zucchini, Miniatori e Pittori a Bologna, Florence 1947
Gibbs 1989: Gibbs, Robert, Tomaso da Modena. Painting in Emilia and the March of Treviso 1340–80, Cambridge 1989
Gibbs 1992: Gibbs, Robert, ‘Pulchrior Aurora. A new Madonna of Humility by Tomaso da Modena’, Apollo, 1992, 135, 361, 171–3
Gordon 2003: Gordon, Dillian, National Gallery Catalogues: The Fifteenth Century Italian Paintings, London 2003, 1
Guarnieri 1998: Guarnieri, Cristina, ‘Una Madonna dell’umiltà “de panno lineo” di Lorenzo Veneziano’, Nuovi Studi, 1998, 5, 15–24
Longhi 1973: Longhi, Roberto, Lavori in Valpadana: dal Trecento al primo Cinquecento. Edizione delle Opere Complete di Roberto Longhi, Florence 1973, 6
Malvasia 1678: Malvasia, Carlo Cesare, Felsina pittrice: vite de’ pittori bolognesi del conte Carlo Cesare Malvasia. Con aggiunte, correzioni e note inedite del medesimo autore, di Giampietro Zanotti, e di altri scrittori viventi, ed. G. Zanotti, 1678 (Bologna 1841, vol. 1)
Meiss 1936: Meiss, Millard, ‘The Madonna of Humility’, Art Bulletin, 1936, 18, 4, 435–64
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
Pini 1999: Pini, Raffaella, ‘Per una biografia del pittore Bolognese Lippo di Dalmasio (1353 ca–1410)’, Atti e Memorie. Deputazione di Storia Patria per le Provincie di Romagna, 1999, 49, 451–529
Pini 2000: Pini, Raffaella, ‘Una committenza decriptata. La “Madonna Lambertini” di Lippo di Dalmasio nella Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna’, Atti e Memorie. Deputazione di Storia Patria per le Provincie di Romagna, 2000, 50, 329–50
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
Seidel 2010: Seidel, M., ed., Da Jacopo della Quercia a Donatello, Le Arti a Siena nel primo rinascimento (exh. cat. Santa Maria della Scala, Opera della Metropolitana, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena, 26 March – 11 July 2010), Milan 2010
Skaug 1994: Skaug, Erling, Punch Marks from Giotto to Fra Angelico, Oslo 1994, 1 and 2
Stubblebine 1979: Stubblebine, James H., Duccio di Buoninsegna and his School, Princeton, New Jersey 1979, 1 and 2
Tosini Pizzetti 2001: Tosini Pizzetti, Simona, ed., with Stefano Roffi, Fondazione Magnani‐Rocca. Catalogo generale, Florence 2001
Van Os 1969: van Os, Henk W., Marias Demut und Verherrlichung in der sienesischen Malerei 1300–1450, The Hague 1969
Villers 1995: Villers, Caroline, ‘Painting on canvas in fourteenth century Italy’, Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, 1995, 58, 338–58
Villers 2000: Villers, Caroline, ed., The Fabric of Images: European Paintings on Textile Supports in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries, London 2000
Williamson 2009: Williamson, Beth, The Madonna of Humility: Development, Dissemination and Reception, c.1340–1400, Woodbridge 2009

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/0EBE-000B-0000-0000
Permalink (latest version): https://data.ng.ac.uk/0E6X-000B-0000-0000
Chicago style: Gordon, Dillian. “NG 752, The Madonna of Humility”. 2011, online version 3, March 9, 2025. https://data.ng.ac.uk/0EBE-000B-0000-0000.
Harvard style: Gordon, Dillian (2011) NG 752, The Madonna of Humility. Online version 3, London: National Gallery, 2025. Available at: https://data.ng.ac.uk/0EBE-000B-0000-0000 (Accessed: 19 April 2025).
MHRA style: Gordon, Dillian, NG 752, The Madonna of Humility (National Gallery, 2011; online version 3, 2025) <https://data.ng.ac.uk/0EBE-000B-0000-0000> [accessed: 19 April 2025]

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The Madonna of Humility:Catalogue entry