Giovanni di Nicola, 'Saint Anthony Abbot', about 1350
About the work
Overview
A fierce-looking old man with a fantastically curled beard glowers from a gilded background. He wears a monastic habit (a long, loose garment) – this is Anthony Abbot, the founder of Christian monasticism. He almost certainly once formed part of a polyptych (a multi-panelled altarpiece) and was probably placed on the left of a central panel of the Virgin and Child.
The saint leans on a wooden staff in the shape of a tau-cross (a cross shaped like the letter T), his attribute. The Hospitallers of Saint Anthony, who looked after people affected by skin diseases, wore black robes decorated with a blue tau-cross. He holds a bound book with blue clasps, which has been rotated so we see it from an acute angle, giving an illusion of depth. The studs on the binding were drawn in but never painted.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- Saint Anthony Abbot
- Artist
- Giovanni di Nicola
- Artist dates
- documented 1326; died 1363-5
- Date made
- about 1350
- Medium and support
- egg tempera on wood
- Dimensions
- 61.5 × 36 cm
- Acquisition credit
- Presented by Henry Wagner, 1924
- Inventory number
- NG3896
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Frame
- 14th-century Pisan Frame with Later Interventions (original frame)
Provenance
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Dillian Gordon, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Italian Paintings before 1400’, London 2011; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Bibliography
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1893H.A. Grueber and I. Spielmann, Exhibition of Early Italian Art from 1300 to 1550, (exh. cat. New Gallery, 1893-94), London 1893
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1951Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, London 1951
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1958E. Carli, Pittura pisana del Trecento, 2 vols, Milan 1958
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1961M. Davies, The Earlier Italian Schools, 2nd edn, London 1961
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1973M. Boskovits, Pittura umbra e marchigiana fra Medioevo e Rinascimento, Florence 1973
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1973F. Bisogni, 'Una rara scena della leggenda di S. Andrea di Niccolò di Pietro Gerini', Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, XVII, 1973, pp. 195-200
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1973E. Carli, 'Una Madonna inedita di Giovanni di Nicola da Pisa', Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, XVII, 1973, pp. 223-38
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1975E. Skaug, 'The Saint Anthony Abbot ascribed to Bartolo di Fredi in the National Gallery, London', Acta ad Archaeologiam et Artium Historiam Perinentia (Institutum Romanum Norvegiae), VI, 1975, pp. 141-50
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1986Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, revised edn, London 1986
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1988Gordon, Dillian, National Gallery Catalogues: The Early Italian Schools before 1400, revised edn, London 1988
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1994E.S. Skaug, Punch Marks from Giotto to Fra Angelico: Attribution, Chronology and Workshop Relationships in Tuscan Panel Painting, With Particular Consideration to Florence c.1330-1430, Oslo 1994
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2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
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2011Gordon, Dillian, National Gallery Catalogues: The Italian Paintings before 1400, London 2011
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.