Jacopo di Cione and workshop, 'The Trinity: Central Pinnacle Panel', 1370-1
About the work
Overview
This was once the central and uppermost part of a multi-panelled altarpiece, made for the church of San Pier Maggiore in Florence. Although it would have been displayed very high, right at the top of this large altarpiece, the limited colours, bold shapes and simple design mean it would have been visible and legible to those standing below.
The image shows God the Father making a blessing gesture and holding the Cross upon which hangs the crucified Christ, his son; between them is the Holy Ghost in the form of a dove.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- The Trinity: Central Pinnacle Panel
- Artist
- Jacopo di Cione and workshop
- Artist dates
- documented 1365; died 1398 -1400
- Part of the series
- The San Pier Maggiore Altarpiece
- Date made
- 1370-1
- Medium and support
- egg tempera on wood
- Dimensions
- 89.2 × 40 cm
- Acquisition credit
- Bought, 1857
- Inventory number
- NG570
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
Provenance
High altarpiece of San Pier Maggiore, Florence, convent of Benedictine nuns, in 1371. It seems it was no longer on the high altar in 1566. Seen in San Pier Maggiore in 1568 by Vasari, who ascribed it to Orcagna: ‘in san Pier Maggiore in una tavola assai grande l’Incoronazione di nostra Donna’. By 1677 it was in the Della Rena family chapel in San Pier Maggiore when it was recorded there by Bocchi/Cinelli and then by Richa in 1754. The church of San Pier Maggiore was in a ruinous state in 1783, and its suppression was ordered by Duke Leopold in 1784; the contents of the church were dispersed and all the altarpieces from family chapels removed by the patronal families: the altarpiece in the Della Rena chapel was removed by Marchese Roberto Pucci, who had the patronage of the chapel, the Della Rena line being extinct. Acquired in 1846 from Marchese Roberto Pucci by Francesco Lombardi and Ugo Baldi. Purchased with most of the rest of the Lombardi-Baldi Collection, 1857.
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.
Exhibition history
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2015Visions of Paradise: Botticini's Palmieri AltarpieceThe National Gallery (London)4 November 2015 - 14 February 2016
Bibliography
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1677F. Bocchi and G. Cinelli, Le bellezze della città di Fiorenza, dove a pieno di pittvra di scvltvra di sacri templi di palazzi, i piu notabili artifizj, e piu preziosi si contengono, Florence 1677
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1754G. Richa, Notizie istoriche delle chiese fiorentine, 10 vols, Florence 1754
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1845F. Moisè, Santa Croce di Firenze: Illustrazione storico-artistica, con note e copiosi documenti inediti, Florence 1845
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1854G. Milanesi, Documenti per la storia dell'arte senese, 3 vols, Siena 1854
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1859R.N. Wornum, Descriptive and Historical Catalogue of the Pictures in the National Gallery with Biographical Notices of the Painters: Foreign Schools, 29th edn, London 1859
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1878G. Vasari, Le vite de'più eccellenti pittori, scultori ed architettori: Con nuove annotazioni e commenti di Gaetano Milanesi, ed. G. Milanesi, 8 vols, Florence 1878
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1887M.-F. Reiset, Une visite à la Galerie nationale de Londres, 2nd revised edn, Rapilly 1887
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1930R. Offner and K. Steinweg, A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting, 8 vols, New York 1930
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1940W. Paatz and E.V. Paatz, Die Kirchen von Florenz: Ein hunstgeschichtliches Handbuch: S. Miniato al Monte, 5 vols, Frankfurt am Main 1940
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1945H.D. Gronau, 'The San Pier Maggiore Altarpiece: A Reconstruction', The Burlington Magazine, LXXXVI, 1945, pp. 139-44
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1947R. Offner, 'A Florentine Panel in Providence and a Famous Altarpiece', Studies, 1947, pp. 43-61
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1951Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, London 1951
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1979C. Gardner von Teuffel, 'The Buttressed Altarpiece: A Forgotten Aspect of Tuscan Fourteenth-Century Altarpiece Design', Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen, XXI, 1979, pp. 21-65
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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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1988National Gallery, 'Pictures Cleaned and Restored in the Conservation Department of the National Gallery, 1987', National Gallery Technical Bulletin, XII, 1988
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1989National Gallery, 'Pictures Cleaned and Restored in the Conservation Department of the National Gallery, January 1989 – October 1992', National Gallery Technical Bulletin, XIV, 1993, pp. 95-6
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1989D. Bomford et al., Italian Painting before 1400 (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 29 November 1989 - 28 February 1990), London 1989
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1991M. Finch, 'Petrine Landmarks in Two Predella Panels by Jacopo di Cione', Artibus et historiae, XII/23, 1991, pp. 67-82
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1993R. White and J. Pilc, 'Analyses of Paint Media', National Gallery Technical Bulletin, XIV, 1993, pp. 86-94
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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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1994A. Thomas, An Illustrated Dictionary of Narrative Painting, London 1994
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1995D. Norman, '"Hail most Saintly Lady": Change and Continuity in Marian Altarpieces', in D. Norman (ed.), Siena, Florence and Padua: Art, Society and Religion, 1280-1400, New Haven 1995, vol. 2, pp. 195-215
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2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
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2007J.R. Sale, 'Birds of a Feather: The Medici "Adoration" Tondo in Washington', The Burlington Magazine, CXLIX/1246, 2007, pp. 4-15
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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.
Images
About the series: The San Pier Maggiore Altarpiece
Jacopo di Cione and workshop, 'The Coronation of the Virgin: Central Main Tier Panel', 1370-1
Overview
These images come from a large, four-tiered altarpiece created for the high altar of the choir of the church of San Pier Maggiore in Florence. It was made up of a number of separate panels, most of which are now in the National Gallery’s collection.
Although only the facade of the church remains today, it was one of the oldest and most important religious institutions in Florence when this altarpiece was made. It was founded by the first bishop of Florence, Saint Zenobius, in the fifth century. The picture formed the backdrop to one of the ceremonies relating to the ordination of each bishop of Florence until the late sixteenth century.
The altarpiece was most probably commissioned by the wealthy Florentine Albizzi family and many of its saints relate to their family or their trade as wool merchants. The central images showed the coronation of the Virgin by Christ surrounded by adoring saints – a highly popular image in Florence.
Works in the series
Jacopo di Cione and workshop
This is the central panel of a large altarpiece made for the church of San Pier Maggiore, Florence. Christ crowns the Virgin, after her body and soul have been taken up to heaven. This was an important moment: it established the Virgin’s role as an intercessor to whom believers could address thei...
Not on display
Jacopo di Cione and workshop
The saints arranged here neatly in rows are looking towards the central panel of the complex, four-tiered altarpiece that this picture comes from, which shows Christ crowning the Virgin Mary. This scene is mirrored on a panel on the other side of the central image. Together, these three panels to...
Not on display
Jacopo di Cione and workshop
The saints arranged neatly in rows look towards the central panel – which shows Christ crowning the Virgin Mary – of the four-tiered altarpiece that this picture comes from. A panel on the other side of the central image mirrors the scene here. Together, these three panels formed the main level o...
Not on display
Jacopo di Cione and workshop
This was once the central and uppermost part of a multi-panelled altarpiece, made for the church of San Pier Maggiore in Florence. Although it would have been displayed very high, right at the top of this large altarpiece, the limited colours, bold shapes and simple design mean it would have been...
Not on display
Jacopo di Cione and workshop
This is one of two panels, almost mirror images of each other, that flank either side of the central and uppermost panel of the large altarpiece made for the church of San Pier Maggiore, Florence.Gathered together against a completely gold backdrop representing heaven are groups of angelic beings...
Not on display
Jacopo di Cione and workshop
This is one of two panels, almost mirror images of one another, that flank either side of the central and uppermost panel of the large altarpiece made for the church of San Pier Maggiore, Florence.Gathered together against a completely gold backdrop representing heaven are groups of angelic being...
Not on display
Jacopo di Cione and workshop
This panel was the first in a series showing scenes from Christ’s life, the Resurrection and his ascension to heaven and was part of a four-tiered altarpiece made for the Florentine church of San Pier Maggiore. These panels sat above the main tier of images showing the heavenly coronation of the...
Not on display
Jacopo di Cione and workshop
This panel is the second in a series of scenes of the life of Christ, part of a multi-panelled altarpiece made for the church of San Pier Maggiore, Florence. This sequence ran above the altarpiece’s main tier, which showed the coronation of the Virgin surrounded by adoring saints.We see three kin...
Not on display
Jacopo di Cione and workshop
The Roman soldiers who have been posted to guard Christ’s tomb from grave robbers have fallen asleep. Christ has risen from his grave and is shown above his tomb holding a white flag with a red cross, a symbol of the Resurrection. The lid of the tomb is still closed, emphasising the miracle of th...
Not on display
Jacopo di Cione and workshop
This panel comes from an altarpiece made for the church of San Pier Maggiore in Florence, and belongs to a sequence of narrative scenes showing events from Christ’s birth, the Resurrection and his ascension to heaven. They appeared above the three panels of the main tier, which show the coronatio...
Not on display
Jacopo di Cione and workshop
This panel, which comes from an altarpiece made for the church of San Pier Maggiore in Florence, belongs to a sequence of narrative scenes showing events from Christ’s birth, the Resurrection and Ascension. These sat above the three panels of the main tier showing the coronation of the Virgin sur...
Not on display
Jacopo di Cione and workshop
At Pentecost, after Christ’s death, his disciples were imbued with the Holy Ghost, shown here as a dove. Tongues of fire appeared on their heads and they were able to speak multiple languages.The disciples are seated in a circle in the upper storey of a house, with the Virgin Mary and Saint Peter...
Not on display
More works by Jacopo di Cione
(Showing 6 of 8 works)
This picture is unusual in Italian painting of this period in showing so much detail from the Gospel accounts of Christ’s crucifixion in one relatively small panel. Such images were usually reserved for large wall paintings. Christ is shown on the Cross between the two thieves who were crucified...
Not on display
Probably by Jacopo di Cione
This small picture shows Jesus Christ meeting Mary Magdalene after his resurrection. Mary can be identified by her red robes and long blonde hair. She had gone to Jesus‘ tomb to anoint his body but found it empty. When Jesus appeared, Mary tried to touch him, but he said ’Touch me not; for I am n...
Not on display
You've viewed 6 of 8 works