Nardo di Cione, 'Three Saints', about 1363-5
About the work
Overview
Saint John the Baptist – who, according to the Bible, wandered the desert preaching about Jesus – is shown in the centre of this panel. He carries a scroll with his declaration of the coming of Christ: ‘I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Prepare the way of the Lord’. He stands between Saint John the Evangelist and Saint James, who clutches a pilgrim’s staff. Nardo has contrasted the saints‘ simplicity with the lavish textile – dotted with carnations, vine tendrils and birds – on which they stand.
The picture was made for a ’hospital church' in Florence – that is, a church connected to a hospital – dedicated to Saint John the Baptist. The hospital was, in this case, run by the Knights Hospitaller, a religious order with a military function and a tradition of caring for the sick. They were also known as the Knights of Saint John after their patron saint.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- Saint John the Baptist, Saint John the Evangelist (?) and Saint James
- Artist
- Nardo di Cione
- Artist dates
- documented 1343-6; died 1365-6
- Date made
- about 1363-5
- Medium and support
- egg tempera on wood
- Dimensions
- 159.5 × 148 cm
- Inscription summary
- Inscribed
- Acquisition credit
- Bought, 1857
- Inventory number
- NG581
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Frame
- 21st-century Replica 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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1754G. Richa, Notizie istoriche delle chiese fiorentine, 10 vols, Florence 1754
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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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1864J.A. Crowe and G.B. Cavalcaselle, A New History of Painting in Italy: From the Second to the Sixteenth Century, 3 vols, London 1864
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1908O. Sirén, Giottino und seine Stellung in der gleichzeitigen florentinischen Malerei, Leipzig 1908
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1914B. Khvoshinsky and M. Salmi, I pittori toscani dal XIII al XVI secolo: I fiorentini del Trecento, Rome 1914
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1920National Gallery, National Gallery: Catalogue of the Pictures at Trafalgar Square, London 1920
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1923R. van Marle, The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting, 19 vols, The Hague 1923
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1924R. Offner, 'Nardo di Cione and His Triptych in the Goldman Collection', Art in America, XII/3, 1924, pp. 99-112
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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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1931H.D. Gronau, 'Nardo di Cione', in U. Thieme and F. Becker (eds), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, Leipzig 1931
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1932B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: A List of the Principal Artists and Their Works, with an Index of Places, Oxford 1932
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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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1951Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, London 1951
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1961M. Davies, The Earlier Italian Schools, 2nd edn, London 1961
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1975R. Fremantle, Florentine Gothic Painters from Giotto to Masaccio: A Guide to Painting in and Near Florence 1300 to 1450, London 1975
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1981J. Mills and R. White, 'Analyses of Paint Media', National Gallery Technical Bulletin, V, 1981, pp. 66-7
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1983National Gallery, 'Pictures Cleaned and Restored in the Conservation Department of the National Gallery, January 1983 – December 1983', National Gallery Technical Bulletin, VIII, 1984, pp. 71-2
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1983C. Gardner von Teuffel, 'From Polyptych to Pala: Some Structural Considerations', in H.W. van Os (ed.), La Pittura nel XIV e XV Secolo: Il Contributo dell'Analisi Tecnica alla Storia dell'Arte, Bologna 1983, pp. 323-44
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1983E.S. Skaug, 'Punch Marks: What are They Worth?: Problems of Tuscan Workshop Interrelationships in the Mid-Fourteenth Century: The Ovile Master and Giovanni da Milano', in H.W. van Os and J.R.J. van Asperen de Boer (eds), La Pittura nel XIV e XV Secolo: Il Contributo dell'Analisi Tecnica alla Storia dell'Arte, 1979, Bologna 1983, pp. 253-82
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1985D. Gordon et al. , 'Nardo di Cione's "Altarpiece: Three Saints"', National Gallery Technical Bulletin, IX, 1985, pp. 21-37
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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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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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1990L. Monnas, 'Silk Textiles in the Paintings of Bernardo Daddi, Andrea di Cione and Their Followers', Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, LIII/1, 1990, pp. 39-58
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1991J. Dunkerton et al., Giotto to Dürer: Early Renaissance Painting in the National Gallery, New Haven 1991
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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.