Skip to main content

Pietro Lorenzetti and Workshop, 'A Crowned Female Figure (Saint Elizabeth of Hungary?)', 1320s

About the work

The crown and the millstone, faintly visible at her right side, suggest the woman may be Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, who according to legend, after her death cured the hand of man after it was crushed by a millstone. Though royal, she joined a Franciscan lay order and took a vow of poverty, dedicating her life to charity.

This fragment of fresco once formed part of the border decoration of a large wall painting in the chapter house of San Francesco, Siena. It was removed in the nineteenth century and purchased by the archaeologist and National Gallery trustee, Austen Henry Layard. As an example of the work of the workshop of the Sienese painter Pietro Lorenzetti, who, with his brother decorated important public and religious buildings in Siena with frescoes, it was a desirable object despite its poor condition. Layard was a member of the Arundel Society founded to document and preserve Italian frescoes.

Key facts

Full title
A Crowned Female Figure (Saint Elizabeth of Hungary?)
Artist
Pietro Lorenzetti and Workshop
Artist dates
active possibly 1306; died probably 1348
Part of the series
Pietro Lorenzetti Fresco Fragments
Date made
1320s
Medium and support
fresco with areas of secco
Dimensions
38 × 33 cm
Acquisition credit
Layard Bequest, 1916
Inventory number
NG3071
Location
Gallery B
Collection
Main Collection
Previous owners

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.

About the series: Pietro Lorenzetti Fresco Fragments

Pietro Lorenzetti and Workshop, 'A Crowned Female Figure (Saint Elizabeth of Hungary?)', 1320s

These two fragments of frescoes (which were painted directly onto a freshly plastered wall) come from the Sienese convent church of San Francesco. They were part of the border decoration of larger fresco paintings on the walls of the church’s chapter house. By the time they were discovered in the mid-nineteenth century, the chapter house had been converted into a blacksmith’s workshop and the frescoes had been covered with whitewash.

Once restored, the larger surviving frescoes were moved to chapels in the church itself. These fragments appear almost monochrome as their removal from the wall damaged the coloured surface painting, revealing the brownish preparatory design below.

A Crowned Female Figure (Saint Elizabeth of Hungary?)
A Crowned Female Figure (Saint Elizabeth of Hungary?)
Pietro Lorenzetti and Workshop
The crown and the millstone, faintly visible at her right side, suggest the woman may be Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, who according to legend, after her death cured the hand of man after it was crushed by a millstone. Though royal, she joined a Franciscan lay order and took a vow of poverty, dedi...
Gallery B
A Female Saint
A Female Saint
Pietro Lorenzetti and Workshop
The upper layers of paint in the draperies are faded so that you can see the underdrawing – or sinopia – beneath. Traces of paint reveal that the draperies were originally blue. The figure’s pose – she recoils in fear, drawing her hand to her breast – is similar to images of the Virgin receiving...
Gallery B

More works by Pietro Lorenzetti

Saint Sabinus before the Roman Governor of Tuscany
Saint Sabinus before the Roman Governor of Tuscany
Pietro Lorenzetti and Workshop
In the 1330s the Sienese city council commissioned four altarpieces showing scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary, the city’s protector, to decorate the cathedral. This panel by Pietro Lorenzetti, one of the city’s most important artists, comes from the altarpiece dedicated to the birth of the...
Gallery B