Saint Anthony Leaving His Monastery
c. 1430/1435
Master of the Osservanza (Sano di Pietro?)
Painter, Sienese, active late 1420s - early 1440s
Painter, Sienese, 1405 - 1481
West Building Main Floor, Gallery 3
Artwork overview
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Medium
tempera on poplar panel
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
painted surface: 46 x 34 cm (18 1/8 x 13 3/8 in.)
overall size: 47.2 x 35 cm (18 9/16 x 13 3/4 in.)
framed: 61.6 x 125.4 x 7.6 cm (24 1/4 x 49 3/8 x 3 in.) -
Accession Number
1952.5.21
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Probably Aloisi-Vicoli-Caccialupi family, San Severino Marche; by inheritance to Count Augusto Caccialupi Olivieri [1834-1897], Macerata, by 1870;[1] purchased by Robert Jenkins Nevin [1839-1906], Rome.[2] Dan Fellows Platt [1873-1938], Englewood, New Jersey, in 1906;[3] sold November 1943 by the trustees of the Platt estate to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[4] gift 1952 to NGA.
[1] See Filippo Raffaelli, Catalogo di quadric divarie scuole pittoriche raccolti dal Sig. Conte Augusto Caccialupi in Macerata, Macerata, 1870: 6, nos. V, VI. Count Augusto Caccialupi's family inherited, apart from the Caccialupi estate, also those of the Aloisi and Vicoli families of San Severino. The Caccialupis were also from this city; Count Augusto, however, lived in Macerata; see Vittorio Spreti, Enciclopedia storico-nobiliare italiana, Milan, 1929: 2:226-229, and Aldo Adversi, Dante Cecchi, and Libero Paci, Storia di Macerata, 5 vols., Macerata, 1971-1977: 2(1972):59.
[2] In the preface to the Catalogo della vendita della collezione del fu reverendo Dottor Roberto I. Nevin..., sale cat. Galleria Sangiorgi, Rome, 22-27 April 1907: 8, Frederick Mason Perkins mentions that a group of paintings was acquired by Nevin from the Caccialupi collection. According to Giusepe Vitalini Sacconi (Pittura marchigiana. La scuola camerinese, Trieste, 1968: 238 n. 285), Nevin bought all of what at that remained of the collection, a considerable part of which was already sold before 1870. The provenance of NGA 1952.5.20 and NGA 1952.5.21 from the Nevin collection is first stated by Lionello Venturi, Pitture italiane in America, Milan, 1931: no. CXXV. They must have been sold before Nevin died, as they are not in the catalogue of his 1907 estate sale.
[3] There seen already by F. Mason Perkins "Quattro tavole inedite del Sassetta," Rassegna d'Arte Senese 7 (1907): 45-46. See Dan Fellows Platt Papers, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University, NJ; box 2, folder 23, call number C0860.
[4] The bill of sale for six paintings from Ethel Bliss Platt, as trustee of the estate of Dan Fellows Platt, to the Kress Foundation is dated 30 November 1943. A letter of the same date from the Foundation to Mrs. Platt confirms that the purchase is "made with the understanding that [the paintings] are to be deeded to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C." (Copies of both documents are in NGA curatorial files.) See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/1796.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1917
Loan Exhibition of Italian Primitives, F. Kleinberger Galleries, New York, 1917, no. 52, repro.
1939
Masterpieces of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture from 1300-1800, New York World's Fair, 1939, no. 347a, repro., as St. Anthony leaves the Monastery for Alexandria by Sassetta.
1940
Golden Gate International Exposition, Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco, 1940, no. 120, repro., as St. Anthony Leaves the Monastery for Alexandria by Sassetta.
1946
Recent Additions to the Kress Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1946, no. 818, as by Sassetta.
1988
Painting in Renaissance Siena, 1420-1500, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1988-1989, no. 10c, repro., as Saint Anthony Blessed by an Old Hermit by the Master of the Osservanza.
2010
Da Jacopo della Quercia a Donatello. Le Arti a Siena nel Primo Rinascimento, Complesso Museale Santa Maria della Scala, Siena, 2010, no. C.34c, repro.
Bibliography
1907
Perkins, F. Mason. "Quattro tavole inedite del Sassetta," Rassegna d'Arte Senese 7 (1907): 45-46.
1931
Waterhouse, Ellis K. "Sassetta and the Legend of St. Anthony Abbot." The Burlington Magazine 59 (September 1931): 108-113, plate I-C.
1933
Venturi, Lionello. Italian Paintings in America. 3 vols. New York and Milan, 1933: 1:138, repro.
1939
Pope-Hennessy, John. Sassetta. London, 1939: 69-77, 82-86, 91-93, n. 35-50, repro. pl. xiii.
1945
Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1945 (reprinted 1947, 1949): 39, repro., as by Sassetta.
1946
Frankfurter, Alfred M. Supplement to the Kress Collection in the National Gallery. New York, 1946: 27, repro., as by Sassetta
1956
Pope-Hennessy, John. "Rethinking Sassetta." _The Burlington Magazine_98 (October 1956): 365, 366, 368, fig. 29.
1959
Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 40, repro., as by Sassetta.
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Early Italian Painting in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1959 (Booklet Number Three in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.): 18, color repro., as by Sassetta.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 120, as by Sassetta and Assistant.
1966
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XIII-XV Century. London, 1966: 141, fig. 379.
1968
National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 107, repro., as by Sassetta and Assistant.
Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Central Italian and North Italian Schools. 3 vols. London, 1968: 1:254.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 318, repro., as by Sassetta and Assistant.
1979
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:319-323; 2:pl. 232, as Master of the Osservanza Triptych.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 80, no. 28, color repro.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 368, repro.
1993
Gagliardi, Jacques. La conquête de la peinture: L’Europe des ateliers du XIIIe au XVe siècle. Paris, 1993: 402.
2003
Boskovits, Miklós, and David Alan Brown, et al. Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century. The Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 2003: 481-495, color repro., as by Master of the Osservanza (Sano di Pietro).
2005
Costanzi, Costanza, ed. Le Marche disperse: repertorio di opere d’arte dalle Marche al mondo. Cinisello Balsamo (Milan), 2005: 196, cat. 265b.
2012
Bellosi, Luciano. "Considerazioni introduttive al problema dell'identificazione tra il "Maestro dell'Osservanza" e Sano di Pietro." In Gabriele Fattorini et. al., eds. Sano di Pietro: Qualità, devozione e pratica nella pittura senese del Quattrocento. Giornate di studio nel sesto centenario della nascita. Siena 5 dicembre 2005 – Asciano 6 dicembre 2005. Milan, 2012: 44.
De Marchi, Andrea. "Sano di Pietro prima della Pala dei Gesuati e il "Maestro dell'Osservanza": aporie di una doppia identità." In Gabriele Fattorini et. al., eds. Sano di Pietro: Qualità, devozione e pratica nella pittura senese del Quattrocento. Giornate di studio nel sesto centenario della nascita. Siena 5 dicembre 2005 – Asciano 6 dicembre 2005. Milan, 2012: 62-65, figs. 34, 37-38.
Wikidata ID
Q20173519