Full title | Saint Peter Martyr |
---|---|
Artist | Giorgio Schiavone |
Artist dates | 1436/7 - 1504 |
Series | S. Niccolò Altarpiece, Padua |
Date made | probably 1456-61 |
Medium and support | Tempera on wood |
Dimensions | 66 x 23 cm |
Acquisition credit | Bought, 1860 |
Inventory number | NG630.4 |
Location | Not on display |
Collection | Main Collection |
A saint holding a lily and a book gazes upwards, seemingly untroubled by the curved knife which splits his skull and the dagger in his shoulder. His hair is tonsured (shaved) to show that he was a member of a religious order, and he wears the black and white uniform of the Dominicans. This is Peter Martyr, the second Dominican saint and their first martyr.
The lily is the symbol of his lifelong chastity, while the book represents his writings and his scholarly attitude to his faith. The Dominicans believed in intellectual rigour and the pursuit of truth. They were very important in fifteenth-century Padua as they were closely involved in its university, one of the oldest in Italy.
He once stood at the right side of a polyptych (a multi-panelled altarpiece) painted by Giorgio Schiavone, possibly for the church of San Niccolò in Padua.
A saint holding a lily and a book gazes upwards, seemingly untroubled by the curved knife which splits his skull and the dagger in his shoulder. His hair is tonsured, or shaved, to show that he was a member of a religious order, and he wears the black and white uniform of the Dominicans. This is Peter Martyr, the second Dominican saint and their first martyr.
The figure once stood at the right side of a polyptych possibly painted for the church of San Niccolò in Padua, and is looking up at The Pietà which once topped it. Other parts of the altarpiece are also in our collection.
Peter was born in Verona in 1206 to parents who were heretics – Christians who disagreed with the doctrine of the Catholic Church. He joined the Dominican Order in the 1220s and became one of its most fervent preachers. In 1251 the Pope made him head of the inquisition for Milan and Como, an office he carried out with such enthusiasm that the heretics of northern Italy hired two assassins to kill him.
On 6 April 1251 Peter was walking from Como to Milan when he met one of these assassins, Carino da Balsamo, outside a wood. Carino struck Peter on the head with his falcastro (a curving dagger with a long handle, like the one in the painting). Peter clung to life, reciting the Creed – an early statement of Christian faith still widely used in Christian liturgy – and is said to have written its opening words in his own blood, as shown in The Assassination of Saint Peter Martyr by Giovanni Bellini. To kill him, Carino stabbed Peter through the heart with a dagger. Peter’s body was carried to Milan; miracles ensued and he was swiftly declared a saint. Carino, his murderer, repented and became a friar himself.
The lily is the symbol of Peter’s lifelong chastity, while the book represents his writings and his scholarly attitude to his faith. The Dominicans believed in intellectual rigour and the pursuit of truth. Dominican friars took religious vows but were not confined to a monastery. They lived in towns and cities, as the Order had been founded to provide educated preachers and teachers for a growing urban population. The Dominicans were especially important in fifteenth-century Padua as they were closely involved in its university, one of the oldest in Italy.
Peter’s robes stand out against the burnished gold behind him; the background has been regilded and you can see much of the red bole underlayer through the gold. His bare toes peep out from under the folds of his robes, and one juts out over the edge of the marble parapet – this links the sacred space in which the saint stands with the earthly space of the Christian viewers. He’s painted in a very similar way to Saint Peter Martyr by Schiavone’s contemporary Carlo Crivelli – you can see pulsing veins in the foreheads of both figures.
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S. Niccolò Altarpiece, Padua
These ten panels once made up a polyptych (multi-panelled altarpiece) painted by Giorgio Schiavone, probably between 1456 and 1461. They were perhaps originally made for the chapel of the Frigimelina family in the church of San Niccolò in Padua.
In the fifteenth century the chapel may have been dedicated to the Virgin Mary, as she appears in the middle with saints on either side. We don‘t know exactly how the panels were arranged, but the full-length saints would have been in the bottom layer with the half-length figures above; this was a very popular format for Italian polyptychs. The altarpiece may well have had an elaborate frame, now missing.
The artist’s real name was Juraj Čulinović. Schiavone means ’Slavonian': he came from Dalmatia (in modern-day Croatia) but trained in Squarcione’s workshop in Padua in the late 1450s, when these panels were painted.
These ten panels once made up a polyptych (multi-panelled altarpiece). The artist’s real name was Juraj Čulinović – Schiavone means ‘Slavonian’. He came from Dalmatia (in modern-day Croatia) but was an apprentice in Squarcione’s workshop in Padua in the late 1450s.
He has signed his name on a cartellino on the front of the Virgin’s throne: OPVS. SCLAVONI. DISIPVLI. / SQVARCIONI. S (‘the work of Sclavoni, Squarcione’s pupil’). He seems to have struggled a little with his Latin grammar: the third word originally read ‘discipulus’ but he corrected it to ‘discipuli’.
Schiavone’s style is similar to that of Carlo Crivelli in some ways – for example, his scattering of illusionistic fruits and flowers around his paintings. The way he painted, with gradually shaded variations of tone and no black outlines, and the solidity of his figures are closer to the style of his contemporary Andrea Mantegna, while his creased and crumpled draperies recall the paintings of Marco Zoppo. Both were also pupils of Squarcione.
The altarpiece was probably made for the chapel of the Frigimelinca family in the parish church of San Niccolò in Padua. In the middle of the sixteenth century the church had 11 altars, each belonging to an important local family. An eighteenth-century description states that there was once an ‘ancient altar’ in the Frigimelinca chapel which had been removed to the family’s palace; it apparently showed the Virgin and Child and saints in several panels and had the same inscription we see here.
The altar must have been dedicated to the Virgin Mary, as she appears enthroned in the middle. We don‘t know exactly how the panels were arranged, but the full-length saints would have been in the bottom layer with the half-length figures above. All would have been looking inwards at the Virgin and Christ Child in the centre. This was a very popular format for Italian polyptychs – look at the Demidoff Altarpiece by Crivelli. There may well have been an elaborate Gothic frame, now missing. Although the panels now have square tops, they may well have been cut down and have certainly been regilded, taking away any traces of the frame.
Saints were the heroes of the Middle Ages and those chosen would have been specially important to the commissioner. We see both ancient and modern saints, including one the patron might well have encountered personally: Saint Bernardino, who died in 1444, just before the altarpiece was made. With him in the lower level are Saints Anthony of Padua and Peter Martyr, both of whom lived in the Middle Ages, as well as the biblical John the Baptist. In the upper level are Saints Jerome, Catherine and Sebastian, as well as an female saint whose identity we don’t know. At the top of the altarpiece, above the Virgin and Child, there was an image of the body of Christ supported by two angels – together they represent the beginning and the end of the sacred story.
This is quite an academic altarpiece: the Franciscan Saint Anthony of Padua, the Dominican Saint Peter Martyr, Saint Jerome and Saint Catherine were all known for their scholarship. The interest in the Franciscan and Dominican Orders is typical of the period, although they were especially important in Padua where they were closely involved in the running of the university.










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