Full title | A Female Saint (the Annunciate Virgin or one of the Marys?) |
---|---|
Artist | Pietro Lorenzetti and Workshop |
Artist dates | active possibly 1306; died probably 1348 |
Series | Pietro Lorenzetti Fresco Fragments |
Date made | possibly about 1336-40 |
Medium and support | Fresco (with areas of secco) |
Dimensions | 39 x 30 cm |
Acquisition credit | Layard Bequest, 1916 |
Inventory number | NG3072 |
Location | Not on display |
Collection | Main Collection |
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 the news of that she would bear the Son of God at the Annunciation.
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, Ambrogio, decorated several important religious and public 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.
The upper paint layer of the draperies of this female saint has faded. The brown-ish yellow lines we can see are called sinopia – these show the initial design or drawing of the fresco. Small traces of green-blue paint – some only visible through a microscope – are probably a pigment known as azurite, revealing that her robes were originally blue. The Virgin Mary is usually shown wearing a blue mantle and the way in which she recoils, drawing her hand to her breast, and the fearful expression in her eyes, recalls images of the Virgin at the Annunciation, when she receives the frightening and unexpected news that she will bear the Son of God. Alternatively, she might be one of Jesus’s female followers, mourning at The Crucifixion – one of the scenes that survives in the chapter house of the convent church of San Francesco, Siena, where this fresco fragment came from.
Pietro Lorenzetti, with his brother Ambrogio, decorated several important religious and public buildings in Siena with frescoes. Apart from A Group of Four Clares and A Crowned female Figure (Saint Elizabeth of Hungary?), other frescoes in the chapter house were The resurrected Christ and The Crucifixion, both painted by Pietro. His brother Ambrogio painted a further two: Pope Boniface receiving Louis of Toulouse as a Novice and The Martyrdom of the Franciscans. The cycle of images may also have included The Stigmatisation of Saint Francis – the moment the saint, in prayer, received the wounds of Christ, caused by the nails of the Crucifixion.
The figure is framed by a stepped and curved outline, probably part of a barbed quatrefoil shape. Only part of it is visible, suggesting that the saint, like A Crowned female Figure (Saint Elizabeth of Hungary?), was part of a border consisting of figures placed within decorative shapes, surrounding a larger scene. The halo is raised slightly above the surface of the plaster and it has been carved with deep incisions, probably to make it visible from a height so it must have come from the upper part of the border. The quality of the painting is not quite as high as his fresco showing A Group of Four Clares but border figures like this were probably delegated to workshop assistants.
The fragment was purchased by the archaeologist, diplomat, MP and National Gallery trustee, Sir Austen Henry Layard. As a member of the Arundel Society, created to document and preserve Italian frescoes, he was interested in fresco as a medium. Layard claimed that he bought these fragments ‘from a man who had cut them out of the wall’ but he mistakenly thought they had come from the church of S. Agostino in Siena.
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Pietro Lorenzetti Fresco Fragments
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.
These two fragments of frescoes – a female saint and a crowned woman – were discovered in the mid-nineteenth century in what was once the chapter house of the Franciscan convent of San Francesco in Siena. The room was being used as a blacksmith’s workshop when plaster fell off the wall to reveal paintings. All of the whitewash that had been painted over the walls was removed to discover what lay beneath.
A number of images were revealed. Opposite the entrance to the room was a large scene of the Crucifixion, and on one wall was The Martyrdom of the Franciscans as well as Pope Boniface receiving Saint Louis of Toulouse as a novice. The frescoes were attributed to the brothers Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti, the leading Sienese painters of their generation, responsible for a number of public commissions including frescoes for the city’s town hall, the Palazzo Pubblico.
The frescoes were restored and the majority were moved to chapels within the church itself. But removing them damaged the surface in some areas, and fine details painted over the top of the frescoes as finishing touches have in some cases been lost. This explains why we can see the brownish underpainting in these figures. The traces of faintly visible decorative detail surrounding the two fragments show that they came from the borders of the larger scenes.


More paintings by Pietro Lorenzetti
