Full title | Saint Romulus: Frame Panel |
---|---|
Artist | Probably by Fra Angelico |
Artist dates | active 1417; died 1455 |
Series | Fiesole San Domenico Altarpiece |
Date made | about 1423-4 |
Medium and support | Egg tempera on wood |
Dimensions | 16 x 15.6 cm |
Inscription summary | Inscribed |
Acquisition credit | Bequeathed by Lady Lindsay, 1912 |
Inventory number | NG2908 |
Location | Not on display |
Collection | Main Collection |
We can piece together who this saint is: his mitre (hat) and crosier (crook) identify him as a bishop, and a faint inscription in white paint to his right reads ‘OL VS’. The inscription on the left probably read ‘ROM’, identifying him when both sides were put together as Romulus.
This seems likely. Romulus was the patron saint of Fiesole, a town near Florence, and this panel probably came from an altarpiece made for the church of San Domenico in Fiesole. It probably decorated one of the altarpiece’s pilasters (the tall piers on either side of the construction). Another panel of exactly the same design, showing the bishop-saint Alexander, was probably its pair, appearing on the opposite pier.
The National Gallery also holds two images from the base of the pilasters and panels from the predella (the lowest part of the altarpiece).
The jewelled mitre studded with pearls tells us this saint is a bishop. He also carries a bishop’s crook, called a crosier, in one hand and a Bible, sealed with leather clasps, in the other. He looks out at us as with an upward glance, head tilted slightly to one side.
This figure has been identified as Saint Romulus. Faint white letters at the right of the roundel read ‘OL VS’, and at one point ‘ROM’ may have been painted on the other side, to make up his full name in Latin: Romulus. His face has been painted with extraordinary delicacy. The artist has used tiny brushstrokes and subtle shading to shape his face and to give the appearance of stubble, and dark circles under his eyes. All these details, combined with his striking golden eyes, make him appear more lifelike and individual.
The blue roundel enclosed by a gilded square forms part of the group of panels that once belonged to an altarpiece made by Fra Angelico for the church of his convent of San Domenico in Fiesole. The roundel was probably originally also gilded and it may have been painted blue when the altarpiece was updated and repainted in the early sixteenth century. Ultimately, the altarpiece was replaced altogether and dismantled. Its panels were dispersed among private owners, eventually finding their way into museum collections. This is one of the panels that has been associated with the altarpiece, along with the predella and pilaster and pinnacle panels, some of which are in the National Gallery. Like the left and right panels from the base of the pilasters its wood grain is vertical, suggesting that it too came from the pilasters, perhaps higher up.
A connection to Fiesole makes it more likely that the saint is Romulus, as he was the town’s first bishop and its patron saint. He was martyred for his belief in the first century and so here carries a palm, a symbol of martyrdom. The cathedral in Fiesole was dedicated to him and it was in the Diocese of Saint Romulus that the church of San Domenico was built.
Another saint painted on the same scale within a roundel (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) has been identified as this one’s pair. He’s been identified as the bishop-saint Alexander, to whom another church in Fiesole was dedicated.
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Saint Romulus: Frame Panel
Fiesole San Domenico Altarpiece
These panels come from the predella (lowest part) of the altarpiece made for the high altar of San Domenico, Fiesole. Fra Angelico was a Dominican friar (a member of the religious order founded by Saint Dominic) as well as a painter. The church was attached to his own convent – so although he made two other altarpieces for it, he was not paid for his work.
Predellas usually showed narrative scenes of the lives of the saints who were depicted in the main part of the altarpiece. This one is unusual: it shows Christ in glory in heaven, surrounded in the central scene by angels. This is framed by two panels showing rows of saints and Old Testament figures. These in turn are enclosed on either side by Dominican ‘Blessed’ figures who were holy and revered but not saints.
The mass of saints includes Dominicans and reflects their interest in the saints of their order and the place of the Dominicans in the broader church.
These panels once formed part of an altarpiece made for the church of Fra Angelico’s own convent (San Domenico) in Fiesole, a town near Florence. Fra Angelico painted two other altarpieces for San Domenico: the Annunciation (Prado, Madrid) and the Coronation of the Virgin (Louvre, Paris). As a member of the Dominican order, Fra Angelico would not have been paid for his work. He had a workshop of assistants helping him, including his pupil, Zanobi Strozzi. Fra Angelico seems to contributed more to certain panels than others; he appears to have painted the central panel with very little assistance, for example.
The main part of the altarpiece remains in San Domenico in Fiesole. It shows the Virgin and Child seated on a throne surrounded on either side by adoring angels and Saints Thomas Aquinas, Barnabas, Dominic and Peter Martyr. Apart from Barnabas, the apostle, the other three were Dominican saints.
The three horizontal rectangular panels in the National Gallery’s collection formed the predella, the lowest structural element of the altarpiece. They show Christ, resurrected, surrounded by angels in the central panel, the Virgin Mary and saints to the left and Old Testament figures and martyr saints to the right. Two panels (left and right) show members of the Dominican Beati (‘Blessed’), those who were venerated but had not yet been made saints. These last two panels most probably formed the lowest part of the two pilasters that supported the altarpiece on either side of the predella. They would have been on the same level as the predella, framing it on both sides.
Although there are a few examples of paintings and frescoes showing Dominican saints and ‘Blessed’ in the court of heaven, the imagery is unique for a predella – but it clearly relates to the order and its mission. Although there is no known or surviving visual parallel for the images, we know from written sources that the Dominicans were deeply interested in the saints of their order and many lists of Dominican saints – ordered according to their importance – were compiled. Fra Angelico himself made a series of frescoes including portraits of Dominican friars for the chapter house of San Marco, Florence. Another idea is that the predella reflects scenes of the Last Judgement where the saints are arranged in neat rows surrounding Christ.
Surviving documents tell us that Barnaba degli Agli (d.1418) left money in his will for the completion and furnishings of the convent church which was founded in 1406. Some of this money might have been used to pay for this altarpiece and the predella in its original frame.
The altarpiece was originally a polyptych (made up of lots of separate panels) joined together by an elaborate frame. In 1502 the Florentine painter Lorenzo di Credi removed the framing elements and repainted the main tier of pictures so that all the holy figures were shown together in a single image. At this stage the predella and the panels that topped the main tier were removed. Two of these upper pinnacle panels have been identified in other collections including the Angel Gabriel and the Virgin Annunciate (both in the Von Tucher collection, Vienna). Between them was the Blessing Redeemer (Royal Collection, London). The pilasters probably also included roundels with bishop saints; one of these, Saint Romulus, is now in the National Gallery’s collection. In front of the predella was a tabernacle (Prado, Madrid) which held the Host – the bread of the Eucharist.






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