Full title | Saint Bartholomew and Saint Monica |
---|---|
Artist | Zanobi Machiavelli |
Artist dates | about 1418 - 1479 |
Series | Panels from an Altarpiece |
Date made | probably about 1470 |
Medium and support | Tempera on wood |
Dimensions | 142.5 x 59.5 cm |
Acquisition credit | Bought, 1857 |
Inventory number | NG586.3 |
Location | Not on display |
Collection | Main Collection |
This panel, which was part of an altarpiece, depicts Saints Bartholomew and Monica standing side by side on an angular step that encloses a patch of grass. At least two other fragments of the same altarpiece are also in the National Gallery’s collection. The central – and largest – panel shows the Virgin and Child. Another, which would have appeared on the left of the central image, shows Saint Nicholas of Tolentino and a bishop saint.
Bartholomew holds the curved flensing knife with which he was skinned alive in punishment for his Christian faith. He is joined by a female figure whose halo and Augustinian habit identify her as the fourth-century Saint Monica, mother of Saint Augustine. Her presence suggests that the altarpiece was made for a church that belonged to the Augustinian Order.
By around 1470, when Zanobi Machiavelli painted this panel, both its pointed-arch shape and its gold background would have appeared somewhat old-fashioned.
This panel shows Saint Bartholomew and Saint Monica standing side by side on an angular step that encloses a patch of grass. It formed part of an altarpiece, two other fragments of which are also in the National Gallery’s collection – the step depicted here continues across all three. It would have appeared to the right of the central panel, which shows the Virgin Mary holding the Christ Child. A panel showing Saint Nicholas of Tolentino and a bishop saint, which has the same dimensions as this one, would have been on the left.
Bartholomew is often depicted with a beard and curly hair, but it is the curved flensing knife he holds in his right hand that identifies him: he was skinned alive in punishment for his Christian faith. The book he holds in the other hand may refer to the apocryphal Gospel he wrote, but which is now lost. Bartholomew is joined by a female figure whose halo and Augustinian habit identify her as the fourth-century Saint Monica. She was the mother of Saint Augustine, whose autobiography tells us about her life. The presence of Saint Monica suggests that the altarpiece was made for a church that belonged to the Augustinian Order.
The pointed-arch shape of this panel, which might have recalled architectural elements in the original church, is typical of Italian panel painting of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; examples in the National Gallery’s collection include the San Pier Maggiore Altarpiece, Baptism Altarpiece and Santa Maria Maggiore Altarpiece. So, too, is the decorated gold background. The dense net of vertical lines that form the haloes would have shimmered in flickering candlelight, an effect that inspired devotion and guided the attention of the worshipper. But by around 1470, when Zanobi Machiavelli painted this panel, the shape and the gold background would have appeared somewhat old-fashioned, as they had been superseded by naturalistic landscape settings and rectangular picture fields. Pala, altarpieces where the Virgin and Child with saints are depicted on a single unified surface rather than on separate panels, had also become the norm. The fact that Zanobi did otherwise paint pala altarpieces suggests that the unknown patron of this work demanded the pointed-arch, multi-panelled format.
The wooden framing elements that would have surrounded this panel to create a separate compartment are now lost, but they can be imagined on the basis of surviving examples.
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Saint Bartholomew and Saint Monica
Panels from an Altarpiece
These three panels once formed an altarpiece. The largest, which shows the Virgin Mary holding the Christ Child, would have appeared at its centre. Saint Nicholas of Tolentino and a bishop saint would have appeared on the left of the central image, with Saints Bartholomew and Monica on the right. The inclusion of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino, an Augustinian friar, and Saint Monica, mother of Saint Augustine, suggests that this altarpiece was made for an Augustinian foundation, perhaps the Florentine church of S. Spirito.
The panels have been linked to two others by Zanobi Machiavelli; while their compositions and gold backgrounds correspond, their shapes and sizes do not. A small panel showing a scene from the life of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam) has also been suggested as part of the ensemble.
The shape and gold background would have appeared slightly old-fashioned by around 1470, when Zanobi Machiavelli painted this altarpiece.
These three panels once formed an altarpiece. The largest, which shows the Virgin Mary holding the Christ Child, would have appeared at its centre. Saint Nicholas of Tolentino and a bishop saint would have stood on the left, with Saints Bartholomew and Monica on the right (the figures turn towards the Virgin and Child, making the intended position of the panels clear).
The presence of Saint Monica, mother of Saint Augustine, suggests that this altarpiece was made for an Augustinian foundation. This idea is further reinforced by the inclusion of Saint Nicholas, an Augustinian friar shown wearing the habit of the Order. Scholars have speculated that the three panels, which were among the first early Italian paintings to arrive at the National Gallery, came from the Florentine church of S. Spirito, but there is little evidence for this claim. Another possibility is that they came from the Tuscan hilltop town of Montepulciano, where they were recorded in a private collection in the early nineteenth century. It has also been said that they formed part of the same altarpiece as two others by Zanobi Machiavelli, but while their composition and gold backgrounds correspond, their shapes and sizes do not.
The pointed arch shape of the panels, which might have recalled architectural elements in the original church, is typical of Italian panel painting of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; examples in the National Gallery’s collection include the San Pier Maggiore Altarpiece, Baptism Altarpiece and Santa Maria Maggiore Altarpiece. So, too, is the decorated gold background. But by around 1470, when Zanobi Machiavelli painted this panel, both the shape and the gold background would have appeared slightly old-fashioned – they had been superseded by naturalistic landscape settings and rectangular picture fields. Pala altarpieces, where the Virgin and Child with saints are depicted on a single unified surface rather than on separate panels, had also become the norm. The fact that Machiavelli did otherwise paint pala altarpieces suggests that the unknown patron of this work demanded the pointed-arch, multi-panelled format.
It is possible that our altarpiece once had a large base that accommodated a predella, a tier of smaller pictures with scenes from the lives of the saints depicted above. Scholars have suggested that a small panel now in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam belongs to this altarpiece. It shows the thirteenth-century saint and mystic Nicholas of Tolentino rescuing a man condemned to death from the gallows. Canonised in 1446 by Pope Eugenius IV, Saint Nicholas became one of the most popular saints in Italy, as evidenced by the number of legends surrounding his virtuous life. His remains are enshrined in Tolentino, a small town near Macerata in the central Italian region of the Marche, but devotion to the saint went far beyond his hometown. It is Saint Nicholas who looks out at the viewer in the left-hand panel, and it is likely that the chapel this altarpiece once decorated was dedicated to him. The wooden framing elements that would have surrounded this panel to create a separate compartment are now lost, but they can be imagined on the basis of surviving examples.



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