BARTOLO DI FREDI (Siena 1330 - 1410) or ANDREA... Lot 117

BARTOLO DI FREDI (Siena 1330 - 1410) or ANDREA DI BARTOLO (Siena 1389 -1428) Saint Anthony abbot Trapezoidal upper register panel of an altarpiece with poly-lobed ogival arch. Egg painting and gold background on wood panel Height : 34.5 cm Width: 23 cm Provenance: Acquired in February 1936 from E. Vinot (Primitive XIV gold background, Saint. 3.000 fr). Dimensions from the arch 28 x 21 cm Panel: on the reverse side, presence of xylophagous insect galleries, label with an ink inscription that is not very legible ink except for " ?... - 1881" and unidentifiable red wax stamp. Except for the lower horizontal molding, the frame modenature is original as well as the punched as well as the punched ornamentation. Pictorial surface and gold background: wear and restoration This Saint Anthony Abbot, seen at mid-body and placed at an angle, occupies most of the pictorial surface. We recognizable by his physical type of old hermit with a long beard, his Augustinian habit and his The saint is recognizable by his physical type as an old hermit with a long beard, by his Augustinian habit, by the book of Scripture and by his main attribute, the cane in the shape of a tau. The moral strength expressed by the scrutinizing and concerned look of the saint marked by the detail of the wrinkles, by the finesse of the execution in the the finesse of the execution in the description of the features of the face with its flaky beard vibrating under the action of the light of the light, by the chromatic intensity of the red book and the black cloak exalting the grey-beige monochrome of the saint's of the saint's robe, we are in the presence of one of the most sensitive representations of Saint Anthony in Bartolo's in Bartolo di Fredi's stylistic repertoire. This Sienese artist was certainly one of the most prolific of the second half of the 14th century. Documented first documented in 1353 when he ran a workshop with Andrea Vanni, the oldest dated work of his dated work of his career is preserved: the Madonna of Mercy of 1364 (Pienza, Museo Civico). His name appears several times several times in the registers of the Breve dell'arte of Siena from 1356. He also played an important role important activity in the political life of Siena. In 1407 he wrote his will in favour of his son son Andrea di Bartolo, also a painter, and he died around 1410. His range of action extended to the main civil and religious religious monuments in Siena, but also in San Gimignano, Volterra and Montalcino (cf. M. Leoncini in La Pittura in Italia, Il Duecento e il Trecento, 1985, vol. 2, p. 555-556). Like many of his generation who worked after the Black Death of 1348, Bartolo was not always an innovator and often iconographic and stylistic models created by the great artists of the beginning of the century artists such as Simone Martini, Lippo Memmi and the Lorenzetti brothers. The trapezoidal shape of the panel indicates that this is an altarpiece element located in the intermediate register between the panels of the main register between the panels of the main register and the pinnacles, following the pattern of Tuscan and mainly Sienese altarpieces altarpieces as conceived by the great artists of the first half of the 14th century: the Duccio's Maesta for Siena Cathedral (1308-1311) or Pietro Lorenzetti's altarpiece for the Pieve d'Arezzo in 1320 Lorenzetti in 1320, for example. Bartolo di Fredi used this scheme in the altarpieces for the church of Francesco of Montalcino, now dismembered: the Cacciati altarpieces for the chapel of San Pietro around 1380 (Lucignano, Museo Civico) (1) and that of the Chapel of the Annunciation between 1383 and 1388 (2). The execution of our Saint Anthony, hitherto unpublished, must undoubtedly be placed in the same period of the painter's career. the execution of our hitherto unpublished St. Anthony, whose strong physical strength, delicate features and the same elements in the altarpieces mentioned. (cf. in the altarpiece of the chapel of the of the Annunciation: the Saint Joachim of the Return of the Virgin to her parents and the Saint Anthony Abbot (3) or in the Cacciati altarpiece: the Saint John at Patmos of the predella (4) whose son Andrea will take up the the scheme) (5). It is known that the representation of Saint Anthony was generally honoured within hospital foundations. hospital foundations. Would it be possible that our panel ? which must still remain isolated, because neither its shape nor its the two Montalcino altarpieces mentioned above - could have belonged to another altarpiece commissioned by the Cacciati family, which was linked to the Hospital of the Misericordia of Montalcino? (6) Finally, the use of the small trefoil-shaped punch that underlines the edges of the poly-lobed arch of our and which can be found in several works by Bartolo, confirms the attribution to this painter (7). Gaudenz Freuler compares our panel with Andrea di Bartolo's Saint Francis (now on the art market). art market). Of the same dimensions, the