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Three attached wooded panels showing scenes from the life of Jesus Christ with a gold leaf background

Three wooden panels with angled tops are attached by hinges. The side panels are half the size of the center panel. The central panel shows Jesus Christ bleeding on the cross, an angel at either side. Below him are three figures: the Virgin Mary in blue, sitting with hands clasped; Mary Magdalene in red embracing the cross; and Saint John in red with his head in his hand. The left panel shows Christ praying on a tree-lined mountain above two men holding sacred objects. The right panel shows two crowned women facing one another above two men facing each other.

Gallery Text

This portable tabernacle, dated 1334 on its base, is a fine example of a category of objects that became popular for private devotional use in the late thirteenth century. When closed, the wings protect the gilded and painted surfaces, so that the tabernacle can be moved without damage. Bernardo reduces the elements in the painting to the essential, prompting the beholder’s devotion and prayers. In the central panel the seated Virgin and Saint John appear mournful and resigned when contrasted with the Magdalene buttressing the cross. The wings are lined with standing saints who prominently display their attributes. The solitary figure of Christ praying in the Garden at Gethsemane rarely occurs in fourteenth-century painting.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1918.33
People
Bernardo Daddi, Italian, Florentine (active c. 1280 - 1348)
Title
Christ on the Cross between the Virgin and Saints Mary Magdalene and John the Evangelist; left panel: The Agony in the Garden and Saints Peter and Paul; right panel: Saints Catherine of Alexandria and Margaret of Antioch, Saints James Major and Benedict
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1334
Places
Creation Place: Europe, Italy, Tuscany, Florence
Culture
Italian
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/228468

Location

Location
Level 2, Room 2440, Medieval Art, Medieval Art
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Tempera and gold leaf on panel with engaged frame
Dimensions
overall: 52 x 54.3 cm (20 1/2 x 21 3/8 in.)
center: 52 x 28.6 x 4.8 cm (20 1/2 x 11 1/4 x 1 7/8 in.)
left wing: 45.6 x 13.2 x 1.5 cm (17 15/16 x 5 3/16 x 9/16 in.)
right wing: 45 x 12.5 x 1.5 cm (17 11/16 x 4 15/16 x 9/16 in.)

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Friends of the Fogg Art Museum Fund and William M. Prichard Fund
Accession Year
1918
Object Number
1918.33
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Margaret E. Gilman, A Triptych by Bernardo Daddi, Art in America (August 1918), vol. 6, no. 5, pp. 210-214, pp. 210-214, repr.
  • Collection of Mediaeval and Renaissance Paintings, Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1919), pp. 35-38
  • A Crucifixion by Bernardo Daddi, Bulletin of the Associates in Fine Arts at Yale University (September 1928), vol. 22, no. 6, pp. 74-75, p. 75
  • Joseph William Hewitt, The Use of Nails in the Crucifixion, The Harvard Theological Review (Cambridge, MA, January 1932), vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 29-45, p. 33
  • Burton B. Fredericksen and Federico Zeri, Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA, 1972), p. 61
  • Everett Fahy, "Italian Painting Before 1500", Apollo (May 1978), vol. 107, no. 195, pp. 377-388, p. 382, repr. p. 381 as fig. 5
  • Kristin A. Mortimer and William G. Klingelhofer, Harvard University Art Museums: A Guide to the Collections, Harvard University Art Museums and Abbeville Press (Cambridge and New York, 1986), no. 161, p. 143, repr.
  • John Pope-Hennessey, The Robert Lehman Collection: Italian Paintings, Metropolitan Museum of Art / Princeton University Press (Princeton, New Jersey, 1987), p. 52
  • Edgar Peters Bowron, European Paintings Before 1900 in the Fogg Art Museum: A Summary Catalogue including Paintings in the Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1990), pp. 104, 284, repr. b/w cat. no. 490
  • Martha Frick Symington Sanger, Helen Clay Frick: Bittersweet Heiress, University of Pittsburgh Press (Pittsburgh, 2008), repr. in color, p. 159
  • Hina Hirayama, "With Éclat" The Boston Athenæum and the Origin of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston Athenaeum (Boston, MA, 2013), p. 71, repr.

Exhibition History

  • HAA 10 Survey Course (S421): The Western Tradition: Art Since the Renaissance (Fall 08 Rotation 1), Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/13/2008 - 10/19/2008
  • HAA 10 Survey Course (S421): The Western Tradition: Art Since the Renaissance (Fall 09 Rotation 1), Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 09/02/2009 - 10/12/2009
  • HAA 10 Survey Course (S421): The Western Tradition: Art Since the Renaissance (Fall 10 Rotation 1), Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 09/10/2010 - 10/09/2010
  • HAA 10 Survey Course (S421): The Western Tradition: Art Since the Renaissance (Fall 11 Rotation 1), Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, 09/06/2011 - 10/01/2011
  • 32Q: 2440 Medieval, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • Google Art Project

Related Works

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu