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Gallery Text

After a ten-year sojourn in Spain, Starnina returned to his native Florence in 1401. Depicting the death (Tl41319) and assumption (1920.1) of the Virgin Mary, this image was the central portion of a large altarpiece for a monastery near the Tuscan town of Lucca. In it, Starnina synthesized his artistic experiences, painting the figures with the vivid colors found in Spanish painting and an understanding of compositional space characteristic of Tuscany. The altarpiece appears to have remained intact until the mid-nineteenth century, when a renewed interest in early Renaissance Italian painting prompted many art dealers to disassemble works to sell to eager collectors. At that time, the panel was cut into two sections, which permitted the lower portion (Tl41319) to be displayed in a rectangular frame. The different physical conditions of each part speak to their different histories after separation.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1920.1
People
Starnina (Gherardo di Jacopo di Neri), Italian (c. 1360 - before 1413)
Previously attributed to Master of the Bambino Vispo, Italian (active early 15th century)
Previously attributed to Simone Martini, Italian (c. 1284 - 1344)
Title
The Assumption of the Virgin
Other Titles
Alternate Title: Madonna in Glory Offering her Girdle to Saint Thomas
Former Title: Madonna della Cintola
Former Title: The Virgin with Angels
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
c. 1404-1408
Places
Creation Place: Europe, Italy, Tuscany, Florence
Culture
Italian
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/232092

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Tempera and gold on panel
Dimensions
81 x 83.8 cm (31 7/8 x 33 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • label: right edge of panel, rectangular with cut corners, red border: [printed:] M. F. A. / [handwritten, black ink:] P29
  • inscription: verso, upper left, black stencil: 37 S [Christie's stock number]
  • inscription: verso, right middle, black ink: Simone Memmi pinxt / obit 1345
  • inscription: verso, upper right, stencil: No / 2939
  • label: verso, upper center, rectangle with blue border, handwritten, black ink: 2
  • seal: verso, upper right, red wax: AMMINISTRAZZIONE DELLE REGIE RENDITE [around a shield with heraldry] [tax office for the kingdom of Lucca]
  • seal: lower left, red wax: [illegible]

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Captain E. L. Mayor, sold [through Christie, Manson, and Woods, London, July 14, 1883, lot 49]; to [Colnaghi]. Mrs. Jane Lowell Moore, Cambridge, MA, sold; to Fogg Art Museum, 1920

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Friends of the Fogg Art Museum Fund
Accession Year
1920
Object Number
1920.1
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • "Dormition of the Virgin", Philadelphia Museum of Art ([website]), http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/101863.html?mulR=2026938782|1 , accessed August 21, 2017
  • Catalgoue of Ancient and Modern Pictures from Different Private Collections; including a Small Collection, the Property of Caleb Trotter, Esq., Deceased; and Nine Capital Pictures, the Property of Thomas Townend, Esq., Deceased, Late of Brighton, auct. cat., Christie, Manson and Woods, Ltd. (London, July 14, 1883), p. 8, lot 49 as by S. Memmi
  • Chandler R. Post, A History of Spanish Painting, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, 1930-1966), Vol. VIII, Part II, p. 648
  • Georges Pudelko, "The Maestro del Bambino Vispo", Art in America (April 1938), Vol. 26, No. 2, pp. 47-63, p.53
  • Bernard Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: a list of the principal artists and their works, with an index of places. Florentine School., Phaidon Publishers and New York Graphic Society (Greenwich, CT, 1963), Vol. I, p. 139, repr. as plate 479 [as by Master of the Bambino Vispo]
  • A. de Bosque, Artistes italiens en Espagne due xivme siècle aux rois catholiques, Le Temps (Paris, 1965), p. 65, repr.
  • Alvar González-Palacios, "Posizione di Angelo Puccinelli", Antichità viva, Casa Editrice Edam (Florence, May-June 1971), Vol. 10, No. 3, pp. 3-9, p. 5, repr. as fig. 5
  • 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. 125 [as by Master of the Bambino Vispo]
  • Cornelia Syre, "Studien zum "Maestro del Bambino Vispo" und Starnina" (1979), Dr. Rudolf Habelt GmbH, pp. 121, 171, 200, repr. as Abb. 134
  • Jeanne van Waadenoijen, Starnina e il gotico internazionale a Firenze, Istituto universitario olandese di storia dell'arte (Florence, 1983), p. 60, 123
  • Mathieu Heriard Dubreuil, Valencia y el Gótico Internacional, Edicions Alfons el Magnànim / Institució Valenciana d'Estudis i Investigació (Valencia, 1987), pp. 9, 18
  • Ann T. Lurie, "In Search of a Valencian Madonna by Starnina", The Bulletin of The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland Museum of Art (December 1989), Vol. 76, No. 10, pp. 334-373, p. 372, no. 8
  • Andrea de Marchi, "Gherardo Starnina, Adorazione dei pastori", Da Biduino ad Algardi: pittura e scultura a confronto, Antichi Maestri Pittori (Turin, 1990), pp. 17-23, p.23
  • 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. 130, 295, repr. b/w cat. no. 536
  • Paintings from Europe and the Americas in the Philadelphia Museum of Art: A Concise Catalogue, Philadelphia Museum of Art (Philadelphia, 1994), p. 232
  • Eliot W. Rowlands, The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: Italian Paintings 1300-1800, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City, MO, 1996), pp. 80, 81, repr. p. 80 as part of fig. 8c
  • Mojmír S. Frinta, Punched Decoration on Late Medieval Panel and Miniature Painting, Maxdorf Publishers (Prague, Czechoslovakia, 1998), p. 93, under no. C11b
  • Donald F. Duclow, "Dying Well: The Ars Moriendi and the Dormition of the Virgin", Death and Dying in the Middle Ages, Peter Lang (New York, 1999), pp. 380-429, pp. 390-391, 414, repr. p. 414 as fig. 12
  • Old Master Paintings, auct. cat., Sotheby's, London (London, July 8, 1999), pp. 96-97, under lot 59, repr.
  • Carl Brandon Strehlke, Italian Paintings 1250-1450 in the John G. Johnson Collection and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art (Philadelphia, PA, 2004), repr. in b/w p. 392 as fig. 76.2; p. 397
  • Laurence Kanter and John Marciari, Italian Painting from the Richard L. Feigen Collection, exh. cat., Yale University Art Museum/Yale University Press (New Haven, 2010), p. 62, fig. 3

Exhibition History

  • Art in East and West, Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, 02/04/1955 - 02/28/1955
  • New Renaissance Galleries Installation, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, 10/12/1993 - 04/01/1996
  • Sumptuosa tabula picta : pittori a Lucca tra gotico e rinascimento, Museo Nazionale di Villa Guinigi, Lucca, 03/28/1998 - 08/05/1998
  • 32Q: 2500 Renaissance, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 08/30/2017
  • Johnson Collection Centennial, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, 09/30/2017 - 09/30/2018

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