Christ Blessing with Saint John the Evangelist, the Virgin Mary, Saint John the Baptist, and Saint Francis (known as The Peruzzi Altarpiece)

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Christ Blessing with Saint John the Evangelist, the Virgin Mary, Saint John the Baptist, and Saint Francis (known as The Peruzzi Altarpiece)

Artist Giotto di Bondone Italian, b. 1267/1275, Vespignano, near Florence; d. 1337, Florence

Datecirca 1311–1315

MediumTempera and gilded gesso on poplar panel

Dimensions41 5/8 x 98 1/2 x 6 in. (105.7 x 250.2 x 15.2 cm)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LineGift of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation

Object numberGL.60.17.7

On View

On view

ProvenanceCenter panel: Florentine patrician family; private collection [Bellini?], Florence, until 1931; Mrs. Frederic Stephens, New York, by 1940–1945; Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York, 1946; gift of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation to the NCMA, 1961.

Side panels: C. W. Mori, Paris (ca.1920–23+); Jacques Goudstikker, Amsterdam, by April 1930; Leon Schinasi, New York; sale of collection of Mrs. Leon Schinasi, Parke-Bernet New York, November 4, 1944, lots 312–14; private collection, New York; with Wildenstein & Co., New York by 1947; Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York, 1947; gift of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation to the NCMA, 1961.

Saint Francis panel: C. W. Mori, Paris (ca. 1920–23+); possibly Ventura, London; Jacques Goudstikker, Amsterdam, by April 1930 [1]; sent by Goudstikker to London in 1940; sent by his widow to Smith College, Northampton, MA; on consignment with Rosenberg & Stiebel, New York; sold by April 1947, presumably to Wildenstein & Co., New York; sold to Samuel H. Kress (1863–1955) on October 30, 1947, as Maso di Banco; gift to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, in 1952; deaccessioned in 1960 and returned to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation; gift of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation to the NCMA, 1961.

[1] Published by Goudstikker in April–May 1930 catalogue, no. 18; lent by Goudstikker to Italiaanische Kunst in Nederland Bezit, Amsterdam, 1934, no. 153, illus.

Published ReferencesOsvald Siren, "Some Paintings by a Follower of Giotto," The Burlington Magazine 43 (December 1923) 259-269 (first to publish all four panels; attributes them to Stefano Fiorentino, all four panels illus.). Raimond van Marle, The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting, Vol. 5 (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1925), 468 (as Pacino de Buonaguida). Richard Offner, Studies in Florentine Painting: The Fourteenth Century (New York: Junius Press, 1972, reprint of 1927 edition), 21, note 21 [(attributes Christ panel to Giotto), as do (in ms. opinions) Fiocco, Perkins, Toesca, and A. Venturi]. Wilhelm E. Suida, The Burlington Magazine 59, no. 343 (October 1931), 188-193. [first to recognize all five panels as part of same altarpiece; attributes Christ, St. Francis, and John the Baptist to Giotto; suggests identification of altarpiece as Peruzzi; Christ and St. John illus.]. Raimond van Marle, Bollettino d' Arte 28 (1934), 301ff. (modifies earlier opinion to attribute St. Francis to Giotto). Italiaansche Kunst in Nederlandsch Bezit (exhibition catalogue) (Amsterdam: Stedelijk Museum, 1934), cat. no. 153 (side panel, as Giotto). Italian Paintings (exhibition catalogue) (New York: Wildenstein & Co, 1947), cat. nos. 1-3 (as Maso Bianco). Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection (exhibition catalogue) (Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1951), cat. no. 2, illus. 27, 29. E. Schaffran, "Ein Altarwerk der Giottoschule," Weltkunst 23, no. 12 (June 15, 1953), 4 illus. (as pupil of Giotto, possibly Maso di Banco). Cesare Gnudi, Giotto (Milano: Aldo Martello, 1958), 248 ff (as pupil of Giotto). Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection, 2nd ed. (Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1959), illus. 16, 17. The Samuel H. Kress Collection (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1961), 30-33, illus. (b-w) 31, center panel illus. (b-w) 33. Art Treasures for America from the Samuel H. Kress Collection (exhibition catalogue) (Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1961), cat. no. 36 (entire work as Giotto and assistants). Thomas B. Hess, "Editorial; The Year's Best: 1960," ARTnews 59, no. 9 (January 1961), 25. Hasse Wahrby, "Museer I USA," Jeckning 32, no. 8 (August 1961), 151-153, illus. "Raleigh: La collezione Kress di opere della Rinascenza italiana at North Carolina Museum," Emporium 134, no. 802 (October 1961), 172-176, illus. Richard Offner, Corpus of Italian Painting, Vol. 1, sec. 4 (1962), 30, note 7 (refers to panel as Giottoesque, painted for Peruzzi Chapel). Bernard Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance...The Florentine School, Vol. 1 (London: The Phaidon Press, 1963), 136, illus. pl. 146 (as Maso di Banco) "Acquisitions," North Carolina Museum of Art Bulletin 4, nos. 2 and 3 (Winter-Spring 1963), listed 55, detail (b-w) 37, fig. 2. Also in "Loans from the Museum Collections," listed 69. Roberto Salvini and Paul Colacicchi, All the Paintings of Giotto, Pt. 2 (New York: Hawthorne Books, 1963), 91. Charles W. Stanford, Masterpieces in the North Carolina Museum of Art (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1966), no. 28, illus. (b-w). Federico Zeri, "The Literature of Art: Early Italian Paintings in the Kress Collection," The Burlington Magazine 109, no. 773 (August 1967), 474. North Carolina Architect, 20th Anniversary North Carolina Museum of Art 1947-1967 (Raleigh, NC: The North Carolina Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, 1967) 9. Artwork included without mention in writing. Wall Street Journal (January 11, 1968). Fern R. Shapley, Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools XIII - XV Century, Vol. 1 (London: The Phaidon Press, 1968), 21-22. Fern R. Shapley, Paintings from the S. H. Kress Collection: Italian School XV-XVI Century, III, addenda to Vol. 1 (London: The Phaidon Press, 1968), 382. Ferdinando Bologna, Novità su Giotto, Giotto al tempo della cappella Peruzzi (Turin: Giulio Einaudi, 1969), 27ff, illus. figs. 39, 41, 46, 47, 50 (attributes panels as follows: Christ - Giotto; St. John the Evangelist - Giotto and workshop; St. Francis - Giotto; Virgin - Giotto and workshop; St. John the Baptist - Giotto). Alistair Smart, The Assisi Problem and the Art of Giotto: A Study of The Legend of St. Francis in the Upper Church of San Francesco, Assisi (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971), 65. John D. Morse, Old Master Paintings in North America (New York: Abbeville Press, 1979), 40, illus. Allesandro Conti, "Un 'crocifisco' della bottega di Giotto," Prospettiva 20 (June 1980), 47-56, illus. fig. 2. Joanne Snow-Smith,The Salvator Mundi of Leonardo da Vinci (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1982), 74, illus. fig. 79. Edgar Peters Bowron, ed., Introduction to the Collections (Chapel Hill: published for the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, by The University of North Carolina Press, 1983), illus. (b-w) 173, details (color) 6, 7. David G. Wilkins, Maso di Banco: A Florentine Artist of the Early Trecento (New York and London: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1985), cat. no. B-44, also footnotes 20 (p. 72), 49 (p. 82), and mentioned 202, cat. B-20. Introduction to the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1992), illus. (color) 158, detail of St. Francis (b-w) 159. North Carolina Home 1, no. 5 (October 1992), 11, illus. (color). Francesca Flores d'Arcais, Giotto (Milan: 1995), 227, 229, 252, 261, 266-67, 269, illus. English ed. (New York: 1995), same pages. Alessandro Tomei, Giotto: La Pittura (Firenze: Giunti, 1997), 40-42. (exhibtion catalogue) David Steel, entry for The "Peruzzi" Altarpiece, in North Carolina Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections, Rebecca Martin Nagy, ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1998),115, 120, illus. (color) 120, detail (color) 121. Scott Schaefer, "The Realization of a Dream," Sotheby's Preview (January 1999), 34, illus. (color). Miklós Boskovits, "Giotto: un artista poco conosciuto?" in Giotto: Bilancio critico di sessant'anni di studi e ricerche, Angelo Tartuferi, ed. (exhibition catalogue) (Florence: Giunti Gruppo Editoriale, 2000), 87, illus. (b-w). Giotto: Bilancio critico di sessant'anni di studi e ricerche, Angelo Tartuferi, ed. (exhibition catalogue) (Florence: Giunti Gruppo Editoriale, 2000), 149-50, illus. (b-w) 149 (catalogue only, not in show). Preview: The Magazine of the North Carolina Museum of Art (September/October 2002), illus. (color) 22, detail (color) inside back cover. Julian Gardner, "Giotto in America (and Elsewhere)," Italian Painting of the Duecento and Trecento, Studies in the History of Art·61·, Victor M. Schmidt, ed. (Washington, DC: Trustees of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2002), 161, 169, 171, 176, illus. 167, fig. 10, details 168, 169. Michelle Natale, "Take a seasonal respite in beauty," Raleigh: The News and Observer, "What's Up" insert (December 14, 2007), mentioned and illus. (color) 17. L'Eredità di Giotto: L'arte a Firenze, 1340-1375 (exhibition catalogue) (Florence, Italy: Guinti Editore S.p.A. and Galleria degli Uffizi, 2008), cat. no. 1, discussed 88, 90, illus. (color) 89, details (color) 89-91. Peter C. Sutton, et al, Reclaimed: Paintings from the Collection of Jacques Goudstikker (exhibition catalogue) (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, in association with the Bruce Museum, 2008), mentioned 23 (catalogue only, not in exhibition). Alessandro Tomei, ed., Giotto e il Trecento (exhibition catalogue) (Milan: Skira, 2009), cat. no. 6, discussed 163-164, illus. (b-w) 163, (color) 11, and details (color) front and back covers. Timothy Verdon, La Bellezza nella Parola (Milan: Edizioni San Paolo, 2009), 191-191, illus. (color) 192-93, detail (color) 190. “NCMA Masterpieces Travel Abroad,” in North Carolina Museum of Art Preview (Summer 2009), briefly discussed and illus. (color) 12. Perri Lee Roberts, Corpus of Early Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections: The South, Vol. 3 (Athens, GA: Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, 2009), discussed 628, illus. (b-w) 629, (color) back cover, details (b-w) 630-31. David Steel, entry for The "Peruzzi Altarpiece," in North Carolina Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 2010), 246, illus. (color) 247. Luke Syson with Larry Keith, Leonardo Da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan (exhibition catalogue) (London: National Gallery Company, 2011), mentioned 303. Jane C. Long, "Parallelism in Giotto's Santa Croce Frescoes," in Push Me, Pull You: Physical and Spatial Interaction in Late Medieval and Renaissance Art, Vol. 2, Sarah Blick and Laura D. Gelfand, eds. (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2011), 340, illus. (b-w) 342, fig. 11.7. Christine Sciacca, ed., Florence at the Dawn of the Renaissance: Painting and Illumination, 1300–1350 (exhibition catalogue) (Los Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2012), cat. no. 1, illus. (color); details (color) 25, 26, and ii. Holland Cotter, “Arts & Leisure / The Week Ahead / Art,” New York Times (December 9, 2012), illus. (color) 4. John Osborne, “Florentine Art of the Early Renaissance” (exhibition review), The Burlington Magazine 155, no. 1323 (June 2013), briefly discussed and illus. (color) 442, fig. 106. Rachelle Garbarine, “Pictures of Faith,” NCCatholics (December 2015), briefly discussed 18 and 19, illus. (color) 16–17. Lyle Humphrey, "Saul Among the Prophets: W.R. Valentiner, Robert L. Humber, Carl W. Hamilton, and the Italian Collection at the NCMA," Lisandra Estevez, ed., Collecting Early Modern Art (1400-1800) in the U.S. South (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2021), 23, 43. Alessandro Tomei et al, Giotto, (Turin, Italy: UTET Grandi Opere, 2017), illus. Dianne Dwyer Modestini, Masterpieces: Based on a Manuscript by Mario Modestini, (Florence, Italy: Casalni Editore, 2017), illus. (color)

Exhibition HistoryAmsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, "Italiaansche Kunst in Nederlandsch Bezit," July 1-October 1, 1934, cat. no. 153 (side panel, as Giotto). New York, NY, Wildenstein & Co., Italian Paintings, 1947, cat. nos. 1-3 (as Maso di Banco). Washington, DC., National Gallery of Art, 1951-1960, "Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection," cat. no. 2. Washington, DC, National Gallery of Art, "Art Treasures for America from the Samuel H. Kress Collection," 1961-1962, cat. no. 36 (entire work as Giotto and Assistants). Florence, Italy, Galleria degli Uffizi, "L'Eredità di Giotto: L'arte a Firenze, 1340-1375," June 12-November 2, 2008, cat. no. 1, illus. and details (color). Rome, Italy, Complesso del Vittoriano, 'Giotto e il Trecento," March 6-July 26, 2009, cat. no. 6, illus. (color) 11, details (color) front and back covers. Los Angeles, CA, The J. Paul Getty Museum, “Florence at the Dawn of the Renaissance: Painting and Illumination, 1300–1350,” November 13, 2012–February 10, 2013; Toronto, Art Gallery of Ontario, March 6–June 16, 2013, cat. no. 1, illus. (color); details (color) 25, 26, and ii. Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," October 7, 2022–present.

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