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Title:The Crucifixion
Artist:Andrea di Bartolo (Italian, Siena, active by 1389–died 1428 Siena)
Medium:Tempera on wood, gold ground
Dimensions:20 3/4 x 38 1/2 in. (52.7 x 97.8 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1912
Object Number:12.6
Inscription: Inscribed: (on cross) ·I·N·R·I·; (on shields) ·S·P·Q·R·
Friedrich August von Kaulbach, Munich (about 1892–1912); [Böhler, Munich, 1912; sold to The Met]
New York. church of the Ascension. "Annual Exhibition of Religious Art," April 22–May 6, 1956, no catalogue.
Mary Logan Berenson. Letter to Bryson Burroughs. March 10, 1912, quotes her husband, who attributes this painting to Bartolo di Fredi.
B[ryson]. B[urroughs]. "Crucifixion by Spinello Aretino." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 7 (March 1912), pp. 54–55, ill., attributes it to Spinello Aretino and dates it about 1400.
Richard Offner. "Italian Pictures at the New York Historical Society and Elsewhere: I." Art in America 7 (June 1919), p. 152, fig. 4, illustrates it as by "Andrea di Bartolo?" and calls it "an amplified and reduced copy" of the Crucifixion by Barna da Siena (Collegiata, San Gimignano).
Giacomo de Nicola. "Andrea di Bartolo." Rassegna d'arte senese 14, no. 1 (1921), p. 14, attributes it to Andrea di Bartolo.
Raimond van Marle. The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting. Vol. 2, The Sienese School of the 14th Century. The Hague, 1924, p. 581 n. 1, attributes it to Andrea di Bartolo.
Bernhard Berenson. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Oxford, 1932, p. 46, lists it as by Bartolo di Fredi.
S. L. Faison Jr. "Barna and Bartolo di Fredi." Art Bulletin 14 (1932), p. 312, fig. 29, hesitantly attributes it to Bartolo di Fredi and compares the composition to that of Barna da Siena's Crucifixion in the Collegiata at San Gimignano.
Lucia Rigatuso. "Bartolo di Fredi." La Diana 9, nos. 3–4 (1934), p. 266, lists it among works attributed to Bartolo di Fredi.
Anna Maria Gabbrielli. "Ancora del Barna pittore delle storie del nuovo testamento nella Collegiata di S. Gimignano." Bullettino senese, n.s., 7 (1936), p. 126 n. 2, attributes it to Bartolo di Fredi and compares the composition to Barna's at San Gimignano.
Bernhard Berenson. Pitture italiane del rinascimento. Milan, 1936, p. 39.
Harry B. Wehle. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Catalogue of Italian, Spanish, and Byzantine Paintings. New York, 1940, p. 77–78, ill., as by Bartolo di Fredi.
S. Lane Faison. "A Note on a Sienese Resurrection." Journal of the Walters Art Gallery 4 (1941), pp. 97–103, fig. 2, attributes it to Andrea di Bartolo and considers it part of the same predella as the "Resurrection" in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore.
Enzo Carli. "Notizie e letture: La data degli affreschi di Bartolo di Fredi a S. Gimignano." Critica d'arte, 3rd ser., 27 (1949), p. 76, as by Bartolo di Fredi.
Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 7.
Gertrude Coor. "A New Link in the Reconstruction of an Altarpiece by Anrea di Bartolo." Journal of the Walters Art Gallery 19–20 (1956–57), pp. 19–21, 97, fig. 2, attributes it to Andrea di Bartolo and identifies a "Lamentation" (Nationalmuseum, Stockholm) as a third panel of the same predella that also included the MMA picture and the "Resurrection" in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore.
Gertrude Coor. "A Further Link in the Reconstruction of an Altarpiece by Andrea di Bartolo." Journal of the Walters Art Gallery 24 (1961), pp. 55, 59–60, fig. 2, includes the "Way to Calvary" (Colección Thyssen-Bornemisza, Monasterio de Pedralbes) as part of the same predella as this work and the panels in Baltimore and Stockholm; dates the predella to Andrea di Bartolo's early period and suggests that it may have belonged to one of the two altarpieces signed by Andrea di Bartolo mentioned by Fabio Chigi in 1625–26 as in the church of San Domenico, Siena.
David G. Carter. "The Providence Crucifixion: Its Place and Meaning for Dutch Fifteenth Century Painting." Bulletin of Rhode Island School of Design 48 (May 1962), pp. 6–7, 22 n. 28, fig. 5, attributes it to Bartolo di Fredi and discusses elements of its iconography.
Bernard Berenson. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Central Italian and North Italian Schools. London, 1968, vol. 1, p. 7.
Rudolf J. Heinemann inSammlung Thyssen-Bornemisza. Castagnola, Switzerland, 1971, p. 26, attributes it hesitantly to Bartolo di Fredi.
Burton B. Fredericksen and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, Mass., 1972, pp. 6, 292, 606.
Federico Zeri. Italian Paintings in the Walters Art Gallery. Baltimore, 1976, vol. 1, p. 50, attributes the predella to Andrea di Bartolo and calls it an early work; adds a "Betrayal of Christ" (art market, Paris, 1972) as the fifth and last panel of the predella.
Federico Zeri. "The Final Addition to a Predella by Andrea di Bartolo." Journal of the Walters Art Gallery 35 (1977), pp. 87–88.
Federico Zeri with the assistance of Elizabeth E. Gardner. Italian Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sienese and Central Italian Schools. New York, 1980, pp. 1–2, pl. 29, as by Andrea di Bartolo; note that the influence of Bartolo di Fredi implies a comparatively early date in Andrea di Bartolo's career.
Laurence B. Kanter. "A 'Massacre of the Innocents' in the Walters Art Gallery." Journal of the Walters Art Gallery 41 (1983), pp. 24–25, 28 n. 27, dates the predella to the 1390s.
Monica Leoncini inLa pittura in Italia: il Duecento e il Trecento. Ed. Enrico Castelnuovo. revised and expanded ed. [Milan], 1986, vol. 2, p. 552.
Gertrude Borghero, ed. Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection: Catalogue Raisonné of the Exhibited Works of Art. Lugano, 1986, p. 13.
Miklós Boskovits and Serena Padovani. The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection: Early Italian Painting, 1290–1470. London, 1990, pp. 18–21, fig. 1e, reproduce a hypothetical reconstruction of the altarpiece of which the MMA work formed part of the predella, tentatively proposing two panels (Italian art market, 1985) as the wings of the altarpiece; call it a late work, and date it after 1413.
Gaudenz Freuler. "Manifestatori delle cose miracolose": Arte italiana del '300 e '400 da collezioni in Svizzera e nel Liechtenstein. Exh. cat., Fondazione Thyssen-Bornemisza. Lugano, 1991, pp. 78, 80, ill. (in reconstruction of predella), suggests a late date of around 1420 for the predella.
Mauro Lucco, ed. La pittura nel Veneto: Il Trecento. Milan, 1992, p. 520.
José Manuel Pita Andrade and María del Mar Borobia Guerrero. Old Masters: Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum. [Madrid?], 1992, p. 62.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 50, ill.
Mojmír S. Frinta. "Part I: Catalogue Raisonné of All Punch Shapes." Punched Decoration on Late Medieval Panel and Miniature Painting. Prague, 1998, pp. 233, 260, 387, 507, classifies the punch marks appearing in this painting.
Stefan Weppelmann. Spinello Aretino e la pittura del Trecento in Toscana. Florence, 2011, p. 367, no. A 169, lists it among rejected works.
This painting was the center of a predella illustrating the Passion of Christ. The other four scenes showed (left to right) the Betrayal of Christ (art market, Paris, 1972), the Way to Calvary (Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, on deposit with the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona), the Lamentation (Nationalmuseum, Stockholm), and the Resurrection (Walters Art Museum, Baltimore). The Met's picture depends upon Barna da Siena's fresco in the Collegiata at San Gimignano. A similar panel of the Crucifixion by Andrea di Bartolo is in the Toledo Museum of Art (no. 52.103).
Bernardo Daddi (Italian, Florence (?) ca. 1290–1348 Florence)
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