color lithograph
Sant'Agata. Vergine e martire. On verso, prayer in Italian.
1 print : lithograph, printed in colours ; image 11 x 9.4 cm]]> ]]> https://wellcomecollection.org/works/h73q7j7w]]> https://wellcomecollection.org/works/duurhum4]]>
Medium: Etching; second state of two (Lieure)

Dimensions: Sheet: 2 9/16 x 1 15/16 in. (6.5 x 5 cm)

Inscription: At upper left: S. AGATHA
At upper right: V. ET M.
At lower left: 5.
At lower left: Israel ex.
At lower right: FEB.

Marking: On verso at center: The Metropolitan Museum of Art stamp]]> Publisher Israël Henriet French]]> Credit Line: Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1917
Earls of Pembroke (British); Sotheby's, LondonWilton House Sale, July 1917; P. & D. Colnaghi & Co.]]>
Medium: Tempera on wood, gold ground

Dimensions: (a) overall 18 3/4 x 6 in. (47.6 x 15.2 cm), painted surface 18 1/4 x 5 1/2 in. (46.4 x 14 cm); (b) overall 18 3/4 x 6 in. (47.6 x 15.2 cm), painted surface 18 3/8 x 5 5/8 in. (46.7 x 14.3 cm); (c) overall 18 3/4 x 6 in. (47.6 x 15.2 cm), painted surface 18 3/8 x 5 3/8 in. (46.7 x 13.7 cm); (d) overall 18 3/4 x 6 in. (47.6 x 15.2 cm), painted surface 18 1/4 x 5 5/8 in. (46.4 x 14.3 cm)]]> https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436514
Credit Line: The Friedsam Collection, Bequest of Michael Friedsam, 1931

Alphonse Kann, Paris (in 1914); [Duveen, New York]; [Kleinberger, New York, until 1919]; Michael Friedsam, New York (1919–d. 1931)]]>
[Curt H.] Weigelt in Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler. Ed. Ulrich Thieme and Fred C. Willis. Vol. 14, Leipzig, 1921, p. 136, erroneously as still in the Alphonse Kann collection, Paris; does not identify the fourth saint.

Raimond van Marle. The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting. Vol. 9, Late Gothic Painting in Tuscany. The Hague, 1927, p. 452 n. 2, erroneously as still in the Kann collection; does not identify the fourth saint.

Luitpold Dussler. "Some Unpublished Works by Giovanni di Paolo." Burlington Magazine 50 (1927), p. 36, pl. IIA, notes the influence of Sassetta and suggests that the panels may be fragments of a large altarpiece dating from the 1430s.

Bernard Berenson in The Michael Friedsam Collection. [completed 1928], pp. 97a–97b, identifies the saints as Catherine of Alexandria, Barbara, Lucy, and Dorothy; dates the works to the middle of the artist's career and states that they must have formed part of the same polyptych.

Bernhard Berenson. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Oxford, 1932, p. 246.

Bryson Burroughs and Harry B. Wehle. "The Michael Friedsam Collection: Paintings." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 27, section 2 (November 1932), p. 34, no. 53, identify the fourth saint as Dorothy; state that the four panels must originally have formed part of the framework of a polyptych.

Marialuisa Gengaro. "Eclettismo e arte nel Quattrocento senese." La Diana 7 (1932), p. 30.

Bernhard Berenson. Pitture italiane del rinascimento. Milan, 1936, p. 212.

Edward S. King. "Notes on the Paintings by Giovanni di Paolo in the Walters Collection." Art Bulletin 18 (June 1936), p. 237, includes them in a list of works that he tentatively attributes to Giovanni di Paolo's workshop or imitators.

John Pope-Hennessy. Giovanni di Paolo, 1403–1483. London, 1937, pp. 93, 112 n. 87, p. 172, dates them before 1450; identifies the fourth saint as Dorothy.

Harry B. Wehle. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Catalogue of Italian, Spanish, and Byzantine Paintings. New York, 1940, p. 88, ill.

Cesare Brandi. Giovanni di Paolo. Florence, 1947, p. 120, identifies the fourth saint as Dorothy.

Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 42.

Bernard Berenson. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Central Italian and North Italian Schools. London, 1968, vol. 1, p. 178, calls them the pilasters of a polyptych.

Burton B. Fredericksen and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, Mass., 1972, pp. 90, 367, 376, 383, 392, 607.

Michel Laclotte and Elisabeth Mognetti. Peinture italienne. Paris, 1976, unpaginated, under no. 90, mention Zeri's hypothesis connecting these four panels with the Avignon triptych [see Ref. Zeri and Gardner 1980]; add that Saints Barbara and Catherine would have appeared on the left and Saints Agatha and Dorothy [Margaret] on the right; date the Avignon triptych to after 1470.

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. 23–24, pls. 42, 43, identify the fourth saint as Margaret; date the panels to the artist's late period; tentatively associate them with a triptych of the Nativity now in the Musée du Petit Palais, Avignon, where they would have formed two vertical pilasters, with one saint on top of another, on either side of the central panels; cite two other intact altarpieces with the same configuration of panels: one in the church of San Pietro Apostolo at Trequanda, and one in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore.

Michel Laclotte and Elisabeth Mognetti. Avignon, musée du Petit Palais: Peinture italienne. 3rd ed. Paris, 1987, p. 110, under no. 90.

John Pope-Hennessy. "Giovanni di Paolo." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 46 (Fall 1988), p. 39, figs. 48–51 (color), mentions and illustrates two additional panels from the series, depicting Saints Mary Magdalen and Agnes (private collection); believes that these six panels formed the left and right pilasters of an altarpiece, with Saints Barbara and Agatha at the top, Saints Catherine and Margaret in the middle, and Saints Mary Magdalen and Agnes at the bottom; suggests a Nativity in the Keresztény Múseum, Esztergom, Hungary, as the central panel of this altarpiece, based on the similarity of the haloes; associates the two panels of male saints in Avignon with the Esztergom Nativity rather than with the Avignon Nativity they currently flank [see Ref. Laclotte and Mognetti 1976].

Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 56, ill., as "Saints Catherine of Alexandria, Barbara, Agatha, and Margaret".

Meryle Secrest. Duveen: A Life in Art. New York, 2004, p. 445.

Michel Laclotte and Esther Moench. Peinture italienne: musée du Petit Palais Avignon. new ed. Paris, 2005, p. 113, under no. 106, ill. pp. 113 and 237 (reconstruction), reconstruct the altarpiece with the Esztergom Nativity in the center, the two male saints in Avignon as the wings, and the four MMA saints forming the outer vertical pilasters.

Dóra Sallay. "Early Sienese Paintings in Hungarian Collections, 1420–1520." PhD diss., Central European University, Budapest, 2008, pp. 107–9, figs. 11/14 (color, with Saints Mary Magdalen and and Agnes), 11/17 (reconstruction), favors identifying the fourth saint as Martha; locates the panels depicting Saints Mary Magdalen and Agnes in the Salini collection, Siena; supports the association of the two Avignon panels and the six panels depicting female saints with the Nativity in Esztergom.

Carl Brandon Strehlke in La collezione Salini: Dipinti, sculture e oreficerie dei secoli XII, XIII, XIV e XV. Ed. Luciano Bellosi. Florence, 2009, vol. 1, pp. 306, 309, ill. p. 308 (reconstruction, color), discusses them in connection with the two companion panels depicting Saints Mary Magdalen and Agnes in the Salini collection; reconstructs the altarpiece with the Esztergom Nativity in the center, flanked by the two male saints (identified as Savino or Vittorino and Ansano) in Avignon.
]]>
Medium: Tempera on wood, gold ground (tooled pattern added possibly in the late nineteenth century)

Dimensions: 13 x 16 1/2 in. (33 x 41.9 cm)]]> https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436071
Credit Line: Bequest of George Blumenthal, 1941

cathedral of Santa Reparata, Florence (demolished 1375); cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, Florence (until 1442; sold to Giovanni di Andrea Minerbetti); church of San Pancrazio, Florence (1442–at least 1568); Léon de Somzée, Brussels (until 1904; his sale, J. Fievez, Brussels, May 27, 1904, vol. 2, no. 295, as by Taddeo Gaddi); Madame Léon de Somzée, Brussels (until 1907; her sale, J. Fievez, Brussels, May 28, 1907, no. 206, as by Taddeo Gaddi); George Blumenthal, New York (by 1914–d. 1941; cat., vol. 1, 1926, pl. II, as "The Martyrdom of Saint Agatha," by School of Giotto)]]>
Oswald Sirén. "Pictures in America by Bernardo Daddi, Taddeo Gaddi, Andrea Orcagna and His Brothers: I." Art in America 2 (June 1914), p. 264, as in the collection of George Blumenthal, New York; identifies the subject as the Martyrdom of Saint Agatha, and attributes it to Bernardo Daddi.

Osvald Sirén. "Giuliano, Pietro and Giovanni da Rimini." Burlington Magazine 29 (October 1916), p. 281, as "The Martyrdom of S. Agatha"; tentatively suggests an attribution to Pietro da Rimini.

Osvald Sirén. Letter to George Blumenthal. February 20, 1916, states that it is not by Bernardo Daddi, but by a painter of the Giottesque school in the Romagna, possibly Giovanni Baronzio da Rimini; dates it about the middle of the fourteenth century.

Raimond van Marle. The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting. Vol. 3, The Florentine School of the 14th Century. The Hague, 1924, p. 408 n. 1, as "the martyrdom of St. Agatha" by Daddi's school.

Stella Rubinstein-Bloch. Catalogue of the Collection of George and Florence Blumenthal. Vol. 1, Paintings—Early Schools. Paris, 1926, unpaginated, pl. II, calls it the "The Martyrdom of Saint Agatha" by the School of Giotto, reporting that Perkins ascribes it to the Romagnole School of Giotto; illustrates it with the latter attribution .

Helen Comstock. "The Bernardo Daddis in the United States—Part II." International Studio 89 (March 1928), pp. 75–76, calls it the "Martyrdom of St. Agatha," not by Daddi himself but very close to him.

Richard Offner. A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting. Vol. 3, section 3, New York, 1930, p. 9, as the "Martyrdom of St. Agatha"; lists it among works attributed to Bernardo Daddi.

Luigi Serra in Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler. Ed. Hans Vollmer. Vol. 27, Leipzig, 1933, p. 27, as the Martyrdom of Saint Agatha; lists it among works attributed to Pietro da Rimini.

Mario Salmi. "Nota su Pietro da Rimini." Dedalo 13 (1933), p. 17 n. 8, as the Martyrdom of Saint Agatha; calls it a Florentine work derived from Daddi.

Richard Offner. A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting. Vol. 4, section 3, New York, 1934, pp. 165–66, pl. LXII, as the "Martyrdom of St. Agatha"; attributes it to a remote follower of Daddi, observing its similarities to other panels from the same predella; dates it about 1345.

George Kaftal. Iconography of the Saints in Tuscan Painting. Florence, 1952, col. 892, fig. 1001, identifies the subject as Saint Reparata tortured with red-hot irons, and attributes it to a remote follower of Daddi.

Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 26.

Klara Steinweg. "Contributo a due predelle di B. Daddi." Rivista d'arte 33 (1956), pp. 37–40, fig. 7 (reconstruction), attributes it to Daddi and identifies the saint as Reparata, citing the opinion of Ulrich Middeldorf; reconstructs the original predella to include, from left to right, Saint Reparata before the Emperor Decius (The Met, 43.98.3), Saint Reparata in Prison (Pechère collection, Brussels), this picture, Saint Reparata in a Furnace (Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne), Saint Reparata Being Prepared for Execution (The Met, 43.98.4), and the Beheading of Saint Reparata (Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden; see Hipp 2010); suggests the predella belonged to a five-panel polyptych probably painted for the church of Santa Reparata in Florence, demolished in 1375.

Richard Offner. A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting. Vol. 8, section 3, New York, 1958, pp. X, XIV–XV, XVII–XVIII, 29, 202, pl. VI (reconstruction), accepts the reconstruction and provenance suggested by Steinweg (1956) and dates the predella about 1345.

Ugo Procacci. "Recensioni." Rivista d'arte 8 (1958), p. 135.

Bernard Berenson. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Florentine School. London, 1963, vol. 1, pp. 52, 56, lists it, along with the other two MMA scenes of Saint Reparata (43.98.3 and 43.98.4), as by Daddi, connecting them with the other panels of the predella.

Brigitte Klesse. Italienische Gemälde der Gotik und Frührenaissance im Wallraf-Richartz-Museum. Cologne, 1964, pp. 7–8, follows Steinweg (1956) on the reconstruction and provenance of the predella.

Brigitte Klesse. Seidenstoffe in der italienischen Malerei des 14. Jahrhunderts. Bern, 1967, p. 357, no. 305a, dates it about 1345, based on the patterned textile hanging from the loggia.

Alessandro Conti. "Quadri alluvionati 1333, 1557, 1966 (II)." Paragone 19 (September 1968), pp. 4, 21 n. 7, identifies the predella as belonging to the altarpiece for the church of San Pancrazio, Florence, mentioned by Vasari (1568).

Federico Zeri with the assistance of Elizabeth E. Gardner. Italian Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Florentine School. New York, 1971, pp. 26–29, ill., identify the saint as Reparata; attribute the predella to Daddi, placing it in his late period, about the mid-1340s, and state that it belonged to an unidentified altarpiece.

Burton B. Fredericksen and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, Mass., 1972, pp. 62, 446, 608.

Arno Preiser. Das Entstehen und die Entwicklung der Predella in der italienischen Malerei. PhD diss., Julius-Maximilians-Universität, Würzburg. Hildesheim, 1973, pp. 325–26, accepts Conti's (1968) identification of the predella and suggests that it is missing two panels that probably showed scenes from the life of Saint Reparata, rather than her martyrdom.

Brigitte Klesse. Kataloge des Wallraf-Richartz-Museums. Vol. 6, Katalog der italienischen, französischen und spanischen Gemälde bis 1800 im Wallraf-Richartz-Museum. Cologne, 1973, pp. 43–44, under no. 878.

Miklós Boskovits in Richard Offner et al. A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting. Vol. 9, section 3, The Fourteenth Century: The Painters of the Miniaturist Tendency. new ed. Florence, 1984, p. 74, cites Conti 1968.

Wolfgang Fritz Volbach. Catalogo della Pinacoteca Vaticana. Vol. 2, Il Trecento: Firenze e Siena. Vatican City, 1987, p. 28, erroneously as in the Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.

Il Duomo di Firenze: documenti sulla decorazione della chiesa e del campanile tratti dall'archivio dell'opera. Ed. Giovanni Poggi. Florence, 1988, vol. 2, p. 141, nos. 2125–26, publishes two documents of August 25, 1442, detailing the sale of the altarpiece with its predella to Giovanni di Andrea Minerbetti for 200 lire.

Miklós Boskovits in Richard Offner et al. A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting. Vol. 3, section 3, The Fourteenth Century: The Works of Bernardo Daddi. new ed. Florence, 1989, pp. 22, 71, 263, 277, 280, 283, 286, 386, pls. XIV (hypothetical reconstruction of polyptych), XV (reconstruction of predella), XV/4, considers it likely that the predella originally belonged to the polyptych painted by Daddi for the church of San Pancrazio, Florence (later dismembered, now in the Galleria Degli Uffizi), and believes it must have included two more scenes now missing.

Miklós Boskovits in Richard Offner et al. A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting. Vol. 4, section 3, The Fourteenth Century: Bernardo Daddi, His Shop and Following. new ed. Florence, 1991, pp. 332, 463, 510.

Mary Bergstein. "Marian Politics in Quattrocento Florence: The Renewed Dedication of Santa Maria del Fiore in 1412." Renaissance Quarterly 44 (Winter 1991), pp. 690–91, notes that Spilner's study "currently in preparation" (see Spilner 1997) will propose that the San Pancrazio altarpiece was originally made for the high altar of the Florence cathedral.

Anna Padoa Rizzo. "Bernardo di Stefano Rosselli, il 'polittico Rucellai' e il polittico di San Pancrazio di Bernardo Daddi." Studi di storia dell'arte 4 (1993), p. 214, argues that the polyptych recorded by Vasari (1568) was painted by Daddi for the high altar of the cathedral of Florence, and later moved to the church of San Prancrazio by 1568.

Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 6, ill.

Enrica Neri Lusanna in The Dictionary of Art. Ed. Jane Turner. Vol. 8, New York, 1996, p. 443, mentions the predella as one of two that Vasari assigned to an altarpiece painted by Daddi for Florence Cathedral and later in the church of San Pancrazio .

Paula Lois Spilner. The Case for the Missing Maestà: New Documents and a Proposal for the High Altar of Florence Cathedral. April 1997 [see Bergstein 1991, Lavin 1999, Strehlke 2004, and Strehlke 2015], demonstrates that the San Pancrazio altarpiece was commissioned and executed between 1337 and 1344 for the high altar of the cathedral of Florence.

Irving Lavin. Santa Maria del Fiore: il Duomo di Firenze e la Vergine incinta. Rome, 1999, pp. 40–41, cites Spilner's (1997) unpublished study.

Miklós Boskovits et al., ed. "The Fourteenth Century: Bernardo Daddi and His Circle." A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting.. By Richard Offner. Vol. 5, section 3, new ed. Florence, 2001, p. 572, catalogue a panel depicting Saint James Major from the upper register of the San Pancrazio altarpiece; do not include the Saint Reparata panels in the reconstruction of the work (add. pl. V; see Boskovits 1989, pl. XIV).

Carl Brandon Strehlke. Italian Paintings 1250–1450 in the John G. Johnson Collection and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Philadelphia, 2004, pp. 96, 219, 222 n. 8, accepts Spilner's (1997) evidence showing that the San Pancrazio altarpiece was originally in the Florence cathedral.

Lisa Monnas. Merchants, Princes and Painters: Silk Fabrics in Italian and Northern Paintings, 1300–1550. New Haven, 2008, pp. 80, 82, 349 nn. 63–64, 70.

Elisabeth Hipp. "Eine 'verschollene' Florentiner Predellentafel in Dresden." Dresdener Kunstblätter 54, no. 1 (2010), pp. 8–13, 15 n. 25, identifies the panel depicting the beheading of Saint Reparata in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden.

Stefano G. Casu. The Pittas Collection: Early Italian Paintings (1200–1530). Florence, 2011, pp. 42, 44, fig. 8.2 (altarpiece reconstruction), discusses the history of the San Pancrazio altarpiece in the entry for a panel depicting Christ Blessing which he proposes as the cimasa, or crown, of the polyptych.

Victor M. Schmidt in Florence at the Dawn of the Renaissance: Painting and Illumination, 1300–1350. Ed. Christine Sciacca. Exh. cat., J. Paul Getty Museum. Los Angeles, 2012, pp. 88, 91 n. 22.

The Grove Encyclopedia of Medieval Art and Architecture. Ed. Colum P. Hourihane. Oxford, 2012, vol. 2, p. 251.

Stefano G. Casu in La fortuna dei primitivi: tesori d'arte dalle collezioni italiane fra Sette e Ottocento. Ed. Angelo Tartuferi and Gianluca Tormen. Exh. cat., Galleria dell'Accademia. Florence, 2014, pp. 320, 322, 324, fig. 1 (altarpiece reconstruction), under no. 52a–c.

Andreas Henning in An der Wiege der Kunst: Italienische Zeichnungen und Gemälde von Giotto bis Botticelli. Exh. cat., Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden. Berlin, 2014, p. 52, under no. 2, discusses the predella in the entry for the Dresden "Beheading of Saint Reparata".

Carl Brandon Strehlke in Carl Brandon Strehlke and Machtelt Brüggen Israëls. The Bernard and Mary Berenson Collection of European Paintings at I Tatti. Florence, 2015, pp. 223–24 n. 1.

Andrea De Marchi in Legati da una cintola: l'"Assunta" di Bernardo Daddi e l'identità di una città. Ed. Andrea De Marchi and Cristina Gnoni Mavarelli. Exh. cat., Museo di Palazzo Pretorio, Prato. Florence, 2017, p. 122, under nos. 4–6, dates the predella to the beginning of the 1340s.

Carl Brandon Strehlke in Legati da una cintola: l'"Assunta" di Bernardo Daddi e l'identità di una città. Ed. Andrea De Marchi and Cristina Gnoni Mavarelli. Exh. cat., Museo di Palazzo Pretorio, Prato. Florence, 2017, pp. 137–39, fig. 1 (altarpiece reconstruction), under nos. 8a–b, dates the predella about 1340.
]]>
Dimensions: 3-1/4 x 1-7/8 in. (8.3 x 4.8 cm)

Inscription: Lettered monogram lower right: 'MAF']]>
Artist: After Marcantonio Raimondi (Italian, Argini (?) ca. 1480–before 1534 Bologna (?))]]> https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/342866
Credit Line: The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1957]]>
Henri Delaborde Marc Antonio Raimondi étude historique et critique, suivie d'un catalogue raisonné des ouevres du maitre. Paris, 1887.]]> Dimensions: 6 x 4 7/16in. (15.3 x 11.3cm)
Annotated on paper support on verso, in blue crayon, "It5 [or s] - A13" along upper left border; below, "Moretto da Brescia"; at center, in graphite, "107" (crossed out in graphite); in blue crayon, "219." Along bottom border, in brown crayon, "219," and, in graphite, "219 (192)" [?], crossed out in graphite.

Note: Saint Agatha on the left holds a cooking fork associated with witchcraft at this time]]> https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/338913Credit Line: Gift of Cornelius Vanderbilt, 1880
James Jackson Jarves; Cornelius Vanderbilt (American)]]>
Jacob Bean, William M. Griswold 18th Century Italian Drawings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1990, cat. no. 78, fig. no. 78, pp. 91-92, ill.]]> The Hospital choirbooks, written and decorated between 1456 and 1476/77, represent one of the largest and most prestigious manuscript commissions in fifteenth-century Siena. Sano di Pietro, who by the mid-fifteenth century was one of the principal painters and illuminators in Siena, was entrusted with the decoration of at least five of the twenty volumes in the series. The Lehman Saint Agatha is one of many initials and full leaves painted by his hand that were removed from these books and sold to collectors sometime during the nineteenth century, before transfer of the choirbooks to the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo."

Dimensions: 10 3/8 x 10 1/8 in. (26.3 x 25.7cm)
Initial: 8 11/16 x 9 1/4 in. (22.1 x 23.5cm)
Medium: Tempera and gold on parchment]]> https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/461122
Credit Line: Robert Lehman Collection, 1975
1975.1.2488

Santa Maria della Scala, Siena; [M. Drey, Munich (1914)]; Luigi Grassi, Florence; Marczell de Nemes (sale, Frederick Muller et Cie., November 13-14, 1928, lot 103, ill. [as Sano di Pietro]); Anton W. M. Mensing, Amsterdam (Mensing sale, November 23-25, 1937, lot 8, ill. [as attributed to Sano di Pietro]). Acquired by Robert Lehman through Harold Beenhouwer on 23 November 1937.]]>
"This small, half-length statuette depicts the early Christian saint Agatha gazing heavenward with her hands bound behind her back. According to legend, the Sicilian virgin-martyr died in the third century after a prolonged period of torture at the hand of the Roman prefect Quintianus. Among other ordeals, Agatha’s breasts were cut off with pincers; these body parts became the principal iconographic attribute of the saint in early modern representations (see, for example, Sebastiano del Piombo’s painting of 1520 in the Uffizi).

There are no other known casts of this model, which has not been discussed since 1910, when Wilhelm von Bode published it as “Italian, XVII century” in his catalogue of J. P. Morgan’s collection. The saint was indirectly cast in a high-copper alloy and shows traces of a previous black lacquer. Both breasts seem to have been prostheses, cast separately and soldered into place; only the right one remains.[1] This gruesome detail reflects the morbid seventeenth-century interest in the lives and deaths of early Christian martyrs. More specifically, the half-length composition, naturalistic details, and upturned eyes of our statuette align with contemporary paintings of female saints that were especially popular in Naples and produced by artists like Andrea Vaccaro.[2]

The bronze, which features a delicate floral patterning on Agatha’s dress, likely served a private, devotional purpose. A small hole at the back of the head suggests a missing halo. The probable date and place—Naples during the first half of the seicento—allows one to speculate that the bronze is linked to the renovation of the Palazzo di Sant’Agata by the powerful cardinal Cesare Firrao, who commissioned sculptors Bernardino Landini and Giulio Mencaglia to execute a series of statues for the facade (1637–44). Their figure of Magnanimity bears a resemblance to our bronze in its elegant elongated neck and elaboration of the coiffure.[3]
-JF"]]> https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/197071
The Friedsam Collection, Bequest of Michael Friedsam, 1931
Charles Mannheim ; J. Pierpont Morgan ; Michael Friedsam (until 1931; bequeathed to MMA)]]>

1. See R. Stone/TR, April 27, 2011. The right breast is a similar alloy with the same pattern of impurities as the rest of the statuette, but with the addition of lead, which has resulted in its slightly lighter color.
2. See, for example, the painting of Saint Agatha attributed to Vaccaro in the Museo Civico Gaetano Filangieri (Palazzo Como di Napoli).
3. For Cardinal Firrao, his palazzo, and his chapel in the church of San Paolo Maggiore, which features a marble statue of the Madonna by Mencaglia, see Iorio 2012, pp. 320, 328, and throughout]]> Sculpture-Bronze
Bronze, traces of black lacquer patina]]> 132 x 178 cm

"This is one of the most important examples of Venetian painting from the 16th century, signed and dated Sebastianus Venetus faciebat Rome 1520 on the parapet in the foreground, where the henchmen’s knife has been placed. In a letter dated 29 December 1519, and addressed to Michelangelo Buonarroti, Sebastiano talks about a newly finished painting for Cardinal Rangone. Critics have highlighted the fact that the work was commissioned by Ercole Rangone, appointed cardinal by Pope Leo X in 1517 and holder of the church of Sant’Agata in Rome. The painting’s particular shape (rectangular but developed across its width), suggests that it was for private worship, meaning that the cardinal did not intend to display it on the altar of his church but rather, to keep it for himself. The painting shows the martyrdom of Agatha, a Sicilian virgin, who was born and lived in Catania in the 3rd century A.D. According to tradition, the proconsul of Catania, Quintianus, who desired Agatha, accused her of blaspheming the state religion and ordered her capture. In order to bend her to his will, he subjected her to an increasing amount of torture. The suffering that has most remained in popular memory, and the most widespread of the images, is when Agatha’s breasts were cut off with enormous pincers. The painter has included a building in the background that’s in danger of falling into the flames, a reference to the earthquake that occurred during the saint’s martyrdom.

Giorgio Vasari saw the painting in the Guardaroba of Guidobaldo della Rovere in the Palace of Pesaro while on his travels in the Marches in 1566; he mentioned it two years later in a short informative piece in the Life of Sebastian del Piombo. The painting was brought to Florence in 1631 as part of Vittoria della Rovere’s dowry, last of the family and wife of Grand Duke of Tuscany, Ferdinando II de’ Medici.

From a style point of view, critics have highlighted how Sebastiano del Piombo chose a formal solution for this violent scene, characterized by the composition’s strong horizontal accent, as was frequently used by his fellow countrymen for subjects with a meditative or domestic tone, such as the Ages of man (for example in Giorgione's painting) or the numerous Madonnas and saints. There are also style elements of Venetian origin, such as the profil perdu of governor Quintianus on the far left, a technique previously used by Giorgione."]]> https://www.uffizi.it/en/artworks/martyrdom-of-st-agatha]]>