PESELLINO

This panel is from the predella of Fra Filippo Lippi’s altarpiece executed for the Cappella Medicea del Noviziato in Santa Croce, in Florence.

In this early work by Pesellino, the crucified Christ is flanked by the Virgin and St John the Evangelist. The painting can be compared with Masaccio’s panel of the same subject from the Pisa Altarpiece. In contrast with Masaccio’s dramatic representation Pesellino’s work is quiet and meditative.

This panel originally formed part of a larger painting in horizontal format, which undoubtedly adorned the front of a cassone (wedding chest). The subject depicted comes from the first part of the “Griselda novella” in Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron. On this panel, on the left, we see Gualtieri, the marquis of Saluzzo take to the road on the day of his wedding. At the centre he meets the unsuspecting, who is carrying water home from the well. On the right we see the wedding take place before the house of Griselda’s family.

This panel originally formed part of a larger painting in horizontal format, which undoubtedly adorned the front of a cassone (wedding chest). The subject depicted comes from the first part of the “Griselda novella” in Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron. This panel shows one of the first episodes in the tale, in which Gualtieri, the marquis of Saluzzo, receives a delegation of his subjects, who plead with him to marry so as not to leave his people without an heir to the title.

A small fleet accompanies one of the three kings who, according to Christian tradition, brought gifts to the infant Jesus. King Melchior sits enthroned in the stern of a sailing ship, his robes and crown decorated with gold leaf. A fifteenth-century hunting party and two monks appear in the foreground, perhaps to make this scriptural scene more relevant to a fifteenth-century audience. The image ends abruptly on the left side; the panel was cut down at some point after it was removed from its original location.

Pesellino (Francesco di Stefano) painted this composition at least twice. It shows the Madonna on a splendidly carved marble throne and the little Jesus in his mother’s lap playing with a goldfinch. One of these panels found its way to the Isabella Gardner Museum in Boston, the other came into the possession of the Esztergom Museum. The design of the two paintings is almost identical, the only noteworthy difference can perhaps be observed in the execution of the Virgin’s right hand. Judging from this difference the Esztergom version is probably the earlier version of the two.

The meditative, somewhat melancholy facial expression of the Virgin indicates a religious ideal which will reach its artistic culmination in the works of Fra Filippo Lippi, and still later in the works of Botticelli. The goldfinch which the Child Jesus clutches in his hand is a symbol of his suffering and death, and the brooding look of the Mother already suggests the future agony of the Saviour.

The picture shows the reconstruction of the predella of the altarpiece commissioned by Cosimo de Medici (1389-1464) for the altar of Cappella Medicea del Noviziato in Santa Croce, in Florence. The predella scenes were painted by Pesellino, while the main panel of the altarpiece, the Madonna Enthroned with Saints was painted by Fra Filippo Lippi.

The painting depicts the Madonna and Child with Sts Zenobius, John the Baptist, Anthony of Padua and Francis of Assisi. It formed the main panel of an altarpiece that probably had originally a predella. It is a late work by the artist, who died prematurely while working in Filippo Lippi’s studio.

This altarpiece was commissioned in 1455 by the Company of Priests of the Trinity in Pistoia. It represents the Trinity and includes Saints Mamas, James, Zeno and Jerome. The altarpiece was completed after the death of Pesellino by Filippo Lippi and his workshop. The altarpiece was divided into several parts, probably in the 18th century, and has now been largely reassembled.

The two panels, depicting the Seven Virtue and the Seven Liberal Arts, were made to decorate the front panels of cassoni (wooden chests). Cassoni were often commissioned in pairs for weddings, one each for the bride and groom. They were decorated with themes that held didactic messages, particularly for the wife.

The panels were produced by Pesellino and workshop.

The two panels, depicting the Seven Virtue and the Seven Liberal Arts, were made to decorate the front panels of cassoni (wooden chests). Cassoni were often commissioned in pairs for weddings, one each for the bride and groom. They were decorated with themes that held didactic messages, particularly for the wife. This one extols female virtue by depicting personifications of the seven virtues together with famous representatives of them.

The panels were produced by Pesellino and workshop.

This important manuscript was dismembered in the 18th century. The only important leaf that remains in the codex is folio 3, the frontispiece to the text, which is attributed to Zanobi Strozzi. Of the leaves that were removed, one was recovered and reunited with the manuscript. Its illustration is the work of Pesellino, it shows Mars on a two-wheeled chariot. Pesellino is thought to have executed the other miniatures that are now lost.

This painting is one of the finest of the small-scale devotional works which genre Pesellino specialized in. A soft morning light pervades the scene, the mirrored attitudes of the figures, shown humbly kneeling with their heads inclined and the detailed description of the Virgin’s house result in a domestic intimacy. The influence of Filippo Lippi is recognizable, the model of the painting was an Annunciation painted by Lippi about two decades earlier.

In the top left corner, David tends his flock; in the left middle-ground, he selects stones for his sling; further to the right, David refuses armour; right of centre, he aims his sling at Goliath. In the centre foreground David decapitates Goliath.

This painting probably formed part of a cassone or another piece of furniture, like its companion ‘The Triumph of David’, also in the National Gallery.

The panel shows David’s triumphal procession from Gath to Jerusalem. David holds the head of Goliath, the giant whom he has just slain. This painting probably formed part of a cassone or another piece of furniture, like its companion ‘The Story of David and Goliath’, also in the National Gallery.

The three scenes are from the predella of the altarpiece commissioned by Cosimo de Medici (1389-1464) for the altar of Cappella Medicea del Noviziato in Santa Croce, in Florence. The main panel of the altarpiece, Madonna Enthroned with Saints was painted by Fra Filippo Lippi.

The three scenes depict the Nativity, and the Martyrdom of Sts Cosmas and Damian, and the Miracle of St Nicholas. Two other panels of the predella by Pesellino are in the Louvre.

The two cassone panels in this museum, the Triumphs of Fame, Time, and Eternity, and the Triumphs of Love, Chastity, and Death, feature five parade floats, forming a grand procession that culminates in a celestial vision of God at the end of time. The imagery derives from Petrarch’s fourteenth-century allegorical poem, The Triumphs of Love, Chastity, Death, Fame, Time, and Eternity.

The two cassone panels in this museum, the Triumphs of Fame, Time, and Eternity, and the Triumphs of Love, Chastity, and Death, feature five parade floats, forming a grand procession that culminates in a celestial vision of God at the end of time. The imagery derives from Petrarch’s fourteenth-century allegorical poem, The Triumphs of Love, Chastity, Death, Fame, Time, and Eternity.

The two scenes are from the predella of the altarpiece commissioned by Cosimo de Medici (1389-1464) for the altar of Cappella Medicea del Noviziato in Santa Croce, in Florence. The main panel of the altarpiece, Madonna Enthroned with Saints was painted by Fra Filippo Lippi.

The two scenes depict the Stigmata of St Francis, and Sts Cosmas and Damian Heal Justinian. Three other panels of the predella by Pesellino are together with the Lippi’s main panel in the Uffizi.

Pesellino specialized in delicately executed small-scale paintings ideal for private study or to carry for private devotion. Remarkably, despite their small size, the figures are described with a mastery that opens a new chapter in Florentine painting. Left to right the saints are: Anthony Abbot, Jerome, Cecilia, Catherine of Alexandria, Augustine, and George. The figure types and lighting reveal the influence of Fra Filippo Lippi, with whom Pesellino occasionally collaborated.

This accomplished Virgin and Child by Francesco Pesellino, dating from the mid-1450s, was one of the most reproduced paintings in fifteenth-century Florence. It was a pivotal work in an unusual and prolific copying enterprise. From the 1450s to the mid-1490s, the composition appeared in thirty-eight panel paintings executed by a workshop close to Pesellino and Filippo Lippi. These copies and variants were produced using a mechanical transfer method – stencil-like pounced cartoons, rubbed over with charcoal dust. A very similar painting in Esztergom, Hungary, is probably also an autograph work by Pesellino. The modeling is very delicate and the brushwork fluid. Underdrawing is visible through the transparent paint film and shows that changes were made in the drapery and body contours of both the Virgin and the Christ Child.