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Altar Wing with Five Saints

Altar Wing with Five Saints

Artist/Maker (Italian, 1419–1492/93)
Dateca. 1445
MediumTempera and gold on poplar panel
DimensionsOverall: 40 3/4 × 33 in. (103.5 × 83.8 cm)
Frame: 54 × 36 1/2 × 2 7/8 in. (137.2 × 92.7 × 7.3 cm)
Credit LineGift of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation
Object number1961.78
Status
On view
More Information
Neri di Bicci inherited from his father, Bicci di Lorenzo, and grandfather, Lorenzo di Bicci, one of the most successful and longest running painting workshops in Florence. This altarpiece fragment from the Villani di Stoldo chapel in the Church of Santissima Annunziata in Florence documents a key moment in the transition from late Gothic to the early Renaissance style in Florentine painting. A companion panel in the Galleria dell'Academia, Florence, identical in size and shape to the Oberlin work, represents five other saints, in this instance, facing left. These two panels formed the lateral wings to an altarpiece of the Madonna and Child Enthroned, now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
ProvenanceCappella Vianni di Stoldo, Church of SS Annunziata, Florence, commissioned by Jacopo di Giovanni di Matteo Villani, ca. 1450-52 to ca.1688-89.¹ Vatican Gallery, Rome, until ca. 1870. Giulio Sterbini [d.1911], Rome, ca. 1900.² (Newman Collection, Florence). (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi [1878-1955], Rome and Florence); sold to Samuel H. Kress [1863-1955] on 23 June 1933; gift to the National Gallery of Art in 1939; deaccessioned in 1952 and returned to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation; by gift 1961 to Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH Notes: ¹The painting was displayed in various locations within the Church of SS Annunziata: Capitolo de'Macinghi, ca. 1698-1700; Stanza della Sagrestia, until 1702; Stanza della Barberia, until ca. 1785. ²Not included in Adolfo Venturi and Giulio Sterbini, "La Galleria Sterbini in Roma," Saggio Illustrativo, Casa Editrice l'Arte, 1906. [Provenance information provided by the Kress Collection Provenance Research Project and the National Gallery of Art]Exhibition History
Loan to The National Gallery, Washington, D.C.
  • National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC ( 1941 - 1942 )
An Exhibition of Italian Paintings from the Collection of Samuel H. Kress
  • High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA ( 1933 - 1933 )
  • The Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC ( 1935 - 1935 )
The Samuel H. Kress Study Collection: A Gift of Ten Italian Paintings
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (November 16, 1961 - 1962-03 )
Cosimo Rosselli: Painter of the Sistine Chapel
  • Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Rollins College, Winter Park, FL (February 9, 2001 - April 22, 2001 )
Seven Hundred Years of Western Art
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (August 26, 2001 - June 2, 2002 )
Religion, Ritual and Performance in the Renaissance
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (August 28, 2012 - June 30, 2013 )
Collections
  • European
  • On View
The AMAM continually researches its collection and updates its records with new findings.
We welcome additional information and suggestions for improvement. Please email us at AMAMcurator@oberlin.edu.