Pesellino, Santa Trinità Altarpiece, 1455-60,
Tempera and oil on wood, National Gallery, London.
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Att. to Filippino Lippi and Workshop, St Mamas
in Prison thrown to the lions, 1455-60, National Gallery, London.
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History has not been kind to Francesco di Stefano, more
commonly called Pesellino. Vasari confused him with his grandfather, Pesello,
stating that this individual was the pupil of Andrea dal Castagno, whilist
leaving Francesco in art history oblivion.[1]
Those zealous Victorian connoisseurs Crowe and Cavalcaselle put Pesellino on
the road to re-discovery, though they found it hard to extricate him from the
confusion Vasari had spread. Mary Logan (Mrs Berenson) attempted to isolate a
group of pictures[2];
though as Hendy points out, her invention of a fictitious name, “Compagno di
Pesellino” muddied the waters further. Logan’s group included the Trinity,
whose central panel was bought by the National Gallery, London in 1863. The
Trinity was commissioned by the company of Pistoia, thirty km from Florence,
and in the words of Hendy “must be the foundation for every attribution to the
painter.”[3]
The completion of the altarpiece was slowed by the death of Pesellino in 1457,
but it was eventually finished by the workshop of Filippino Lippi. Though the
situation is complicated, there is extensive documentation which aided greatly
in reconstructing the structure.[4]
The main tier of the altarpiece was sawn into five fragments, likely in the
eighteenth-century, of which four entered the NG between 1863 and 1929, and
one- the fragment with Sts Mamas and James on loan to the NG from the Royal Collection.
The five fragments were re-united in 1929, and put in a modern frame with four
predella panels in 1937.[5]
As Gordon points out, the involvement of Lippi and Domenico Veneziano to assess
the painting after Pesellino’s death has led to debates about the attribution
of the main tier, although its seems likely that the Lippi workshop were
responsible for the predella. It has now been established that a fifth panel
(Hermitage) was the central one of the Trinity altarpiece, an omission hidden
by the modern frame.
According to Vasari, Pesellino painted an altarpiece for
Santa Croce, which is now dispersed and divided between the Uffizi, Louvre and
Bergamo. Many panels and drawings are to be found in the museums of the world.
The Met own a fine panel showing a Madonna and Six Saints; the Louvre
have a Sacra Conversazione, as well as drawings by the artist; and the
Uffizi possess panels and drawings. Some of these drawings have been connected
with Pesellino’s late altarpieces.[6]
Pesellino, Madonna, Christ, Sts Zenobius and
John the Baptist, 1455-7, Museé du Louvre, Paris.
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Att. to Pesellino, Head of a Man, c. 1455, black
chalk and charcoal on paper, partially prepared with pink wash or pigment,
Uffizi, Florence, recto.
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[1]
Philip Hendy, “Pesellino”, Burlington Magazine, Vol. 53, No. 305, (Aug.,
1928), pp. 66-69+72-74.
[2] Mary
Logan. "Compagno di Pesellino et quelques peintures de l'école (1er
article)." Gazette des beaux-arts, 3rd ser., 26 (July 1901), 23.
[3] Hendy,
“Pesellino”, 68.
[4] A
brief summary is provided by Dillian Gordon, “The' missing predella panel of
Pesellino’s Trinity altarpiece”, Burlington Magazine, Vol. 138, No. 1115
(Feb., 1996), pp. 87-88.
[5] Gordon,
“The' missing predella panel”, 87.
[6]
Jean K. Cadogan, “Notes on a Drawing by Pesellino”, Burlington Magazine, Vol.
149, No. 1256, Italian Art (Nov., 2007), pp. 767-77.
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