Description
Saint Catherine of Alexandria inscribed 'SCA CATERINA' (upper edge) tempera on gold ground panel 711/2 x 323/4 in. (181.6 x 83.2 cm.) PROVENANCE August Valbreque, by 1879. possibly harles Somers, 3 rd Earl Somers (1819-1883), and by inheritance to his kinsman, Arthur Herbert Tennyson Somers, 6th Baron Somers (1887-1944), Eastnor Castle, Ledbury, Herefordshire, by 1914. with Arthur Ruck Galleries, London, by 1919. Walter Spencer Morgan Burns, North Mymms Park, near Hatfield, Hertfordshire, by 1934; and by inheritance through his widow, Mrs. Walter Burns to her son, Major-General Sir George Burns; his sale, Sotheby's, London, 19 April 1967, lot 8. LITERATURE A.B. Jameson, Sacred and Legendary Art, London, 1879, II, p. 477 [later ed. By E.M. Hurll, Boston and New York, 1899, II, p. 470, as School of Giotto]. Arundel Club Portfolio, XI, London, 1914, no. 1A, as possibly by Bernardo Daddi. B. Berenson, "Quadri senza casa: il trecento fiorentino, I," Dedalo, XI, 1930-1931, p. 978, p. 971, illustrated, citing the provenance from Florence cathedral. R. Offner, A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting, Sect. III, IV, Daddi, His Shop and Following, Locust Valley, N.Y., 1934, pp. X, 25, 28, 177, 179, 199, pls. XIII and XIII1, as close follower of Daddi. A. Oswald, "Country Houses and Gardens, Old & New: North Mymms Park - I. Hertfordshire, The Seat of Mrs. Walter A.G. Burns," Country Life, LXXV, no. 1931, 20 January 1934, p. 70, fig. 10 (photograph of the dining room at North Mymms Park). R. Offner, A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting, Sect. III, Vol. V, Master of San Martino alla Palma; Assistant of Daddi; Master of the Fabriano Altarpiece, Brattleboro, Vermont, 1947, pp. 93; 94, notes 1, 3; 95, note 5, as close follower of Daddi. W. and E. Paatz, Die Kirchen von Florenz, III, Frankfurt-am-Main, 1952, pp. 403; 586, note 566. K. Steinweg, 'Contributi a due predelle di Bernardo Daddi,' Rivista d'arte, XXXI, 1956, pp. 38-9, note 31, as workshop of Daddi. R. Offner, A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting, Sect. III, Vol. VIII, Workshop of Bernardo Daddi, Glkstadt, 1958, p. 3, as close follower of Daddi. B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Florentine School, London and New York, 1963, I, p. 56, as workshop of Daddi. B. Berenson, Homeless Paintings of the Renaissance (ed. H. Kiel), Bloomington, Indiana, and London, 1969, p. 86, fig. 128. E. Skaug, "Contributions to Giotto's Workshop," Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Insitutes in Florenz, XV, No. 2, 1971, p. 158. R. Fremantle, Florentine Gothic Painters, From Giotto to Masaccio, London, 1975, Appendix A, p. 607, no. 1300, as unknown painter near to Daddi. M. Boskovits, A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting, Section III, IX, The Painters of the Miniaturist Tendency, Florence, 1984, pp. 14, note 9; 73, note 279; 611. R. Offner, A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting, Sect. III, IV, Bernardino Daddi, His Shop and Following (ed. by M. Boskovits), Florence, 1991, pp. 18, 97, 102-104, 105, 508, pls. XIII and XIII1, as attributed to Daddi. E.S. Skaug, Punch Marks, from Giotto to Fra Angelico: Attribution, Chronology, and Workshop Relationships in Tuscan Panel Painting, with Particular Consideration to Florence, c. 1330-1430, Oslo, 1994, I, pp. 99 and note 98; 109; II, n.p. (punch mark chart no. 5.3). NOTES Bernardo Daddi appears to have matriculated in the Florentine painters guild, the Arte dei Medici e Speziali, around 1320. His earliest dated work is the Madonna and Child between Saints Matthias and Nicholas (Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence) of 1328. From the evidence of that painting and the two roughly contemporary frescoes in the Pulci Beraldi Chapel, Santa Croce, it is likely that the painter had studied with the Master of the Saint Cecilia Altarpiece. He later came under the influence of Giotto, and was second only to him in the number of prestigious painting commissions he received in early fourteenth-century Florence. These included the San Pancrazio altarpiece of circa 1340, now in the Uffizi, and the Madonna and Child with Eight Angels for Or San Michele for which Daddi was paid in 1347. His art is marked by intensely expressive figures and a bright palette. Beside his monumental compositions, Daddi also worked to great effect on smaller scale works such as portable triptychs, inspiring several younger practitioners of what Richard Offner has called a 'miniaturist tendency' in mid-fourteenth-century painting in Florence. Bernardo Daddi was a founding member in 1339 of the painters' confraternity known as the Compagnia di San Luca and was a lasting influence on pupils such as Puccio di Simone and later artists like Nardo di Cione and, two generations later, Fra Angelico. On 18 August 1348, he is recorded as having died, probably a victim of the bubonic plague that had been decimating Tuscany that year. The present panel depicts the early Christian Saint Catherine (died November 25, 307), a woman of royal lineage, with the familiar attribute of her unconsummated martyrdom, the spiked wheel. The inclusion here of two such wheels is unusual, although this feature also appears in a late Daddi Saint Catherine with a Donor, which is documented in Florence cathedral from 1657 on (see R. Offner, op. cit., pp. 93-95). The monumental scale of this painting, and its tall narrow shape, suggest that it too was intended for display on a column in a church, presumably one in Florence. Another example of the same painting type is Daddi's roughly contemporary Saint Paul (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.), which is believed to have come from the church of San Felice, Florence. The identification of the coat of arms of the present St. Catherine is that of the prominent Altoviti family of Florence ( sable, a wolf rampant, argent ), may in time help locate the painting's original site. Offner, loc. cit., 1947, p. 95, note 5, cited circumstantial evidence that could possibly indicate a provenance from Florence cathedral, since three altars dedicated to Saint Catherine are recorded there, and given the clear similarity between the present painting and the Daddesque Saint Catherine (see above) still in situ. This suggestion was seconded by W. and E. Paatz, op. cit, p. 403. As far as is known, however, the Altoviti family were not patrons of any chapels or other sites in this cathedral. Rather, they had long endowed the church of Saints Apostoli, where one of their clan, Ugolotto degli Altoviti (died 1333), had served as prior (see W. and E. Paatz, op. cit, I, 1940, pp. 226; 250, note 5; for further on Altoviti patronage at Saints Apostoli, see F.L. Del Migliore, Firenze, citt… nobilissima illustrata, Florence, 1684, p. 477, and G. Richa, Notizie istoriche delle chiese fiorentine, IV, Florence, 1756, p. 50). Saint Catherine is similarly depicted at the extreme right in a later polyptych by Daddi and his workshop that is preserved at the Galleria Comunale, Prato. (For that work, see R. Offner 1991, op. cit., pp. 124-32; illus. p. 130, pl. XV5. The distinguished grouping of early Italian pictures at Eastnor Castle was formed by Charles, 3rd Earl Somers, whose wife, Virginia, n‚e Pattle, was the sister of the celebrated photogrpaher, Julia Margaret Cameron. Their notable collection was divided betweeen Eastnor, which passed to the heir male, and Reigate Priory, which was inherited by their daughter, Lady Henry Somerset, and was partly formed in Florence, which accounts for the preponderence of Florentine altarpieces amongst the group. Walter Burns was another example of an outstanding collector whose wife was closely connected with his acquisitions; she herself was the sister of the financier and collector, J. Pierpont Morgan. The collection at Mymms included some masterpieces such as Bellotto's Ponte dei Navi, Verona (Edinburgh, National Gallery of Scotland, on loan), the Algardi bust now at the City Art Gallery, Manchester and exceptional furniture. We are grateful to Mr. Everett Fahy for confirming his endorsement of the attribution to Daddi.
