on Virgin’s open book, MAG / NIFI / CAT / ANIM / A MEA / DOMI [NUM]
James Jackson Jarves (1818–1888), Florence, by 1859
The panel support, of a vertical wood grain, is composed of three or possibly four planks measuring, from left to right, 33.7, 51.6, 8.8, and 35.2 centimeters in width. The planks have been thinned to a depth of 2.1 centimeters and were cradled and waxed during a cleaning of 1929, making it difficult to determine whether the last two are separate planks or a single plank with a straight split. Traces of a barb appear at intervals along the gable and the upper-right “shoulder” of the panel, and possibly along the right edge. The composition has been trimmed at the left and bottom edges. Exposed wood along the right and upper margins indicates the original placement of engaged moldings, but an irregular loss of paint up to 2 centimeters wide along the bottom edge was probably provoked by a later framing system. The gold ground is well preserved, being only lightly abraded overall. The paint surface is also largely intact, although thinned by modest abrasion throughout, more aggressively in the flesh tones, in the Virgin’s blue robe and Christ’s blue tunic, and through the shadows in the Angel’s and Christ’s rose-colored garments. There are minor flaking losses along the craquelure, especially in the Angel’s face and wings and the Virgin’s throne, and slightly larger losses of paint along the seams between the panels, along a split rising through the Angel’s raised left knee, and around the perimeter of the composition. The painting was treated by Andrew Petryn in 1970–72.
The panel, which entered the Yale collection with James Jackson Jarves’s attribution to Pietro Cavallini, was first discussed by Osvald Sirén in 1916, when he described the figures as “entirely characteristic” of Niccolò di Pietro Gerini.1 Sirén suggested a date in the 1370s based on a comparison with the artist’s Virgin and Child in the center of the reconstructed high altarpiece for Santa Croce—a work once reported to have borne the date 1372, since dismissed by scholars. While Richard Offner acknowledged the relationship between the Yale Annunciation and Gerini’s work, his opinion seems to have fluctuated over the course of his studies. In his 1921 article on the artist, he inserted the Annunciation among the works of “Gerini’s immediate following,” executed between 1401 and 1404; but in the 1927 volume Italian Primitives at Yale University, he cited it, in passing, as a work of Gerini.2 In Hayden Maginnis’s posthumous edition of Offner’s files, on the other hand, the painting appears among the works ascribed to the “Later and remoter Gerineschi.”3 Offner’s hesitation was shared by Charles Seymour, Jr., who qualified the attribution to Gerini, with a date around 1375, by asserting that the painting was stylistically “closer to Orcagna or possibly even to very early Agnolo Gaddi,” and left open the question of authorship until the picture, not restored since 1929 and much darkened, could undergo further treatment.4 All other authors, however, embraced Sirén’s opinion. Raimond van Marle cited the Yale Annunciation within the context of Gerini’s earliest activity, when he was most influenced by Taddeo Gaddi, and Bernard Berenson and Federico Zeri both listed the work under Gerini’s name.5 Miklós Boskovits placed the Annunciation among the artist’s early production, between 1375 and 1380.6 Since then, the image has largely been ignored by modern scholarship. In his unpublished checklist of Italian paintings at Yale, Carl Strehlke reiterated the attribution to Gerini and Boskovits’s dating.
As pointed out in some of the earliest literature,7 the Yale panel is closely related in both composition and format to an Annunciation formerly in the Samuel H. Kress collection and now in the Museo de Arte de Ponce, Puerto Rico (fig. 1), the attribution of which has shifted from Agnolo Gaddi, with a date around 1370, to Jacopo di Cione, between 1375 and 1380. Although much altered by modern restorations—which have left only the figure of the Virgin relatively intact—the Ponce Annunciation is clearly a product of the Orcagna workshop and most likely provided the precedent for the Yale panel. Both works have the same unusual shape, other than the lobed extensions of the gable in the Ponce panel, and similar dimensions. Compositionally, the present image registers as a more prosaic, simplified version of the Ponce Annunciation, which includes a kneeling donor and substitutes the more typical figure of God the Father sending forth the dove of the Holy Spirit with that of the naked Christ Child—an unusual motif, related to Franciscan spirituality, that makes its first appearance in Florentine painting in the early decades of the fourteenth century.8 Directly derived from the Ponce Annunciation, however, are the proportions and gesture of the Yale Virgin; the angle of the architectural throne, albeit much simplified in structure; and the pose and dress of the kneeling Angel, who wears an identical white pallium with small crosses that swirls around his arm and body in a similar fashion to that in the Ponce painting.
Notwithstanding the doubts expressed by Offner and Seymour, the closest point of reference for the Yale Annunciation is found in those works presently assigned to an early phase in Gerini’s career, preceding the dated 1387 triptych in the National Gallery, London9—unanimously assigned to his hand—and the 1388 frescoes in the church of Santa Felicita, Florence, his first documented independent commission. The evaluation of the artist’s development in this period, following the first appearance of his name in the Florentine painter’s guild in 1368, is complicated by his repeated collaborations with other established workshops, including that of Jacopo di Cione in 1383; but the commonalities between the images that can be unhesitatingly assigned to his hand indicate a gradual evolution from a dependence on the models of Taddeo Gaddi, presumed to have been Gerini’s teacher, toward a greater receptiveness to Orcagnesque models. Both these influences appear conflated in the Yale Annunciation, whose derivations from the Ponce Annunciation perhaps indicate a moment when the artist was in actual contact with the Cione workshop.
The massively square proportions of the Yale Angel closely approach the monumental figures of Gerini’s Burial of the Virgin in the Galleria Nazionale, Parma, attributed by Offner to a follower of the painter but now recognized as among his earliest efforts and dated between 1370 and 1375 (fig. 2).10 Other elements, such as the strong chiaroscuro and more angular, narrower features, recall the later Deposition in the church of San Carlo dei Lombardi, Florence, datable on circumstantial evidence around 1381–83 (fig. 3).11 Comparisons may also be drawn with some of the images usually gathered around the Coronation of the Virgin in the tabernacle of the Arte della Lana, Florence—a work formerly viewed as the product of a distinct personality in Gerini’s workshop, christened by Berenson “Master of the Arte della Lana” but since regarded as marking a distinct moment in Niccolò’s activity around 1380. The structure of the throne, in particular, very nearly corresponds to that of the Arte della Lana Coronation, as well as that in the closely related Trinity with Saints Francis and Mary Magdalen in the Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence,12 both of which are dated by modern scholarship between 1380 and 1385. The more static quality of the Yale Annunciation vis-à-vis the latter works, however, denotes a slightly earlier execution. Bearing in mind the limitations inherent in establishing a precise framework for the evolution of the painter’s style during the 1370s and early 1380s, these correspondences suggest that the chronological parameters proposed by Boskovits for the execution of the Yale Annunciation, between around 1375 and 1380—following in the footsteps of the Ponce Annunciation—are entirely plausible.
The shape and iconography of the Yale Annunciation suggest that, like the Ponce altarpiece, it was originally intended as an independent panel, possibly executed for a private chapel or confraternity in Florence or its surroundings. Perhaps significantly, Spinello Aretino adopted the details of the present composition for the Annunciation he painted in the pinnacles of his monumental altarpiece for the Duomo of Pisa around 1395.13 That work, however, omits the words inscribed in Mary’s open book in favor of random scribbles. It is perhaps worthy of note that instead of the more typical prayers associated with the Feast of the Annunciation, the Yale Virgin’s book is open to the first lines of the Magnificat, or Canticle of Mary: Magnificat anima mea dominum (My soul doth magnify the Lord; Luke 1:46). The words are reportedly those spoken by Mary to Elizabeth at the Visitation, an episode that Bonaventure linked to the Annunciation in his Lignum vitae, advising the meditant to sing “this holy canticle” in celebration of the event.14 The specific reference to this text may point to a Franciscan context for this commission, akin to that which possibly determined the unusual iconography of the Ponce Annunciation. —PP
Published References
Jarves, James Jackson. Descriptive Catalogue of “Old Masters” Collected by James J. Jarves to Illustrate the History of Painting from A.D. 1200 to the Best Periods of Italian Art. Cambridge, Mass.: H. O. Houghton, 1860., 43, no. 15; Sturgis, Russell, Jr. Manual of the Jarves Collection of Early Italian Pictures. New Haven: Yale College, 1868., 33, no. 19; W. F. Brown, Boston. Catalogue of the Jarves Collection of Early Italian Pictures. Sale cat. November 9, 1871., 14, no. 19; Rankin, William. “Some Early Italian Pictures in the Jarves Collection of the Yale School of Fine Arts at New Haven.” American Journal of Archaeology 10, no. 2 (April–June 1895): 137–51., 141; Rankin, William. Notes on the Collections of Old Masters at Yale University, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Fogg Museum of Harvard University. Wellesley, Mass.: Department of Art, Wellesley College, 1905., 3, 8, no. 19; Sirén, Osvald. A Descriptive Catalogue of the Pictures in the Jarves Collection Belonging to Yale University. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1916., 55–56, no. 21, fig. 21; Offner, Richard. “Niccolò di Pietro Gerini, Part Two.” Art in America 9, no. 6 (October 1921): 233–40., 239; van Marle, Raimond. The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting. Vol. 3. The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1924., 314; Offner, Richard. Italian Primitives at Yale University: Comments and Revisions. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1927., 3; Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: A List of the Principal Artists and Their Works with an Index of Places. Oxford: Clarendon, 1932., 395; An Exhibition of Italian Paintings Lent by Mr. Samuel H. Kress of New York to Dallas Public Art Gallery, Dallas, Texas. Exh. cat. Dallas: Public Art Gallery, 1933., 11; Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture: Descriptive List with Notes. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1941., 70; Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance, A List of the Principal Artists and Their Works with an Index of Places: The Florentine School. 2 vols. London: Phaidon, 1963., 1:160; Klesse, Brigitte. Seidenstoffe in der italienischen Malerei des 14. Jahrhunderts. Bern, Switzerland: Stämpfli, 1967., 205, no. 78; Seymour, Charles, Jr. Early Italian Paintings in the Yale University Art Gallery. New Haven: Yale University Art Gallery, 1970., 59, no. 40, fig. 40; Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1972., 81, 599; Boskovits, Miklós. Pittura fiorentina alla vigilia del Rinascimento, 1370–1400. Florence: Edam, 1975., 410; Offner, Richard. A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting: The Fourteenth Century. Supplement: A Legacy of Attributions. Ed. Hayden B. J. Maginnis. New York: Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, 1981., 78
Notes
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Sirén, Osvald. A Descriptive Catalogue of the Pictures in the Jarves Collection Belonging to Yale University. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1916., 55–56, no. 21, fig. 21. ↩︎
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Offner, Richard. “Niccolò di Pietro Gerini, Part Two.” Art in America 9, no. 6 (October 1921): 233–40., 239; and Offner, Richard. Italian Primitives at Yale University: Comments and Revisions. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1927., 3. ↩︎
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Offner, Richard. A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting: The Fourteenth Century. Supplement: A Legacy of Attributions. Ed. Hayden B. J. Maginnis. New York: Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, 1981., 78. ↩︎
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Seymour, Charles, Jr. Early Italian Paintings in the Yale University Art Gallery. New Haven: Yale University Art Gallery, 1970., 59, no. 40, fig. 40. ↩︎
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van Marle, Raimond. The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting. Vol. 3. The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1924., 314; Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: A List of the Principal Artists and Their Works with an Index of Places. Oxford: Clarendon, 1932., 395; Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance, A List of the Principal Artists and Their Works with an Index of Places: The Florentine School. 2 vols. London: Phaidon, 1963., 1:160; and Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1972., 81, 599. ↩︎
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Boskovits, Miklós. Pittura fiorentina alla vigilia del Rinascimento, 1370–1400. Florence: Edam, 1975., 410. ↩︎
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An Exhibition of Italian Paintings Lent by Mr. Samuel H. Kress of New York to Dallas Public Art Gallery, Dallas, Texas. Exh. cat. Dallas: Public Art Gallery, 1933., 11; and Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture: Descriptive List with Notes. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1941., 70. ↩︎
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There is no reason to presume, as has been suggested, that the Christ Child in the Ponce painting, although much retouched, is a modern invention over what was originally a figure of God the Father; see Roberts, Perri Lee. Corpus of Early Italian Paintings in North American Collections. Vol. 3, The South. Athens: Georgia Museum of Art, 2009., 590–91. The iconographic motif has been traced to Saint Bonaventure’s Lignum vitae (1217–74) and the notion that Christ entered fully formed in the Virgin’s womb. The earliest evidence of its appearance in Florentine painting is the medallion of the Annunciation in Pacino’s Tree of Life in the Galleria dell’Accademia, inv. no. 1890 n. 8459, executed for the Clarissan nuns of Monticelli in the second decade of the fourteenth century—a work that follows Bonaventure’s text to the letter. See Robb, David M. “The Iconography of the Annunciation in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries.” Art Bulletin 18 (December 1936): 480–526., 523–26; and, more recently, Brunori, Lia. “‘Ed era sì piccolino, che non era quanto una cruna d’aco’: Breve percorso iconografico nelle Annunciazioni di Giovanni dal Ponte.” In Giovanni dal Ponte: Protagonista dell’umanesimo tardogotico fiorentino, ed. Lorenzo Sbaraglio and Angelo Tartuferi, 53–61. Exh. cat. Florence: Galleria dell’Accademia, 2016., 53–61. For a full discussion of the Accademia panel and its iconography, see Offner, Richard. A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting. Sec. 3, vol. 2, Elder Contemporaries of Bernardo Daddi. Ed. Miklós Boskovits. Florence: Giunti, 1987., 82–121. A miniature Christ Child is also included in Andrea di Nerio’s signed Annunciation in the Museo Diocesano di Arte Sacra, Arezzo, generally placed in the 1350s and possibly painted for the Compagnia della Santissima Annunziata in Arezzo, and in a late fourteenth-century Annunciation attributed to the Master of Sant’Ivo, formerly on the art market; see Fototeca Zeri, Federico Zeri Foundation, Bologna, inv. no. 3357. The subject, however, is still relatively rare in Italian painting and became increasingly controversial in the fifteenth century, suggesting that the Ponce Annunciation, whose provenance is unknown, may have been painted for a prominent Franciscan establishment. ↩︎
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Inv. no. NG579.1–.5, https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/niccolo-di-pietro-gerini-baptism-altarpiece. ↩︎
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Offner, Richard. “Niccolò di Pietro Gerini, Part Two.” Art in America 9, no. 6 (October 1921): 233–40., 239. On the Parma altarpiece, see, most recently, Lorenzo Sbaraglio, in De Marchi, Andrea, and Cristina Gnoni Mavarelli, eds. Legati da una cintola: L’Assunta di Bernardo Daddi e l’identità di una città. Exh. cat. Florence: Mandragora, 2017., 166–67, no. 23. ↩︎
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The documents pertaining to the execution of the San Carlo dei Lombardi altarpiece, originally intended for the church of Orsanmichele, were first published by Zervas, Diane Finiello. “Niccolò Gerini’s ‘Entombment and Resurrection of Christ,’ S. Anna/S. Michele/S. Carlo and Orsanmichele in Florence: Clarifications and New Documentation.” Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 66, no. 1 (2003): 33–64., 33–64. ↩︎
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Inv. no. 1890 n. 3944; see Costanza Barlondi, in Boskovits, Miklós, and Daniela Parenti, eds. Cataloghi della Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze: Dipinti. Vol. 2, Il tardo trecento. Florence: Giunti, 2010., 129–31, no. 24 (with previous bibliography). ↩︎
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Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, inv. no. 550, https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/383. Until very recently, the attribution of this work had shifted between Niccolò di Pietro Gerini and Spinello Aretino. Boskovits curiously listed the panels under both names, undoubtedly an oversight but also an indication of the confusion that has sometimes surrounded attributions to the two artists; see Boskovits, Miklós. Pittura fiorentina alla vigilia del Rinascimento, 1370–1400. Florence: Edam, 1975., 404, 441. For a reconstruction of the altarpiece, which also included a Virgin and Child in the Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, Mass., inv. no. 1905.1, https://harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/230929?position=230929, and two laterals in Pisa (Opera Primiziale, Palazzo Arcivescovile; and Museo Nazionale di San Matteo), see Weppelmann, Stefan. Spinello Aretino e la pittura del trecento in Toscana. Florence: Polistampa, 2011., 241–47, no. 50 (with previous bibliography). ↩︎
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“If you could perceive the splendor and magnificence of this flame sent down from Heaven, the refreshing breeze that came down with it, the consolation it poured forth, if you could understand the loftiness of Mary’s elevation, the glorification of humanity, the condescension of divine Majesty; if you could hear the Virgin singing her delight; if you could accompany her into the hill country and witness how the woman who had been barren embraced her and greeted her with words by which the tiny servant recognized his Lord, the herald announced the Judge, the voice proclaimed the Word—oh, surely then, together with the Blessed Virgin you would most sweetly sing this holy canticle: ‘My soul magnifies the Lord . . . ’; surely, then, one with the infant prophet, you would joyfully and jubilantly adore the marvel of the virgin conception”; Bonaventure, Lignum vitae I.3, as cited by Karnes, Michelle. Imagination, Meditation, and Cognition in the Middle Ages. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011., 132. As noted by Karnes, “Bonaventure here summarizes the major events of Luke 1:26–55, which describes the annunciation, Mary’s visit to Elizabeth, and Mary’s prayer, the Magnificat.” ↩︎