Virgin and Child Enthroned between Saints Leonard and Peter and Scenes from the Life of Saint Peter Artist: Master of the Yale Dossal (Florence, active second half 13th century)
Artist, formerly attributed to: Master of the Magdalen (Italian, 1265–1290)

ca. 1265–70

European Art

On view, 2nd floor, European Art

This is a rare surviving example of a complete thirteenth-century altarpiece. The scenes at the sides, drawn from the legend of Saint Peter, read from left to right across the panel, starting from the top: Christ Calling Peter, Christ’s Charge to Peter, the Fall of Simon Magus, Peter Healing a Crippled Man, the Liberation of Peter, and the Martyrdoms of Peter and Paul. The presence of Saint Leonard to the right of the Virgin suggests that the painting may have come from the church of San Leonardo in Arcetri, just outside the walls of Florence.

Medium

Tempera and gold on panel

Dimensions

overall: 41 3/4 × 63 in. (106 × 160 cm)
picture surface: 38 11/16 × 60 1/16 in. (98.3 × 152.5 cm)

Credit Line

University Purchase from James Jackson Jarves

Accession Number

1871.3

Geography

Made in Florence, Italy

Culture

Italian, Florence

Period

13th century

Classification

Paintings

Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Provenance
James Jackson Jarves (1818–1888), Florence, by 1859; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn.
Bibliography
  • Laurence Kanter, "Some Early Sienese Paintings: Cleaned, Uncleaned, Restored, Unrestored. What Have We Learned?," Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin (2010): 46–65, fig. 9.
  • Elizabeth B. Smith, "An American in Medieval Parts: The Imapact of Europe on Early American Collectors of Medieval Art," Acta ad Archaeologiam et Artivm Historiam Pertinentia (2005).
  • Margaret Finch, "St. Peter and the Brancacci Chapel," Apollo 160, number 511 (September 2004): 69–70, 71, note 27 (Master of the Magdalen, c. 1270), fig. 5.
  • Elizabeth Bradford Smith, An American in Medieval Paris (Rome: Bardi Editore, 2004), 333, fig. 5.
  • Clay M. Dean, A Selection of Early Italian Paintings from the Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2003), 13, 16–17, no. 1.
  • Clay M. Dean, Selection of Early Italian Paintings from the Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2003), 16–17, (Magdalen Master).
  • Luciano Bellosi, Cimabue (Milan: Federico Motto, 1998), 41.
  • Handbook of the Collections, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1992), 131.
  • Richard Offner and Miklos Boskovits, A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting. The Fourteenth Century, 2, section 3 (Florence: Giunti, 1987), 284, note 2 (Magdalen Master).
  • Angelo Tartuferi, La pittura in Italia: Il Duecento e il Trecento (Milan: Electa, 1986), 276.
  • Ruth Wilkins Sullivan, "The Annointing in Bethany and Other Affirmations of Christ's Divinity on Duccio's Back Predella," Art Bulletin 67, no. 1 (March 1985): 39–42, (discussion of Magdalen Master).
  • Katherine Neilson and Andrew Carnduff Ritchie, Selected Paintings and Sculpture from the Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1972), no. 1.
  • Daniel L. Arnheim, Charles Seymour Jr., and Gloria Kury Keach, Italian Primitives: The Case History of a Collection and Its Conservation (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1972), 9–10, no. 1, (Magdalen Master).
  • Burton B. Fredericksen and Federico Zeri, Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1972), 599.
  • Charles Seymour Jr., Early Italian Paintings in the Yale University Art Gallery: A Catalogue by Charles Seymour, Jr. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1970), 9–11, no. 1.
  • Mrs. Francis Steegmuller, The Two Lives of James Jackson Jarves (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1951), 293.
  • Edward B. Garrison, Italian Romanesque Panel Painting (Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 1949), 142, no. 366, (Magdalen Master, ca. 1270).
  • Helen Comstock, "The Yale Collection of Italian Paintings," The Connoisseur 118 (September 1946): 47.
  • "Picture Book Number One," Bulletin of the Associates in Fine Arts at Yale University 15, nos.1–3 (October 1946): fig. 2.
  • Georg Swarzenski, "Arts of the Middle Ages," Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts 38 (Feb. 1940): 2; 7, ill.
  • Arts of the Middle Ages: A Loan Exhibition, February 17 to March 24, 1940 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1940), 16–17, no. 47, pl. VII (Magdalen Master).
  • Associates in Fine Arts, Yale University, "Handbook: A Description of the Gallery of Fine Arts and the Collections," Bulletin of the Associates in Fine Arts at Yale University 5, nos. 1–3 (1931): 25, ill.
  • Richard Offner, Italian Primitives at Yale University: Comments and Revisions (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1927), 2, 11–13, (Magdalen Master), fig. 4E.
  • Raimond van Marle, Development of the Italian Schools of Painting, 1, 3, 9, 17 (The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1923), 336, 351–353, 355, vol. 1; p. 336, note 1; as Florentine, mid-13th century, fig. 189.
  • Osvald Sirén, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Pictures in the Jarves Collection Belonging to Yale University (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1916), 11–13, (as manner of Margaritone d'Arezzo).
  • William Rankin, 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 of Wellesley College, 1905), 7, no. 12.
  • W. F. Brown, Boston, Catalogue of the Jarves Collection of Early Italian Pictures, sale cat. (1871), 13, lot 12 (Margaritone d'Arezzo).
  • Russell Sturgis, Jr., Manual of the Jarves Collection of Early Italian Pictures (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1868), 25–26, no. 12.
  • James Jackson Jarves, Art Studies: The "Old Masters" of Italy (New York: Derby and Jackson, 1861), engraving pl. A, fig. 2.
  • James Jackson Jarves, 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 and Co., 1860), 42–43, no. 13.
Object copyright
No Copyright - United States
Additional information

Object/Work type

altarpieces, religious art

Subject

Madonna and Child

Inscriptions

SCS LEONARDUS (halo); MR OV (halo); SCS PETRVS; (over scenes at sides: at l.): PETRUM ET ANDREAM (over calling of Peter and Andrew); MIRACULUM BEATI PETRI (over Peter and Simon Magus); SICUT ANGELUS LIBERAVIT PETRUM (over Freeing of Peter from Prison); at r.,.(illegible) (over Peter meeting with Christ); (5) MIRACULUM PETRI.(over Peter Cures the Paralytic); PASSIO BEATI PETRI ET PAULI (over Martyrdoms of Peter and Paul).

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