Seven Sassettas for the National Gallery

Seven Sassettas for the National GalleryAuthor(s): Kenneth ClarkSource: The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 66, No. 385 (Apr., 1935), pp. 152-155+158Published by: The Burlington Magazine Publications Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/866026 .

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SEVEN SASSETTAS FOR THE NATIONAL GALLERY BY KENNETH CLARK

ITH the help of generous contribu- tions from the National Art Collec- tions Fund, Lord Bearsted, Mr. Ben- jamin Guinness, and through the good offices of Lord Duveen, the National

Gallery has recently acquired seven panels representing scenes from the life of St. Francis by Stefano di Giovanni, better known as Sassetta. These are, of course, part of the well-known altarpiece which Sassetta painted for the Church of S. Francesco at Borgo San Sepolcro between the years 1437-1444. The eighth panel of the same series is in the Musfe Conde at Chantilly, and three large panels, presumably the front of the original altarpiece representing St. Francis between St. John the Baptist and the Blessed Raineri Rasini are in the collection of Mr. Berenson at Settignano.

The history of these seven panels can be traced at almost every stage. The altarpiece was dis- membered in 1752, but remained in the church till it was bought by a certain Cay. Sergiuliani of Arezzo in 18io. In 1819 eight scenes were in the collection of the Abate Angelucci as Piero della Francesca, and they were sold as such to an art dealer named Del Chiaro, who had them restored at Florence by Antonio Gargalli. By 1837 they were in the Demidoff Collection at Florence, and it was at this time that they first became known to the world through engravings of the Chantilly and Berenson panels, published by Rosini in his Storia della Pittura Italiana (Vol. II, p. 165, and plates 25 and 50). Rather later six of the remaining panels passed into the Chalandon Collection in Paris and the seventh, the scene of St. Francis and the Wolf of Gubbio, into the collection of the Comte de Martel. In these collections they remained until bought by Sir Joseph Duveen, who in 1927 sold all seven into the Mackay Collection, New York.

Sassetta's altarpiece was fully published in THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE for September, 1903, with an article by Mr. Berenson, entitled, "A Sienese Painter of the Franciscan Legend," which was afterwards reprinted in book form. Thirty years of study has confirmed almost all the judgments in his essay, and Sassetta from having been an entirely unknown painter is now recognized as the greatest artist of the Sienese Quattrocento. If his name is less well known in England than those of his Florentine contemporaries it is chiefly because his work has not been seen here. At the time when the bulk of the early Italian pictures in Trafalgar Square were being bought, Sienese painting of the fifteenth century was considered childish and trivial. It was a backwater which had contributed nothing to the evolutionary scheme of art then fashionable. We have since learnt from Eastern painting that the

classical style of the Renaissance, though it may be the highest, is not the only aesthetic ideal, and we are prepared to enjoy the flat local colour, the linear rhythms, and the decorative surfaces of Sassetta and his contemporaries.

It would be difficult to add anything to Mr. Berenson's critical appreciation, and in this note I shall not attempt to do so. But since the pictures were cleaned some ten years ago, it is now possible to provide the student with better photographs than those available to Mr. Berenson; and it may also be useful to mention a few points connected with their colour and condition, which could hardly have been apparent before they were cleaned.

The series opens with the two panels which have gained most in brilliance and freshness of colour. The removal of dirt and varnish from the first, the Charity of St. Francis and his Dream of the Celestial City [PLATE III, A] has revealed a harmony of grey and white which at once recalls Piero della Francesca and might be claimed to excuse the ancient attribu- tion when they were in the Angelucci Collection. In fact, Piero may have seen these panels while they were being painted, since his Baptism of Christ, formerly in the Priory of St. John the Baptist at Borgo San Sepolcro, was probably painted between I440 and I445. Perhaps the truth is that both artists owed a great deal to Masolino; and Sassetta's debt was never more clearly seen than in the type of the Sleeping Francis [PLATE III, B]. Masolino was in Umbria in 1432, and it is difficult not to believe that his influence on Sassetta was direct and personal. The second panel in the series, the scene in which St. Francis renounces his Heritage [PLATE II, A] has also revealed in cleaning an extraordinarily brilliant scheme of colour, especially in the architecture. The contrast of pink and blue seems at first sight almost child-like; but Sassetta's real subtlety may be gauged by comparing with the lapis vault the blue robe of the monk reading in the background. At first sight the two colours seem identical ; actually the blue of the monk's robe is most delicately modi- fied, and Sassetta has succeeded in placing it in correct atmospheric relation to the foreground without sacrificing its vividness of colour.

At this point it will be convenient to say a word about the order in which the panels have been arranged in the National Gallery. Since the chrono- logical sequence of the miracles is not a matter of historical fact, we have decided to change the traditional order in the interest of

aesthetic balance.

The scene in which St. Francis receives the Stigmata has been placed in the centre, not only because it is the central fact of his life, but because the picture stands apart from the rest of the series.

S BURLINGTON AGAZINENO385 xvi, April, 935

K 53 THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE, No. 385, Vol. lxvi, April, I935



THE BUIIAL OF ST. FRANCIS, BY SASSETTA. PANEL, 87.6 BY 52 CM. (THE NATIONAL GALLERY)



Seven Sassettas for the National Gallery

After it have been placed the scenes which show the saint with the stigmata on his hands; before it, those in which the stigmata are not visible. The arrangement therefore has a logical as well as an aesthetic justification.

There follow three panels in a lower key, chiefly in brown and green, relieved by patches of scarlet. That showing the Recognition of the Franciscan Order is on the whole the least satisfactory of the series. Its failure is due in part to the composition, which, perhaps because it is borrowed too directly from Ambrogio Lorenzetti, lacks the rhythmic balance of the other panels; and in part to the fact that the background has been damaged in the past. The restoration, presumably done when the panels were cleaned, is rather too dark in tone, with the result that the back of the hall in which the scene takes place has lost the illusion of space admired by Mr. Berenson.

The Stigmata of St. Francis is, as I have said, con- ceived in a different mood from the rest of the series, the figures being larger in proportion to the panel and the whole approach being no longer that of the story-teller. The figure of the saint is clearly inspired by Giotto, and for once Sassetta attempts the heroic and plastic ideals of Florentine art and sup- presses the gay local colours of his own school. In consequence the panel has less immediate charm than others of the series. Taken by itself, however, it is one of the finest, with a seriousness and a mystical exaltation which transcends narrative, and justifies the sacrifice of prettiness. The scene of St. Francis before the Sultan [PLATE II, B], though it, too, is relatively low in tone, contains some of Sassetta's subtlest combinations of colour. In the group of men to the right, for example, the yellow hair and blue ribbon stand out against the greens of the background with a harmony less obvious than those of the more gaily coloured panels. It is a curiously oriental effect enhanced by a composition divided into three upright strips, each of which gives the effect of a Kakemono.

As we have noted above, the panel representing St. Francis's Treaty with the Wolf of Gubbio was not in the Chalandon Collection, and perhaps for this reason it was not cleaned at the same time as the rest of the series. At all events, when acquired by the National Gallery it was found to be disfigured by a toned varnish the colour of rich pea-soup.

Unfortunately, the architecture to the left of the panel had been damaged, and it was clear that the removal of the varnish would lay bare some ancient repairs. After careful consideration, it was decided to take this risk, and as a result this panel has been transformed from the dullest of the series into one of the most attractive. From having been pre- dominantly brown and green it has become blue and grey. None of the heads in the picture (and there are about twenty), had been damaged, and beyond the architecture of the gate very little restoration was necessary. Finally, the Funeral of St. Francis [PLATE I], echoes the blue and pink of the second scene, with an even more subtle and deliberate skill. The centre of the picture is built on the alternation of neutral tones, the monks' habits, for example, being alternate shades of aubergine and olive grey, the steps in the foreground alternating greys of a pink, blue or golden cast. Above these delicate sequences rise the blue vaults with their pink ribs and yellow architrave, which might perhaps dis- tract from the centre of the picture were it not that Sassetta has reserved his brightest note of scarlet for the cap of the doubting knight who bends over the dead saint's body.

It is not the intention of this note to dwell on the pathos and vividness with which Sassetta has imagined the incidents in this series. I therefore reproduce without comment [PLATE III, c] a detail from the burial scene, which shows a poor Claire, perhaps the Lady Jacopa, kneeling beside the stiff, shrunken, fragile body of St. Francis. Incidentally, it will give students of pigment a notion of the delicate crackelure which is one of the minor beauties of Sassetta's painting. The other detail reproduced, that of the young saint asleep [PLATE III, B], shows even more clearly Sassetta's feeling for texture, and the devices he employed to achieve a precious and variegated surface.

Scholars of Italian art will realize what the acquisition of these famous panels means to the National Gallery. They strengthen the collection at its weakest point. They contribute toward the full and balanced representation of European painting for which the Gallery is already famous. But it would be a mistake to write of them as if they were historical specimens or units in an academic scheme : their claim to our attention is their exquisite beauty.

CATHEDRAL DESIGNS OF MEDIEVAL ENGLAND.-CORRECTION

SIR,-Note 7, in the article entitled "Cathedral Designs of Medieval England " by Helen Rosenau, in your issue for March, says that " W. R. Lethaby's assumption (THE BURLINGTON MAGAZIN E, Vol. XXX [1917], p. I39 f.), that the rose ornament on the floor of the Chapter House, Westminster, has influenced the design of the rose window in the transepts is untenable." This inaccurate statement can only be suitably amended by citing exactly what Lethaby wrote in the place

mentioned. The passage reads as follows : " One of the tile designs in the Chapter House, which fills four tiles is, as Scott showed, an accurate representation of the

great rose windows of the Transepts, and it is in fact one of the best 'architectural drawings' of an early period which have been preserved in England." No such assumption as that referred to by your contributor has ever been made by Lethaby or any other serious authority. The transept " roses " were a few years earlier than the tiles. Yours faithfully,

J. G. NOPPEN.

154



A-ST. FRANCIS RENOUNCES HIS HERITAGE; B-ST. FRANCIS BEFORE THE SULTAN. BY SASSETTA. PANEL, EACH 87.6 BY 52 CM. (THE NATIONAL GALLERY)

PLATE II. SEVEN SASSETTAS FOR THE NATIONAL GALLERY



A-THE CHARITY OF ST. FRANCIS AND HIS DREAM OF THE CELESTIAL CITr, BY SASSETTA.

PANEL, 87.6 BY 52 CM. (THE NATIONAL GALLERY)

B-DETAIL OF PLATE III, A

C-DETAIL OF PLATE I.

PLATE III. SEVEN SASSETTAS FOR THE NATIONAL GALLERY



Documents

Seven Sassettas for the National Gallery