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| Artist | Bartolomeo di Giovanni (Italian painter, active 1488-ca.1500) |
| Title | A Bishop Saint |
| Date earliest | about 1500 |
| Date latest | about 1510 |
| Material | tempera on panel |
| Measurements | 21.9 x 21.6 cm |
| Description | Bartolomeo di Giovanni is traditionally known as a follower of Botticelli, but his style is closer to Domenico Ghirlandaio. Few of his paintings have been identified, and the Ferens' painting forms an important part of his surviving work. Painted in Florence in c.1500, this small panel belongs to a much larger work, only a fraction of which known. It is clear that it was never meant to be appreciated in its own right but understood as part of a sequence of small panels which were positioned under a large altarpiece. 'Seven of the original eight panels are now known but the large altarpiece under which they were placed has not yet been identified. As the figure of the unidentified bishop is facing towards the left the convention would be that he would be placed on the right looking inwards towards the central panel of The Nativity (Philadelphia Museum of Art)'. The position of this figure, parallel to the picture plane, points to a simplified style. The modelling and colour scheme are somewhat schematic (Wright, 2002, pp. 23, 162-63). |
| Subject | portrait (Bishop saint) |
| Collection | Ferens Art Gallery, Hull |
| Current accession number | 482 |
| Acquisition details | Purchased from E. H. Simpson in 1964. |
| Provenance | A private collector, 'G. M.', along with the rest of the predella, 1834; acquired by the art dealer Samuel Woodburn (1786-1853); by descent to his daughter Miss Woodburn; Miss Woodburn sale, Christie's, London, 9 June 1860, lot 11g, bought by Anthony for 6 guineas; Agnew's, before 1960. |
| Principal exhibitions | From Medieval to Regency: Old Masters in the Collection at the Ferens Art Gallery, Ferens Art Gallery, Hull, 2002, cat. no. 11. |
| Principal publications | Bulletin of the Ferens Art Gallery, April-May-June 1960; Fahy, Everett, 'Bartolomeo di Giovanni Reconsidered', Apollo, vol. 97, 1973, pp. 462-69, fig. 9, dated c. 1485; Wright, Christopher, From Medieval to Regency: Old Masters in the Collection at the Ferens Art Gallery, Hull, 2002, ill. pp. 23, 162-63. |
| Notes | In 1860, the predella was complete. The locations of all but one of the seven panels are known today, and are listed by Wright (2002, p. 163). In the twentieth century many works in collections around the UK have acquired attributions to Bartolomeo di Giovanni. Wright also lists these collections. Owing to the late discovery of Bartolomeo di Giovanni’s existence and connection to Ghirlandaio, there is no early literature on this artist. The history of his 'discovery' can be usefully traced in the following literature: Crowe and Cavalcaselle, Storia della pittura in Italia dal secolo II al secolo 16 vols, Florence, 1896-1908, vol. 3, p. 417, points out that the predella to the Altarpiece by Domenico Ghirlandaio in the Osepdale degli Onnocentri in Florence was not by Ghirlandaio as well but could not identify the artist; Bruscoli, G., 'Travola di Domenico Ghirlandaio nell achiesa degli Onnocenti', Opuscolo per la Nozze Canevaro Ridolfo, Florence, 1902, pp. 6-11, 18-19, published the contract for the predella of the Innocenti altarpiece, made in July - October 1488, which was to be executed by Bartolomeo di Giovanni dipintore; Berenson, Bernhard, 'Alunno di Domenico', The Burlington Magazine, vol. 1, 1903, pp. 6-20; Berenson, Bernhard, Florentine Painters, 1909, p. 98; Beturi, Adolfo, Storia dell'Arte italiana, Milan, 1901-40, vol. 7, 1911, p. 773; Frankovitch, G., 'Nuovi aspetti della personalita di Bartolomeo di Giovanni', Bollettino d’Arte, vol. 6, 1926, pp. 65-68; Berenson, Bernhard, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance, 2 vols, London 1963, vol. 1, pp. 24-27, vol. 2, pp. 1116-31 (the last comprehensive list of the artist’s work to be published with a corpus of illustrations; it has been challenged by all later writers); Fahy, Everett, 'Bartolomeo di Giovanni Reconsidered', Apollo, vol. 97, 1973, pp. 462-69; Fahy, Everett, Some Followers of Domenico Ghirlandaio, Harvard University Thesis, 1976, pp. 32-33, 43-44; Pons, N., 'Precisazioni su tre Bartolomeo di Giovanni, il cartolaio, il sargiaio, e il dipintore', Paragone, vol. 41, 1990, pp. 115-28; Gunther, Susanne, article on Bartolomeo di Giovanni in Allgemeines Kunstler-Lexicon, vol. 7, Munich-Leipzig, 1993, p. 287. |
| Rights status | Ferens Art Gallery, Hull |
| Author | Dr Ruth Stewart |
