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Bulgarini, Saint Francis, and the Beginnings of a Tradition

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Bulgarini, Saint Francis, and the Beginnings of a Tradition BULGARINI, SAINT FRANCIS, AND THE BEGINNING OF A TRADITION A thesis presented to the faculty of the College of Fine Arts of Ohio University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts Laura Dobrynin June 2006 This thesis entitled BULGARINI, SAINT FRANCIS, AND THE BEGINNING OF A TRADITION by LAURA DOBRYNIN has been approved for the School of Art and the College of Fine Arts by Marilyn Bradshaw Associate Professor of Art History Charles McWeeney Dean, College of Fine Arts DOBRYNIN, LAURA, M.A., June 2006, Art History BULGARINI, SAINT FRANCIS, AND THE BEGINNING OF A TRADITION (110 pp.) Director of Thesis: Marilyn Bradshaw This thesis examines the influence of the fourteenth-century Sienese painter Bartolommeo Bulgarini through his depiction of Saint Francis of Assisi exposing his side wound. By tracing the development of this motif from its inception to its dispersal in selected Tuscan panel paintings of the late-1300’s, this paper seeks to prove that Bartolommeo Bulgarini was significant to its formation. In addition this paper will examine the use of punch mark decorations in the works of artists associated with Bulgarini in order to demonstrate that the painter was influential in the dissemination of the motif and the subsequent tradition of its depiction. This research is instrumental in recovering the importance of Bartolommeo Bulgarini in Sienese art history, as well as in establishing further proof of the existence of the hypothesized Sienese “Post-1350” Compagnia, a group of Sienese artists who are thought to have banded together after the bubonic plague of c.1348-50. Approved: Marilyn Bradshaw Associate Professor of Art History 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………………….....3 LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................ 5 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 8 CHAPTER ONE EARLY DEPICTIONS OF SAINT FRANCIS ................................................................ 11 CHAPTER TWO TOWARDS A NEW ICONOGRPAHIC TREND ........................................................... 19 CHAPTER THREE BARTOLOMMEO BULGARINI .................................................................................... 26 CHAPTER FOUR THE DEPICTION OF SAINT FRANCIS IN THE CIRLCE OF BULGARINI.............. 36 CHAPTER FIVE THE DEPICTION OF SAINT FRANCIS IN FLORENCE............................................. 49 CONCLUSION................................................................................................................. 58 BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................................................. 62 APPENDIX I FRANCISCAN CHURCHES IN TUSCANY.................................................................. 94 APPENDIX II EARLY SOURCES ON THE NATURE OF THE STIGMATA OF SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI: THOMAS OF CELANO’S ACCOUNT OF FRANCIS’S LIFE............... 106 APPENDIX III EARLY SOURCES ON THE NATURE OF THE STIGMATA OF SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI: SAINT BONAVENTURE’S ACCOUNT OF FRANCIS’S LIFE ............ 109 5 LIST OF FIGURES Figures Page Figure 1. Saint Gregory Master or Third Master of Anagni, Saint Francis, 1228, fresco, Sacro Speco of San Gregorio, Subiaco…………………………..67 Figure 2. Bonaventura Berlinghieri of Lucca, The Legend of Saint Francis, 1235, tempera on panel, 160 x 123 cm, San Francesco, Pescia………………...68 Figure 3. School of Giotto, The Dream of Gregory IX, c.1291-92, fresco, Upper Church of the Basilica of San Francesco, Assisi………….69 Figures 4. Unknown Sienese Sculptor, Saint Francis, c.1300, stone, Church of San Francesco, Siena…………………………………………………………70 Figure 5. Simone Martini, Saint Francis, c.1317, fresco, Chapel of Saint Martin, Lower Church of the Basilica of San Francesco, Assisi…………………71 Figure 6. Lippo Memmi, Saint Francis, c.1326, tempera on panel, 105 x 44 cm Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena......................................................................72 Figure 7. Bartolommeo Bulgarini, Cavoni Chapel Altarpiece, c.1340, tempera on panel, 121 x 181 cm, Centro di Restauro, Foretezza da Basso, Florence..73 Figure 8. Memmi’s punch designs (numbered 72 and 178 by Skaug) found in Bulgarini’s early works, c.1339-40………………………………………74 Figure 9. Bartolommeo Bulgarini, Fogliano Triptych, before 1340, tempera on panel, Madonna and Child: 91.5 x 58. 5 cm, Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Siena, Saint Ansano:79.2 x 42. 5 cm, and Saint Galgano:73.4 x 42. 4 cm, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena......................................................75 Figure 10. Bartolommeo Bulgarini, Saint Francis, 1340’s, tempera on panel, 53 x 43.5 cm, Wallraf-Richarzt Museum, Cologne...........................................76 Figure 11. Bartolommeo Bulgarini, The Berenson Polyptych, late-1340’s, tempera on panel, Madonna and Child: 91.5 x 57 cm, lateral panels: each approx. 68.5 x 39 cm, Bernard Berenson Collection, Villa I Tatti, Florence………….77 Figure 12. Bartolommeo Bulgarini, Sestano Altarpiece, before 1350, tempera on panel, Saint Peter: 137.4 x 89 cm, Saint Paul: 91.6 x 52.2 cm, and Saint John the Evangelist: 92.2 x 53.2 cm, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena……..78 6 Figure 13. Jacopo di Mino Pellicciaio, Madonna and Child with Saints, c.1345, tempera on panel, 200 x 240 cm, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena.................79 Figure 14. Bulgarini’s punch designs (numbered 398, 265, and 320 by Skaug) as seen here in his Berenson Polyptych, Cavoni Chapel Altarpiece, and the Cologne Francis………………………………………………………….80 Figure 15. Shop of Luca di Tomme, Saint Francis, mid-to late-14th century, tempera on panel, 23 x 18.2 cm, Private Collection………………………………81 Figure 16. Niccolo Buonaccorso, Stories of the New Testament, mid-to late-14th century, tempera on panel, 110 x 75 cm, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena….82 Figure 17. Niccolo Buonaccorso, Saint Francis, detail from Stories of the New Testament, mid-to late-14th century, tempera on panel, 110 x 75 cm, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena......................................................................83 Figure 18. Master of Panzano, Saints Francis and Ansanus, late-14th century, tempera on panel, approx. 26.7 x 10.2 cm, Museum of Fine Art, San Diego…….84 Figure 19. Bartolo di Fredi Cini, Saint Francis, detail of Coronation Altarpiece, 1388, tempera on panel, 200 x 115 cm, Musei Civico, Montalcino……..85 Figure 20. Bartolommeo Bulgarini, Assumption of the Virgin, early-1360’s ,tempera on panel, 204.4 x 112 cm, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena…………………86 Figure 21. Giotto Bondone, Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata, c.1295-1300, tempera on panel, 31.3 X. 16.3 cm, Louvre, Paris………………………87 Figure 22. Giotto Bondone and Assistants, The Peruzzi Altarpiece, c.1310-15, tempera on panel, 105.7 x 250.2 cm, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh…………………………………………………………………...88 Figure 23. Bernardo Daddi, Saint Francis, 1334, tempera on panel, 90.8 x 34.3 cm, Mrs. R. F. Pickhardt Collection, Sherborn, Massachusetts……………...89 Figure 24. Giovanni da Milano, Saint Francis, c.1360, tempera on panel, 113.1 x 39.5 cm, Louvre, Paris…………...............................................................90 Figure 25. Punch (numbered 283 by Skaug) used by both Bulgarini and Giovanni da Milano………………………………………………………………...91 Figure 26. Puccio di Simone, Saint Francis, after 1360, tempera on panel, 88.8 x 40.6 cm, Fogg Museum of Art, Cambridge, Massachusetts…………………..92 7 Figure 27. Giovanni del Biondo, Saints John the Evangelist, Bartholomew, and Francis with other Saints, 1365-75, tempera on panel, 100 x 36 cm, Pinacoteca, Musei Vaticani, Rome………………………………………93 8 INTRODUCTION The fourteenth-century Sienese painter Bartolommeo Bulgarini (fl. 1337- d.1378) was one of the most talented and influential painters of his generation. One of only a few artists active both before and after the outbreak of Black Plague in 1348, Bulgarini was a vital bridge between the early Ducciesque tradition and the diverse artistic atmosphere of the later fourteenth century. Bulgarini’s prestigious commissions and the recognition he received in his own time attest to his artistic importance, even as his influence on his peers is only now beginning to be fully explored. The re-connection of the historical person Bartolommeo Bulgarini with existing works has proved to be a difficult task and one that has been ongoing for much of the twentieth century.1 In 1917, the art collector, historian, and critic Bernard Berenson began writing about a group of anonymous Sienese Trecento paintings from different private and public collections that seemed to him to be part of a body of work from a single painter.2 These paintings Berenson believed were all part of the oeuvre of a single artist who showed the influence of the Sienese painters Ugolino da Siena and Pietro Lorenzetti. Because of the name of the artist who executed these works was unknown, Berenson gave the artist the rather misleading name of “Ugolino Lorenzetti.” Ernst DeWald, in an article in 1923, rejected the idea of a master who was the pupil of Ugolino da Siena and a follower of Pietro Lorenzetti as the painter of the works grouped by Berenson. De Wald suggested instead the idea of an anonymous master who was a follower of Pietro Lorenzetti (but not a pupil of Ugolino da Siena) for several of the paintings in Berenson’s “Ugolino Lorenzetti” group. This artist De Wald named the “Master of the Ovile Madonna.”3 9 In 1931 Millard Meiss wrote an article entitled “Ugolino Lorenzetti”
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