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Sassetta's Madonna della neve: An Image of Patronage by Machtelt Israëls Review by: Bram de Klerck Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art, Vol. 31, No. 1/2 (2004 - 2005), pp. 108-110 Published by: Stichting voor Nederlandse Kunsthistorische Publicaties Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4150580 . Accessed: 05/03/2012 08:32

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Book reviews quiredby the FlorentineCount Contini Bonacossi,who had it restored. The main panel of the altarpieceis in a gilt wooden frame Machtelt Israils, Sassetta's Madonna della neve: an im- with a tripartite,somewhat protruding baldachin of two point- age of patronage (Istituto UniversitarioOlandese di Storia ed archesflanking a round one in the center below an unchar- dell'Arte,vol. 15), Leiden (PrimaveraPers) 2003 acteristichorizontal top, which gives the work as a whole the form of an almost perfect square. This panel depicts a sacra One of the most important works by the fifteenth-century conversazionewith the Madonna and Child enthroned, sur- Sienese painter,,better knownas Sassetta rounded by angels and Sts Peter, Paul, John the Baptist and (1394-1450), is the Ecstasy ofSt Francis, now in in Francis. The coats of arms of the patrons' families are dis- Settignanonear . It was bought by BernardBerenson played unusuallyprominently on the front of Mary'sthrone. around 1900, and legend has it that his brother-in-law,Logan To do justice to the intriguingname, Madonna of theSnow, by PearsallSmith, discoveredthe panel "on a cart,being takento which the altarpieceis known, the angel to the left of Mary be made into a tabletop."'This in a way charmingyet rather carriesa platter filled with snow, while his companionon the horrifyingstory reflectsthe neglect into which many worksby right is kneading a ball from the snow in a second dish that early RenaissanceItalian artists outside that triumphantfif- rests on the thronebeside the Virgin. teenth-century canon of, say, Donatello, Fra Angelico and The depictionof snow in this altarpiecenot only servesas a Botticelli, had fallen by the beginningof the twentieth centu- referenceto the Virgin'spurity, but also to the popularlegend ry.2 Sassetta'sreputation had been suffering for a long time. of the foundationof the church of Santa Maria Maggiorein Berenson himself devoted no more than a few lines to him in Rome. The events of this legend are depicted in seven narra- his Central Italian painters of the Renaissance (1897) but six tive scenes that make up the predella, some of which are so yearslater, as if to makeup for this, the Americanconnoisseur badly damagedas to be barelylegible. Thirteenth-centurypa- was to play an importantpart in the beginningof a reappraisal pal bulls recount that, one hot summer'sday in August of the by publishing a pair of essays on Sassetta in The Burlington year 352, snow fell on the Esquiline hill in the shape of the Magazine.3 groundplan of a church.The previousnight, the VirginMary However, after publicationson Sassetta and his oeuvre by had revealed this event in visions experiencedby both Pope such illustrious scholarsas Pope-Hennessy (1939), and Carli Liberiusand a Romanpatrician by the nameofJohn. The out- (I957),4 there was no modern, comprehensivemonograph on lines of the miraculoussnowfall were to become the ground the artist. As she herself acknowledgesin the forewordto her plan of a church dedicatedto the Virgin herself:Santa Maria book, Machtelt Israelshas taken up the challenge.It is telling Maggiore.By financingthe building of the church,the child- of both the wealth of materialrelating to the Sienese master less patricianand his wife found a pious way of disposing of waiting to be studied, and Israels's meticulous scholarly ap- their fortune. proachthat, afterhaving published three importantarticles on The enchanting, poetic legend of the Madonna of the individualpaintings by Sassetta,5she chose to devote her en- Snow, its appearancein the visual arts, and especiallyits rela- tire doctoral dissertationto just one: the so-called Madonna tion to the city of , have been studied thoroughlyby van dellaneve . The panel was commissionedby one Lu- Os, who publishedhis findingsin 1968.6 Depictionsof the leg- dovica Bertini of Siena in 1430, and was placed over the altar end of the Madonna of the Snow have been known in Italy of a chapel in Siena Cathedralthree years later. The work from about 1300 onwards,reaching a peakin the Quattrocen- made its appearancein art-historicalliterature in 1862, when it to, in worksby, amongothers, the Florentinepainters Masoli- was rediscovered in the church of San Martino in Tuscan no and , and the VenetianJacopo Bellini. In Siena, Chiusdino-almost typicallyit was in a deplorablestate of re- the iconographybecame particularlypopular during the fif- pair because of exposure to humidity and rain coming in teenth and early sixteenth centuries, in manuscriptillumina- through leakingroofs. In the mid-193os the painting was ac- tions in liturgicalbooks, as well as in narrativesequences on

I See K. Clark,"The workof BernardBerenson," in idem, Momentsoflvision 4 J. Pope-Hennessy, Sassetta, London 1939; E. Carli, Sassetta e il Maestro other New York Milan &5 essays, 1981, pp. I Io-i I. dell'Osservanza, i957. 2 A second, perhaps even more astonishing example is the rediscovery in 5 M. Israels, "New documents for Sassetta and at the Porta 1909 of a polychromedwooden statue of a man on horsebackattributed to an- Romana, Siena," The Burlington Magazine 140 (1998), pp. 436-44; idem, "Sas- other Sienese artist,.The group had been tucked awaybe- setta's Arte della lana altar-pieceand the cult of CorpusDomini in Siena," The hind a pile of firewoodin the cellarof an oratoryin San Cassianodi Contronein Burlington Magazine 143 (200oo), pp. 532-43; idem, "Sassetta, Fra Angelico and the province of Lucca. See G. Rosario(ed.), II cavalieredi San Cassiano,Flo- their patrons at S. Domenico, Cortona," The Burlington Magazine 145 (2003), rence 1995. PP. 760-76. 3 B. Berenson,"A Sienese painterof the Franciscanlegend," TheBurlington 6 H.W. van Os, "Schnee in Siena," Nederlands Kunsthistorisch 7aarboek 19 Magazine 3 (1903), pp. 2-35, This text has been republished and trans- (1968), pp. 1-50o. lated severaltimes. 171-84- Io9 the of the of the more than predellas by (i477), iconography altarpiece, being just a Gerolamo di Benvenuto (1508), and, the earliest and most demonstration of Ludovica Bertini's efforts to honor her hus- elaborate of all, Sassetta. Van Os stressed the fact that it would band's memory, should be interpreted in the light of Turino's seem appropriate to find so many depictions of the Madonna own involvement with the painting. The extent to which it is della neve in the city which had considered itself to be no less legitimate to consider the highly personal involvement of pri- than civitas Virginisever since it had been dedicated to Mary to vate individuals in a decoration in is convinc- implore victory over a Florentine army in 1260. Whereas van ingly illustrated by a lengthy discussion of other private com- Os did not seem to bother much about the precise identity of missions in that church. the patrons of Sassetta's altarpiece, merely referring to them In the case of Sassetta's altarpiece, St Francis, who figures as "cives Virginis,"7this is a crucial issue in Israels's study. prominently in both the panel and the contract of commission In nine nicely rounded short chapters, each of which is con- (being the only saint to be given a laudatory qualification: veniently headed by a summarizing introduction, the author "seraphic"), should be seen in relation not only to Ludovica, investigates virtually every aspect of the altarpiece's physical who became a secular member of the Order of Franciscan appearance, style, iconography, commission, and original set- Tertiaries after her husband's death, but also to Turino, who ting in order to present an account of the way in which the himself had belonged the confraternity of San Francesco. And work's "genesis and patronage" have together determined its the choice of the Madonna of the Snow as the subject, which appearance. This question is typical of many studies of the re- was particularly dear to Franciscan spirituality, proves to be lationship between form, patronage and function of Renais- more appropriate to both husband and wife than to the widow sance altarpieces that have been undertaken in the past few alone. Had not the Virgin Mary appeared to a childless Roman decades. Only too often this kind of research is hampered by a patrician to suggest that he use his wealth to finance a church? lack of documentary evidence, and it is precisely in this re- Just like the legendary fourth-century Roman couple, Turino spect that Israels's book is a fortunate exception. Like her ear- and Ludovica had no offspring. Moreover, as the endower of a lier publications on Sassetta, this study is based largely on im- chapel, Turino would have been more than happy to identify portant new archival findings, which she combines with facts with the church-founding patrician of olden times. that were already known. The fact that we now know that Turino di Matteo and his For example, Ludovica Bertini, a Sienese widow of noble wife were already considering the foundation of a chapel and birth, has always been regarded as Sassetta's patron, because it its decoration at least early in the 1420s, makes Kempers's was she who commissioned the work in a contract of 1430. suggestion that they must have had an adviser in the person of However, it appears from documents newly discovered and Cardinal Antonio Casini all the more plausible.8 Indeed, Casi- presented here for the first time that in the period before the ni must have served as an important trait d'union between death of Ludovica's husband, Turino di Matteo, in 1423, the Siena and the place where the snow legend originated-Santa couple had been thinking about endowing a chapel in Siena Maria Maggiore in Rome. The Sienese-born Casini served as Cathedral. This emerges most clearly in two official docu- archpriest of that Roman church, and although frequently re- ments, dating from one week and three months after Turino's siding in Rome, he occupied the Sienese episcopal see from death respectively, in which several witnesses recount their 1408 to 1427-that is to say until three years before Ludovi- recollections of Turino's words on his deathbed about the ca's final commission to Sassetta, and until four years after the founding of a chapel. Turino thus gains prominence in the al- death of the important operaio del Duomo, Turino di Matteo, tarpiece's prehistory, giving Israels the opportunity to expand whom he undoubtedly knew personally. Israels's discussion of on this interesting figure. It appears that he held the important the figure of Casini, his interest in the snow legend, and his office of head of the works of Siena Cathedral (the Opera del importance for the introduction of it in Sassetta's altarpiece in Duomo). He was a wealthy, self-made man who was knighted Siena, is lucid and convincing. Her extensive discussion of only two years before his death, and was honored with the ex- Casini's role in the commission of Masolino and Masaccio's ceptional privilege of burial in front of his chapel in the cathe- so-called Santa Maria Maggiore altarpiece, with on the reverse dral. Seemingly trivial details, such as Turino's refusal to wear of the main panel a depiction of the miraculous snowfall (c. the ceremonial hat lined with squirrel fur that was part of an 1428-30; now in Naples, Museo di Capodimonte), again mak- operaio del Duomo's official dress, really bring the protagonists ing use of newly discovered archival material, can almost be of this study to life. But more important is the conclusion that regarded as a monograph within the monograph.

7 Ibid., p. 37: "Mit der BeauftragungSassetta's eine 'Madonnadella Neve' his attentionto the roleplayed by LudovicaBertini as the patronof the altar- zu malen, waren die 'cives Virginis' die ersten, die einer noch ziemlich jungen piece. Devotion fiir ihre Schutzherrinmit einem eigenen Altarbildneuen Glanz ver- 8 B. Kempers,Kunst, macht en mecenaat: het beroep van schilder in sociale ver- liehen." It was only in his later book, Sienese altarpieces, 1215-I460: form, con- houdingen 1250-1600, Amsterdam 1987, p. 181. tent, function, 2 vols., Groningen 1984-90, vol. 2, pp. 173-74, that van Os turned 110 BOOK REVIEWS

New documentaryevidence is also used to establish the pre- realm. However, one cannot help but wonder whatthe impli- cise originalsetting of Sassetta'saltarpiece in Siena Cathedral. cations of this hypothesisare for other altarpieceswith a more It appearsthat it was placedover an altarwhich until then had or less comparableprojecting frame. An exampleis Orcagna's had a once-famous painting, the so-called OperaMadonna. Strozzi altarpiecein SantaMaria Maggiore, Florence, painted This panel, probablypart of an antependiumpainted around some three-quartersof a century before Sassetta's.Here, no 1230, had been highly veneratedever since the troublesome small chapelhad to be takeninto account.Moreover, the scene days in 1260 when the besieged city was dedicatedto the Vir- depicted, or at least the image of the vision of Christ in the gin. Thus, Israels concludes, by taking the place of a wor- central panel, notoriously lacks depth, so here there was no shipped image loaded with importantcivic associations,Sas- three-dimensionalityto be heightened.9 setta's altarpiecewould have assumed those connections as well. From this point of view it cannothave been a coincidence The threads formed by descriptions,interpretations old and that the exemplarySienese citizen, Turino di Matteo, chose new, and newly discoveredarchival information come togeth- this particularchapel as his own. Interestingas this hypothesis er in a concludingchapter, that is followedonly by an epilogue may be, it is not entirelyconvincing. As the authorherself tells consisting of a discussion of a commission Sassettawas to re- us, by Turino's time the OperaMadonna (and, we may add, ceive laterfrom Antonio Casini(Ludovica and Turino'sprob- probablyits originalimpact) had become somewhatforgotten. able adviser).In that penultimatechapter, entitled "Iconogra- An inventoryof Siena Cathedralmade in 1423 explicitlystates phy," Israels presents the perfectly justifiable,albeit purely that the image was provided with a curtain rail, but that it hypotheticalconclusion (given the damagedstate of the altar- lackedthe curtain.Moreover it is hardto believe that an image piece) that the individualsdepicted in some of the scenes on that was still so treasuredwould have been removed as easily the predellashould be identifiedas the patron,her husband, as the OperaMadonna seems to have been. and their adviser. That conclusion is not especiallystartling, More convincing is the discussion of the form of the altar- and in a way it is even a little anticlimacticas well. It had previ- piece in the almost square shape of a tavola quadrata.Tradi- ously been suggested by van Os, who, in a concise seven-page tionally, art historianshave associatedthis form with the ty- discussionof Sassetta'sMadonna della neve in the second vol- pology of Renaissancealtarpieces in Florence, more or less ume of his Sienesealtarpieces, had alreadyraised the issue of tacitly assumingthe primacyof Florenceover Siena in the de- iconographicreferences to Turino, and had stressedSassetta's velopmentof earlyRenaissance painting. However, Sassetta's importanceas an innovativeSienese, Renaissancepainter who Madonnadella neve slightly predatesthe earliestknown exam- workedlargely independently of Florentinemodels.'o It might ples of the tavolaquadrata as paintedin Florenceby artistslike almost seem as if Israels has undertakenher study mainly to Filippo Lippi and Fra Angelico. One of the centralissues ad- confirm these hypotheses. But to put it that way would cer- dressed by Israelsis to demonstratethat Renaissancepainting tainly do injustice to her efforts, that first and foremostpro- in Siena developed far more independentlyof Florentine ex- vide a thoroughlydocumented frameworkfor new ideas and amples and influencesthan has often been assumed. Interest- hypotheses about Sassetta's Madonnadella neve. With this ingly, in Sassetta's altarpiecethe "invention"of depicting a book, Machtelt Israels has producedan elegant, well-written sacraconversazione in a unifying space, and the strikinglyearly study that fully meets her objectiveas stated in the introduc- use of the tavola quadratain an altarpiece,appear to have had tion, to "providean art-historicalmodel for similarcase stud- little to do with a conscious quest for stylistic innovation,but ies of altarpieceswhose memorieshave been more scarredby all the more with the originalsetting in a rathersmall chapel history." where there was not much space for the panel. This must have been the reasonwhy the top remainedhorizontal, and why no BRAM DE KLERCK paintedgables or pinnaclesshould be imaginedabove it. DEPARTMENT OF ART HISTORY The slightly protrudingframework probably also has some- RADBOUD UNIVERSITY thing to do with the place the altarpieceoccupied in this shal- NIJMEGEN low chapel. One can imagine that the subtle molding of the and carpentrywas designedto enhancethe spatialeffect of the im- DEPARTMENT OF ART HISTORY age, with the aim of involving the spectator in the painted LEIDEN UNIVERSITY

9 G. Kreytenberg,"Image and frame;remarks on Orcagna'sPala Strozzi," polyptych-are placed at an oblique angle to the picture plane. Kreytenberg The Burlington Magazine 134 (1992), pp. 634-38, analyzed this remarkable as- agrees with earlierauthors in his conception of the central panel as essentially pect of the frameof Orcagna'saltarpiece, which he consideredan exact, modern spaceless:"It is preciselythe denialof spatialstructure that transformsChrist's copy after the originalone. He stressed that the frame, protrudingsome 4 cm, appearanceinto a divine vision."However, the authorfails to explainwhy, then, would strengthen the effect of three-dimensionalityin the pictorialdecoration the supposedlyspace-creating frame is identicalin all partsof the polyptych. created by "bulky figures," some of which-in the side compartmentsof the io Van Os, op. cit. (note 7), vol. 2, pp. 167-74.