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Title:Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints James Minor and Lucy
Artist:Marco di Paolo Veneziano (Italian, Venetian, active 1362–90)
Medium:Tempera on wood, gold ground
Dimensions:12 1/4 x 17 1/4 in. (31.1 x 43.8 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:The Friedsam Collection, Bequest of Michael Friedsam, 1931
Object Number:32.100.87
Michael Friedsam, New York (until 1931)
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Michael Friedsam Collection," November 15, 1932–April 9, 1933, no catalogue.
Richmond. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. "Italian Art: Loss and Survival," October 15–November 16, 1947, no catalogue.
Pasadena Art Institute. November 20, 1947–January 20, 1948, no catalogue [probably the second venue of the exhibition "Italian Art: Loss and Survival" from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts].
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Venetian Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum," May 1–September 2, 1974, no catalogue.
Bernard Berenson in The Michael Friedsam Collection. [completed 1928], p. 63, calls it Venetian, attributing it to a follower of Guariento of Padua, and dates it about 1375.
Bryson Burroughs and Harry B. Wehle. "The Michael Friedsam Collection: Paintings." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 27, section 2 (November 1932), p. 31.
Harry B. Wehle. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Catalogue of Italian, Spanish, and Byzantine Paintings. New York, 1940, p. 169, as by an unknown Venetian painter, last quarter of the fourteenth century.
Federico Zeri. Letter. May 27, 1948, attributes it to the Master of Saint Helsinus, relating it to the altarpiece in the National Gallery, London (no. 4250) that Longhi attributes to the artist.
Luigi Coletti. Letter. December 29, 1949, ascribes it to the painter of the National Gallery altarpiece, called by Longhi the Master of Saint Helsinus, and identifies him as Jacobello Bonomo.
Ferdinando Bologna. "Contributi allo studio della pittura veneziana del Trecento (II)." Arte veneta 6 (1952), p. 17, ill., attributes it to the Master of Saint Helsinus, suggesting a date between 1380 and 1390.
Federico Zeri. Letter. September 6, 1953, also ascribes to the master the diptych in the Stoop-Coray collection, calling it "extremely close" to the MMA panel.
Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 52.
Rodolfo Pallucchini. La pittura veneziana del trecento. Venice, 1964, pp. 208–209, fig. 637, attributes it to the Master of Saint Helsinus.
Burton B. Fredericksen and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, Mass., 1972, pp. 130, 314, 425, 460, 607, as by the Master of the Helsinus Legend; state that the male saint is unidentified.
Federico Zeri with the assistance of Elizabeth E. Gardner. Italian Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Venetian School. New York, 1973, pp. 42–43, pl. 47, call it typical of the late work of the Master of Helsinus, and mention a similar work by the same artist, a diptych representing Saint Anthony Abbot and the Man of Sorrows formerly in the Chillingworth collection (sale, Fischer-Muller, Lucerne, September 5, 1922, no. 95, ill., as Italian Master about 1400); date the MMA panel and the diptych about 1410, calling them surely later than the altarpiece in the National Gallery, London, the "Madonna in the church of the Holy Rood" in Sebenico, and another Madonna Enthroned with Angels formerly in the art market, Rome.
Miklós Boskovits. Letter. July 11, 1983, includes it in a group of works attributed to the Master of Saint Silvester, named for a polyptych in the church of San Silvestro, Venice.
Mauro Lucco inLa pittura in Italia: il Duecento e il Trecento. Ed. Enrico Castelnuovo. Milan, 1986, vol. 2, p. 630, as by the Master of Saint Helsinus.
Andrea De Marchi. "Per un riesame della pittura tardogotica a Venezia: Nicolò di Pietro e il suo contesto adriatico." Bollettino d'arte 72 (July–October 1987), p. 61 n. 44, attributes it to the master called Pseudo-Jacobello di Bonomo.
Andrea De Marchi. "Uno sguardo su Venezia fra Tre e Quattrocento: il Maestro del Dossale Correr." Civici Musei Veneziani d'Arte e di Storia: Bollettino 32 (1988), pp. 7, 15 n. 12, states that this work, and others, which he had earlier assigned to the master called the Pseudo-Jacobello di Bonomo, are instead late works by the Master of Saint Silvester.
Andrea De Marchi. Letter to Patrick Matthiesen. December 6, 1990, suggests that the Master of Saint Silvester may have been Marco di Paolo Veneziano.
Francesca d'Arcais and Alberto Cottino inLa pittura nel Veneto: Il Trecento. Ed. Mauro Lucco. Milan, 1992, pp. 539–40, fig. 84, as by the Master of Saint Helsinus.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 66, ill.
Andrea De Marchi. Gold Backs, 1250–1480. Exh. cat., Matthiesen Fine Art. London, 1996, p. 71, identifies the Master of Saint Silvester as Marco di Paolo Veneziano and attributes this picture to him; calls it a late work and suggests it and the two panels formerly in the Chillingworth collection originally formed a triptych.
Mojmír S. Frinta. "Part I: Catalogue Raisonné of All Punch Shapes." Punched Decoration on Late Medieval Panel and Miniature Painting. Prague, 1998, p. 137, tentatively calls it Venetian; classifies the punch marks appearing in this painting, a type found most commonly in Florentine painting.
Andrea De Marchi inIl Gotico Internazionale a Fermo e nel Fermano. Ed. Germano Liberati. Exh. cat., Palazzo dei Priori, Fermo. Livorno, 1999, pp. 81–82.
Dillian Gordon. The Italian Paintings Before 1400. London, 2011, pp. 128, 130 n. 5.
This picture has been associated with two panels, a Saint Anthony Abbot and a half-length Man of Sorrows (26 x 17 cm), both formerly in the Chillingworth collection, Nuremberg (sold, Galeries Fischer, Lucerne, September 5, 1922, lot 95; current location unknown). They are similar to this work in their height and tooling.
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