Bartolo di Fredi was the most important painter in Siena in the second half of the fourteenth century. Accommodating the vertical composition, the overlapping figures of servants, kings, and horses are densely assembled around the Virgin and Child. The panel, which has been truncated at the top, originally included the procession of the Magi in the upper zone (a fragment of which is preserved in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon). Two headless camels and the legs of two attendants and a dog in the upper left corner offer evidence of the once amplified narrative.
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Artwork Details
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Title:The Adoration of the Magi
Artist:Bartolo di Fredi (Italian, active by 1353–died 1410 Siena)
Date:ca. 1390
Medium:Tempera and gold on wood
Dimensions:58 1/2 x 35 1/8 in. (148.6 x 89.2 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Robert Lehman Collection, 1975
Accession Number:1975.1.16
J. A. Ramboux, Cologne; Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne, 1867 (J. Niessen, Verzeichniss der Gemälde-Sammlung des Museums Wallraf-Richartz in Köln, 1869, pp. 138-139, no. 763); Edward Hutton, London (letter of Mrs. A. E. Goodhart to the Frick Art Reference Library, December 20, 1934); Mr. and Mrs. A. E. Goodhart, New York, by 1924 (ms. note by R. Offner in the Frick Art Reference Library). Bequeathed by Mrs. Goodhart to Robert Lehman in 1952.
J[ohann]. A[nton]. Ramboux. Katalog der Gemälde alter italienischer Meister (1221–1640) in der Sammlung des Conservator J. A. Ramboux. Cologne, 1862, p. 20, no. 108.
J. A. Crowe and G. B. Cavalcaselle. A History of Painting in Italy from the Second to the Fourteenth Century. Vol. 2, London, 1864, p. 151.
Joseph Archer Crowe and Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle. A New History of Painting in Italy, from the Second to the Sixteenth Century. Vol. 2, London, 1864, p. 151.
Johannes Niessen. Verzeichniss der Gemälde-Sammlung des Museums Wallraf-Richartz in Köln. Cologne, 1877, pp. 138-139, no. 763.
F. Mason Perkins. "Two Unpublished Pictures by Bartolo di Fredi." Art in America 16 (1928), pp. 210-217, fig. 2.
Lucia Rigatuso. "Bartolo di Fredi." La Diana 9, nos. 3–4 (1934), p. 237.
Bernard Berenson. Pitture italiane del Rinascimento: catalogo dei principali artisti e delle loro opere con un indice dei luoghi. Valori plastici, Milan, 1936, p. 39.
Gertrude Coor. "Trecento-Gemälde aus der Sammlung Ramboux." Wallraf-Richartz Jahrbuch 18 (1956), pp. 120, 122, 125.
Charles Sterling, ed. Exposition de la collection Lehman de New York. Exh. cat., Musée de l'Orangerie. Paris, 1957, no. 2.
The Lehman Collection. Exh. cat.Cincinnati, 1959, no. 14.
Enio Sindona. Galleria della Pittura Europea. Exh. cat.Milan, 1961, p. 23.
Federico Zeri. "Un appunto su Bartolo di Fredi." Paragone no. 151 (July 1962), pp. 55-57.
Giovanni Cecchini. San Gimignano. Milan, 1962, pp. 85, 94 n. 7.
George Szabó. The Robert Lehman Collection: A Guide. New York, 1975, p. 13, pl. 8.
Rossana Traldi. "Due precisazioni per Bartolo di Fredi." Prospettiva. Vol. 10, July 1977, pp. 50-54.
Marguerite Guillaume. Catalogue raisonné du Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon: Peintures italiennes. Dijon, 1980, p. 6, no. 11.
Keith Christiansen. "Fourteenth-Century Italian Altarpieces." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 40 (Summer 1982), pp. 40-41, fig. 37.
Laurence B. Kanter. "A 'Massacre of the Innocents' in the Walters Art Gallery." Journal of the Walters Art Gallery 41 (1983), pp. 17-28.
George Szabo. Masterpieces of Italian Drawing in the Robert Lehman Collection. New York, 1983, p. 8, fig. 4.
Gaudenz Freuler. "L'altare Cacciati di Bartolo di Fredi nella chiesa di San Francesco a Montalcino." Arte Cristiana. n.s., Vol. 73, May–June 1985, pp. 149-166.
Gaudenz Freuler. "Bartolo di Fredis Altar für die Annunziata-Kapelle in S. Francesco in Montalcino." Pantheon 43 (1985), pp. 21-39.
John Pope-Hennessy assisted by Laurence B. Kanter inThe Robert Lehman Collection. Vol. 1, Italian Paintings. New York, 1987, pp. 30-32, no. 13.
The Life of Christ: Images from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1989, p. 17.
Ingeborg Bähr. Die Kirchen von Siena. Vol. 2.1, Munich, 1992, pp. 762-764, 918-919 doc. 169 [8]. Cat. no. 65.
Patricia Harpring. The Sienese Trecento Painter Bartolo di Fredi. Rutherford, N.J., 1993, pp. 136-141, fig. on p. 128.
Gaudenz Freuler. Bartolo di Fredi Cini: Ein Beitrag zur sienesischen Malerei des 14. Jahrhunderts. Disentis, Switzerland, 1994, pp. 391-396, 502-503, cat. no. 93, fig. 345, 349.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, pp. 46-47.
Julian Gardner. "Review of Bartolo di Fredi Cini by Gaudenz Freuler. And review of The Sienese Trecento Painter Bartolo di Fredi by Patricia Harpring." The Burlington Magazine 139 (1997), pp. 478-480.
Lust und Verlust. Ed. Hiltrud Kier and Frank Günter Zehnder. Exh. cat., Wallraf-Richartz-Museum. Vol. 2, "Corpus-Band zu Kölner Gemäldesammlungen 1800–1860."Cologne, 1998, p. 558, no. 108.
Wolfgang Loseries. "Altarpieces of the Adoration of the Magi and the Shepherds by Bartolo di Fredi." Bartolo di Fredi: The Adoration of the Magi, a Masterpiece Reconstructed. Charlottesville, Virginia, 2012, pp. 50-55.
Bruce Boucher and Francesca Fiorani. Bartolo di Fredi: The Adoration of the Magi: A Masterpiece Reconstructed. Exh. cat.Charlottesville, 2012, Fig. 32.
Niccolò di Buonaccorso (Italian, active Siena by 1372–died 1388 Siena)
ca. 1380
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