The Epiphany | Giotto di Bondone | All | European Paintings | Collection Database | Works of Art

Gallery LabelGiotto was the most famous artist of his day, praised by Dante and considered by his successors to have revived the art of painting after centuries of decline. This panel is part of a series of scenes from the life of Christ, of which six others are known. They may come from one of the four altarpieces by Giotto recorded in the Franciscan church of Santa Croce in Florence. The way in which the figures move freely within a carefully described space is close to that of frescoes painted by the artist in about 1320 in the same church.

NotesThis panel is from a series of scenes from the life of Christ to which six others belong: the Presentation in the Temple (Gardner Museum, Boston), the Last Supper, the Crucifixion, and the Descent into Limbo (all, Alte Pinakothek, Munich), the Entombment (Villa I Tatti, Florence), and Pentecost (National Gallery, London).

According to Christiansen's reconstruction [see Ref. 1982], the panels were arranged horizontally as an independent altarpiece or the predella of an altarpiece. Opinions differ regarding the original location. Stylistic similarities to the frescoes in the Bardi and Peruzzi chapels may suggest that the series comes from one of the four altarpieces by Giotto recorded in the Franciscan church of Santa Croce in Florence [see Refs. Longhi 1930 and Tartuferi 2000]. The series has also been identified with a work of Giotto mentioned by Vasari in Sansepolcro [see Refs. Vasari 1568, Davies 1951, and Bologna 1969]. Gordon, however, proposes a Riminese provenance based in part on the combination of the Nativity and the Epiphany in the MMA picture [see Ref. 1989].

The back of the panel was gessoed and painted with an imitation-porphyry decoration that has been obliterated by graffiti, some in a fourteenth- or early fifteenth-century hand [see Ref. Christiansen 1982].

ProvenancePrince Stanislas Poniatowski, Palazzo Poniatowski, Florence (until 1839; his estate sale, Christie's, London, February 9, 1839, no. 101, as by Giotto, for £2.18.0 to Hall); General Charles Richard Fox, London (by 1857?–d. 1873; posthumous sale, Christie's, London, July 4, 1874, no. 37, with "The Entombment," as Early Italian School, to Daniell); William Fuller Maitland, Stansted House, Essex (by 1893–about 1911; cat., 1893, p. 12, no. 37, as by Giotto); [R. Langton Douglas, London, until 1911; sold to MMA]

Exhibition History

Florence. Palazzo degli Uffizi. "Mostra Giottesca," April–October 1937, no. 105.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Art Treasures of the Metropolitan," November 7, 1952–September 7, 1953, no. 70.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "Masterpieces of Painting in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 16–November 1, 1970, unnumbered cat.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Florentine Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum," June 15–August 15, 1971, no catalogue.

References

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[Gustav Friedrich] Waagen. Galleries and Cabinets of Art in Great Britain. London, 1857, p. 234.

B. B. "The Adoration of the Kings by a Pupil of Giotto." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 6 (October 1911), pp. 215–16, ill.

Frank Jewett Mather. Letter to Bryson Burroughs. October 27, 1911.

Jean Paul Richter. Letter. November 21, 1911.

Bernard Berenson. Letter. January 13, 1912.

Frank J. Mather Jr. "General Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America, December 27–29, 1911." American Journal of Archaeology 16 (1912), p. 102.

Osvald Sirén. Giotto and Some of His Followers. Cambridge, Mass., 1917, vol. 1, pp. 79–82, pl. 60, no.1.

Raimond van Marle. Recherches sur l'iconographie de Giotto et de Duccio. Strasbourg, 1920, p. 9 n. 5.

I. B. Supino. Giotto. Florence, 1920, pp. 270–71, pl. 242.

Wilhelm Hausenstein. Giotto. Berlin, 1923, pp. 15, 189, 191.

Frank Jewett Mather Jr. A History of Italian Painting. New York, 1923, p. 475.

Raimond van Marle. "The Florentine School of the 14th Century." The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting. 3, The Hague, 1924, pp. 186–88, fig. 108.

Georg Graf Vitzthum and W. F. Volbach. Die Malerei und Plastik des Mittelalters in Italien. Wildpark-Potsdam, 1924, p. 265.

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William Rankin. Letter to Bryson Burroughs. August 1926.

Philip Hendy. "The Supposed 'Painter of Saint Stephen'–II." Burlington Magazine 53 (July 1928), pp. 17, 23, pl. II B, D (overall and detail).

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Art Treasures of the Metropolitan: A Selection from the European and Asiatic Collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1952, p. 223, no. 70, colorpl. 70.

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Theodore Rousseau Jr. "A Guide to the Picture Galleries." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 12, part 2 (January 1954), p. 1, ill. p. 8.

Richard Offner. "The Fourteenth Century." A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting. section 3, 5, New York, 1957, p. 212 n.1.

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Edith A. Standen in Masterpieces of Painting in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. New York, [1970], p. 12, ill. (color).

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Dillian Gordon. "The Conservatism of Umbrian Art: Raphael and Before." Journal of the Royal Society of Arts 134 (January 1986), pp. 112–13.

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Roberta J. M. Olson and Jay M. Pasachoff. "New Information on Comet P/Halley as Depicted by Giotto di Bondone and other Western Artists." Astronomy and Astrophysics 187 (1987), p. 10, fig. 10.

Alessandro Conti. "Oro e tempera: aspetti della tecnica di Simone Martini." Simone Martini: atti del convegno. Florence, 1988, p. 119.

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David Bomford et al. Art in the Making: Italian Painting Before 1400. Exh. cat., National Gallery. London, 1989, pp. 64, 66–71, colorpl. 49 (reconstruction), fig. 36 (x-ray).

Dillian Gordon. "A Dossal by Giotto and his Workshop: Some Problems of Attribution, Provenance and Patronage." Burlington Magazine 131 (August 1989), pp. 524–31, figs. 1, 2 (x-ray).

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Alberto Busignani. Giotto. Florence, 1993, pp. 206, 210, 307, no. 117, ill. (color).

Francesca Flores d'Arcais. Giotto. New York, 1995, pp. 212, 216, 218, ill. p. 214.

Miklós Boskovits and Giorgio Bonsanti in Giotto: bilancio critico di sessant'anni di studi e ricerche. Exh. cat., Galleria dell'Accademia. Florence, 2000, pp. 90–91, 174–75, ill.

Angelo Tartuferi. Giotto: guida alla mostra: itinerario fiorentino. Exh. cat., Galleria dell'Accademia. Florence, 2000, p. 74, under no. 23.

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