Two Angels | North Italian Painter, first quarter 14th century | All | European Paintings | Collection Database | Works of Art

Gallery LabelThese fresco fragments of flying angels are an important testimony to the profound influence of Giotto's frescoes in the Arena Chapel at Padua on painting throughout Northern Italy in the early fourteenth century. They were detached from a chapel at Mantua belonging to the ruling Bonacolsi family and originally flanked an image of the Madonna and Child with saints Catherine and Lawrence.

NotesThese two fragments were originally located in the upper left and right corners of a fresco depicting the Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine in the Cappella Bonacolsi, Torre della Gabbia, Mantua. The fresco has been detached and the major part is now in the Galleria Luigi Bellini, Florence. A figure of a male saint, possibly Lawrence, originally on the right, is now in the J. F. Willumsens Museum, Frederikssund, Denmark. A nineteenth-century watercolor (Museo di Palazzo Ducale, Mantua) by Giuseppe Razzetti records the original disposition of the elements of the composition.

ProvenanceCappella Bonacolsi, Torre della Gabbia, Palazzo Acerbi, Mantua (as by Giotto); Anselmo Cadenazzi, Torre della Gabbia, Palazzo Acerbi, Mantua (until 1869; sold to Naya); Carlo Naya, Venice (1869–d. 1882); his widow, Ida Lessjak, Venice (1882–d. 1893); her 2nd husband, Antonio Dal Zotto, Venice (1893–d. 1918); his heir, Ferruccio Battaglia (from 1918); Ernesta Stern, Venice and Paris (by 1928–d. 1930; her estate, 1930); [Duveen, Paris and New York, 1930–44; transferred to Fowles, partner in the firm]; Edward Fowles, New York (1944–d. 1971)

Exhibition History

Venice. Scuola di S. Giovanni Evangelista. "Arte sacra veneta antica," 1909, no catalogue?

New York. Duveen Brothers. September 1–October 30, 1958, no catalogue.

New York. Duveen Brothers. "Art of Tuscany," November–December 1963, no. 12.

References

Carlo d' Arco. Delle arti e degli artefici di Mantova. Mantua, 1857, vol. 2, pp. 7, 287–88.

J[oseph]. A[rcher]. Crowe and G[iovanni]. B[attista]. Cavalcaselle. A History of Painting in North Italy: Venice, Padua, Vicenza, Verona, Ferrara, Milan, Friuli, Brescia, from the Fourteenth to the Sixteenth Century. London, 1871, vol. 1, p. 418 n. 1.

Giovanni Battista Intra. Mantova ne' suoi monumenti di storia e d'arte. Mantua, 1883, p. 126.

J[oseph]. A[rcher]. Crowe and G[iovanni]. B[attista]. Cavalcaselle. "The Sienese, Umbrian, & North Italian Schools." A History of Painting in Italy: Umbria, Florence and Siena from the Second to the Sixteenth Century. 3, London, 1908, p. 256.

Carlo Malagola. "La mostra d'arte sacra nella scuola di S. Giovanni Evangelista in Venezia." Rassegna d'arte 9 (January 1909), p. 11, fig. 4 (a).

Pietro Toesca. La pittura e la miniatura nella Lombardia, dai più antichi monumenti alla metà del Quattrocento. Milan, 1912, p. 210.

Bernard Berenson. Letter to Edward Fowles. February 17, 1930.

Emilio Cecchi. Giotto. Milan, 1937, pp. 116–17, pls. 178 (a), 179 (b).

Tutta la pittura di Giotto. Milan, 1952, pp. 52, 55.

Carlyle Burrows. "Art: Season's First Offerings." Herald Tribune (September 14, 1958), p. ?, ill. (a).

Henry A. La Farge. "Fourteenth- and Fifteenth-century Frescoes." Art News 57 (October 1958), p. 12, ill. (a).

Stuart Preston. "Past to Present." New York Times (September 28, 1958), p. X 15, ill. (a).

Martica Sawin. "In the Galleries: Early Frescoes." Arts 33 (October 1958), p. 53.

"Il medioevo." Mantova: Le arti. 1, Mantua, 1960, pp. 147, 267–68.

S[tella]. Matalon. Affreschi lombardi del Trecento. Milan, 1963, pp. 460–61.

Roberto Salvini. All the Paintings of Giotto. New York, [1964], vol. 1, p. 63.

Edi Baccheschi in The Complete Paintings of Giotto. New York, [1969], p. 123, nos. 173 (a), 174 (b), ill. [Italian ed., 1966, 4th ed., 1970, p. 123, nos. 173–74, ill.].

Federico Zeri. Letter. May 26, 1973.

Italo Bini. "Ipotesi di ricostruzione di un affresco giottesco che decorava la 'Cappella dei Bonacolsi'." Civiltà mantovana, n.s., no. 1 (1983), pp. 35–42, figs. 4 (a), 5 (b), 7 (reconstruction) [similar text appears in Italo Bini, "Gli affreschi giotteschi della cappella Bonacolsi," Cronache mantovane (1983), p. 16, ill. (reconstruction)].

Federico Zeri with the assistance of Elizabeth E. Gardner. Italian Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, North Italian School. New York, 1986, pp. 76–77, pls. 4 (a), 5 (b).

Ugo Bazzotti in Pittura a Mantova dal Romanico al Settecento. Milan, 1989, p. 211.

Ugo Bazzotti et al. Indizii di castigato disegno, di vivaci colori: Gli affreschi trecenteschi della Cappella Bonacolsi. Exh. cat., Palazzo Te. Mantua, 1992, pp. 11–118, colorpls. 22 (a), 23 (b), pl. 27c (reconstruction).

Chiara Spanio. "Appunti per una storia della pittura mantovana tra Duecento e Trecento." Arte cristiana 85 (November–December 1997), pp. 410, 420 n. 65, fig. 17 (b).

Ugo Bazzotti in Trecento: Pittori gotici a Bolzano. Exh. cat., location unknown, Bolzano. [Trent], 2000, pp. 76, 78–79, under no. 5.

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