Saint Ursula is shown with some of the eleven thousand virgins with whom she is said to have been martyred by the Huns around 383 CE. A leading late Gothic painter in Venice, Niccolò seems to have had contact with northern, perhaps Bohemian, art, and was also deeply influenced by Michelino da Besozzo and Gentile da Fabriano, both of whom were active in the city. The decorative richness of Niccolò’s paintings derives from Venice’s trade with the Middle East and the importation of Islamic textiles.
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Title:Saint Ursula and Her Maidens
Artist:Niccolò di Pietro (Italian, Venetian, active 1394–1427/30)
Date:ca. 1410
Medium:Tempera and gold on wood
Dimensions:37 x 31 in. (94 x 78.7 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1923
Accession Number:23.64
Inscription: Inscribed: (background) ·santa· ·ursula·; (on saint's belt) [ave]mariagratiapl[ena]
Fürst Karl Anton von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen (by 1871–d. 1885; cats., 1871 and 1883, no. 200, as Sienese school, 14th century); Fürsten von Hohenzollern, Fürstlich Hohenzollern’sches Museum, Sigmaringen (from 1885); private collection, Zurich (1921; sold to Steinmeyer?); [F. Steinmeyer, Lucerne, 1921–22; sold to Douglas]; [R. Langton Douglas, London, 1922–23]
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Venetian Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum," May 1–September 2, 1974, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Art in Renaissance Venice, 1400–1515: Paintings and Drawings from the Museum's Collections," November 8, 2011–February 5, 2012, no catalogue.
F. A. Lehner. Fürstlich Hohenzollern'sches Museum zu Sigmaringen: Verzeichniss der Gemälde. Sigmaringen, 1871, p. 61, no. 200, as Sienese school, 14th century.
F. A. von Lehner. Fürstlich Hohenzollern'sches Museum zu Sigmaringen: Verzeichniss der Gemälde. 2nd ed. Sigmaringen, 1883, no. 200.
Osvald Sirén. "A Picture of S. Ursula." Burlington Magazine 39 (October 1921), pp. 168–70, ill., attributes this painting to Guariento.
Osvald Sirén. Letter to Bryson Burroughs. June 2, 1923, changes his attribution of the picture to Niccolò di Pietro and dates it about 1400 or shortly before.
B[ryson]. B[urroughs]. "A Picture of Saint Ursula." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 18 (June 1923), pp. 144–45, ill., calls it Venetian, dates it about 1400, and observes that it may be the work of Niccolò di Pietro or a painter close to him as Lionello Venturi had suggested.
Raimond van Marle. The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting. Vol. 4, Local Schools of North Italy of the 14th Century. The Hague, 1924, p. 118 n. 1, calls it Venetian and regards it is as considerably later than Guariento.
Raimond van Marle. The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting. Vol. 7, Late Gothic Painting in North Italy. The Hague, 1926, pp. 335–37, ill., calls it Venetian, about 1400; sees the influence of Guariento and tentatively suggests an attribution to Francesco del Fiore, noting the Gothic treatment of Saint Ursula's costume and features.
Luigi Coletti. "Studi sulla pittura del Trecento a Padova." Rivista d'arte 12 (1930), pp. 330, 360, calls it a Rhenish work of the 15th century.
Evelyn Sandberg-Vavalà. "Maestro Stefano und Niccolò di Pietro." Jahrbuch der Preuszischen Kunstsammlungen 51 (1930), pp. 107–9, fig. 15, attributes it to Niccolò di Pietro in his latest period, comparing it to his painting of St. Lawrence (Accademia, Venice).
Lionello Venturi. Italian Paintings in America. Vol. 1, Romanesque and Gothic. New York, 1933, unpaginated, pl. 126, attributes it to Niccolò di Pietro.
Evelyn Sandberg Vavalà. "Niccolò di Pietro Veneziano." Art Quarterly 2 (Autumn 1939), pp. 287–89, 292 n. 4, ill., groups it with other late works by Niccolò di Pietro in which she sees the influence of Gentile da Fabriano's 1409 visit to Venice.
Harry B. Wehle. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Catalogue of Italian, Spanish, and Byzantine Paintings. New York, 1940, pp. 169–70, ill., as the work of an unknown Venetian painter, early 15th century, but suggests that it might also be Bolognese.
Roberto Longhi. Viatico per cinque secoli di pittura veneziana. Florence, 1946, p. 48, compares it with Niccolò di Pietro's Crucifix of 1404 in Verucchio, dating it to the first years of the 15th century.
Luigi Coletti. "Il maestro degli innocenti." Arte veneta 2 (1948), pp. 39–40, hesitantly accepts the attribution to Niccolò di Pietro, and suggests it is an early rather than late work.
Pietro Toesca. Il Trecento. Turin, 1951, 714 n. 240, attributes it to Niccolò di Pietro.
Giuseppe Fiocco. "Niccolò di Pietro, Pisanello, Venceslao." Bollettino d'arte 37 (January–March 1952), pp. 13, 18, attributes it to Niccolò di Pietro.
Luigi Coletti. Pittura veneta del Quattrocento. Novara, 1953, p. VII, pl. 4, accepts the attribution to Niccolò, calling it his masterpiece and suggesting a date in his late period.
Oreste Ferrari. "Un'opera di Niccolò di Pietro." Commentari 4 (July–September 1953), p. 230 n. 11, attributes it to Niccolò di Pietro and dates it in the first decade of the 15th century.
Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 53.
Rodolfo Pallucchini. "Nuove proposte per Niccolò di Pietro." Arte veneta 10 (1956), p. 47, attributes it to Niccolò di Pietro.
Stefano Bottari. Storia dell'arte italiana. Vol. 2, Il rinascimento (Parte I): l'arte del Quattrocento. Milan, 1956, p. 201, fig. 268, calls it the artist's masterpiece.
Bernard Berenson. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Venetian School. London, 1957, vol. 1, p. 122, lists it as Niccolò di Pietro.
V. N. Lazarev. The Origins of the Italian Renaissance. Vol. 2, Russian ed. Moscow, 1959, vol. 2, p. 244, attributes it to Niccolò di Pietro.
Carl Huter. Letter to Elizabeth Gardner. November 4, 1964, rejects an attribution to Niccolò di Pietro.
Brigitte Klesse. Seidenstoffe in der italienischen Malerei des 14. Jahrhunderts. Bern, 1967, p. 317, no. 240, dates the painting at the beginning of the fifteenth century based on the types of textile worn by Saint Ursula; reproduces a sketch of the pattern of the robe.
Burton B. Fredericksen and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, Mass., 1972, pp. 150, 453, 606.
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, p. 45, pl. 50, give it to Niccolò di Pietro, calling it one of his finest achievements, and date it in the first years of the fifteenth century.
George Kaftal with the collaboration of Fabio Bisogni. Iconography of the Saints in the Painting of North East Italy. Florence, 1978, cols. 1011–13, no. 305g, fig. 1299, attribute it to Niccolò di Pietro.
Denys Sutton. "Robert Langton Douglas, Part IV, XVIII: A Fresh Start." Apollo 110 (July 1979), p. 13, fig. 28.
Keith Christiansen. Gentile da Fabriano. Ithaca, N.Y., 1982, pp. 12, 69 n. 14, lists it with a group of works by Niccolò that are "Post-1410, showing the impact of Michelino and a consequent study of the Bohemian traits of Lorenzo Veneziano".
Keith Christiansen inLa pittura in Italia: il Quattrocento. Ed. Federico Zeri. revised and expanded ed. [Milan], 1987, vol. 1, p. 130.
Cathleen Hoeniger inLa pittura nel Veneto: Il Trecento. Ed. Mauro Lucco. Milan, 1992, p. 456, dates it about 1400–1405.
Andrea De Marchi. Gentile da Fabriano: Un viaggio nella pittura italiana alla fine del gotico. Milan, 1992, pp. 60, 92 n. 79, pp. 104, 109–10 n. 57, figs. 39 (overall), 59a, 59c (details).
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 66, ill.
Maria Cristina Chiusa inThe Dictionary of Art. Ed. Jane Turner. Vol. 23, New York, 1996, p. 94, dates it about 1410–25, calling it the artist's most important painting.
Andrea Di Lorenzo inGentile da Fabriano and the Other Renaissance. Ed. Laura Laureati and Lorenza Mochi Onori. Exh. cat., Spedale di Santa Maria del Buon Gesù, Fabriano. Milan, 2006, p. 154 [Italian ed., "Gentile da Fabriano e l'altro Rinascimento"].
Mauro Minardi inThe Alana Collection. Ed. Miklós Boskovits. Vol. 2, Italian Paintings and Sculptures from the Fourteenth to Sixteenth Century. Florence, 2011, p. 193.
Amy Griffin and Antonio Mazzotta. "The Discovery and Conservation of a Nicolò di Pietro in the Cuming Museum, London." Burlington Magazine 156 (March 2014), p. 157, fig. 8 (color), include it among examples of Niccolò di Pietro's use of nails rather than pastiglia for the raised decoration in his paintings.
Mauro Minardi inLa fortuna dei primitivi: tesori d'arte dalle collezioni italiane fra Sette e Ottocento. Ed. Angelo Tartuferi and Gianluca Tormen. Exh. cat., Galleria dell'Accademia. Florence, 2014, p. 388, fig. 1 (color), under no. 69.
Pamela Buttus. "Sperimentazioni luministiche e geometrie variabili nelle incisioni dell'oro tra Nicolò di Pietro e Jacobello del Fiore." Arte veneta 71 (2014), pp. 174–75, 191 nn. 54, 56, fig. 37 (color detail).
Fra Angelico (Guido di Pietro) (Italian, Vicchio di Mugello ca. 1395–1455 Rome)
ca. 1420–23
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