This charming panel is probably from the framework of a large altarpiece. Its author was active in Ravenna, but both Francesco and his brother Bernardino were much influenced by the Ferrarese painter Erocole de' Roberti and the Bolognese painter Lorenzo Costa. This work dates to around 1500.
A native of Syracuse, Saint Lucy was martyred under the Roman emperor Diocletian in 303. She is much venerated and is traditionally prayed to for eye ailments.
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Title:Saint Lucy
Artist:Francesco Zaganelli (Francesco di Bosio) (Italian, Romagnole, active by 1499–died 1532)
Medium:Tempera and gold on wood
Dimensions:12 3/8 x 7 3/4 in. (31.4 x 19.7 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Theodore M. Davis Collection, Bequest of Theodore M. Davis, 1915
Accession Number:30.95.292
[Georges Brauer, Florence, until 1900; as by Lorenzo Costa; sold in April for $1,200 to Davis]; Theodore M. Davis, Newport, R.I. (1900–d. 1915; his estate, on loan to The Met, 1915–30)
Bernhard Berenson. North Italian Painters of the Renaissance. New York, 1907, p. 204, lists it as by Lorenzo Costa.
Adolfo Venturi. "Le opere de' pittori ferraresi del '400 secondo il catalogo di Bernardo Berenson." L'arte 11 (1908), p. 428, lists it as by Costa, accepting Berenson's [see Ref. 1907] attribution.
Joseph Breck. "Dipinti italiani nella raccolta del Signor Teodoro Davis." Rassegna d'arte 11 (July 1911), p. 114, attributes it to Costa.
T. Gerevich inAllgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler. Ed. Ulrich Thieme. Vol. 7, Leipzig, 1912, p. 529, lists it as by Costa.
A[dolfo]. Venturi. "La pittura del Quattrocento." Storia dell'arte italiana. Vol. 7, part 3, Milan, 1914, p. 766, fig. 567, attributes it to Costa and considers it close to Ercole de' Roberti.
Bernhard Berenson. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Oxford, 1932, p. 157.
Roberto Longhi. Officina ferrarese. Rome, 1934, pp. 114, 205, attributes it to Francesco Zaganelli, calling it an early work showing Ferrarese influence.
Bernhard Berenson. Pitture italiane del rinascimento. Milan, 1936, p. 135, lists it as a late work by Costa.
Harry B. Wehle. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Catalogue of Italian, Spanish, and Byzantine Paintings. New York, 1940, p. 143, ill., attributes it to Costa, dating it to his early period, about 1490, and mentioning the influence of Roberti.
Roberto Longhi. Ampliamenti nell'officina ferrarese. Florence, 1940, pp. 19–20, fig. 48, confirms his attribution to Francesco Zaganelli (1934), although also noting similarities to the work of Francesco's brother Bernardino.
Ugo Galetti and Ettore Camesasca. Enciclopedia della pittura italiana. [Milan], 1951, vol. 3, p. 2572, list it as by Francesco Zaganelli.
Edoardo Arslan. Letter. April 21, 1952, rejects the attribution to Costa.
Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 21.
Roberto Longhi. Opere complete di Roberto Longhi. Vol. 5, Officina ferrarese: 1934. repr. 1968. Florence, 1956, pp. 68, 145, fig. 345, reprints text of Refs. 1934 and 1940.
Eberhard Ruhmer. Francesco del Cossa. Munich, 1959, p. 85, relates it to a painting of Saint Lucy by Cossa (National Gallery of Art, Washington).
Renato Roli. "Sul problema di Francesco e Bernardino Zaganelli." Arte antica e moderna nos. 31–32 (July–December 1965), pp. 235–36, accepts the attribution to Francesco Zaganelli and dates it after 1505, noting northern influences.
Ranieri Varese. Lorenzo Costa. Milan, 1967, p. 73, no. 64, attributes it to a painter working in the circle of Costa at the end of the fifteenth century.
Bernard Berenson. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Central Italian and North Italian Schools. London, 1968, vol. 1, p. 97, lists it tentatively as by Costa.
Burton B. Fredericksen and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, Mass., 1972, pp. 212, 425, 607.
Dizionario enciclopedico Bolaffi dei pittori e degli incisori italiani. Vol. 11, Turin, 1975, p. 383, attributes it to Francesco Zaganelli.
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. 67–68, pl. 46, ascribe it to Francesco Zaganelli, but add that an attribution to his brother Bernardino is not impossible; call it characteristic of their early style, dating it about 1500 and mentioning the influence of Roberti and Costa; give information on the condition.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 114, ill.
Emilio Negro and Nicosetta Roio. Lorenzo Costa, 1460–1535. Modena, [2002], pp. 89–91, no. 11, ill., support an attribution to Costa, as well as a date of about 1490.
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