(Florence 1320/30–1398/1400)
Christ on the cross with the Virgin, Mary Magdalene and Saint John the Evangelist,
tempera on gold ground panel, 76.5 x 30.5 cm, unframed

Provenance:
Henry F. Fontanella collection, New York, circa 1910;
Private collection, New York
art market, New York
Private European collection

 The present painting was once part of the collection of Henry F. Fontanella, an inventor of mechanical devices, born in France in 1882 from a family of Italian origin who settled in New York in the early twentieth century.

This work, of high quality is a significant example of Florentine painting from shortly after the mid-fourteenth century, influenced by the work of Andrea di Cione, called Orcanga. The dominant role played by Orcagna in the artistic environment in Florence after 1348 is well established: celebrated by sources as a ‘universal artist’ he was not only a painter, but also a sculptor and an architect. He was considered a worthy successor to Giotto and was the owner, together with his brothers Nardo, Matteo and Jacopo, of the most important workshop in the city (see G. Kreytenberg, Orcagna, Andrea di Cione. Ein universeller Künstler der Gotik in Florenz, Mainz 2000).

This elongated panel was probably part of a triptych intended for private devotion and would have been made for a significant client, as evidenced by the very refined execution and the elegance of the decorations on the gold background. The style shows a strictly Orcagnesque imprint in the marked design of the contours and in the robust and plastically rendered sense of form. This work can be compared to other works depicting the Crucifixion made in the Orcagna workshop: some autograph works by Andrea himself, such as the youthful fresco in Santa Marta in Montughi and a panel in a private collection in Florence (see M.Boskovits, Florentine Painting on the Eve of the Renaissance, Florence 1975, pp. 23-24, 196n) and others painted by his brother Jacopo di Cione, in particular the side panel of the portable triptych (RCIN 403483) in the Royal Collection at Hampton Court, with which the affinities of style are particularly evident.

In the typology of the faces, in the drawing of the body of the bruised and emaciated Christ, as well as in the draperies with marked accents of Gothic linearism, there are also references to some of the fragmentary frescoes in the Church of San Francesco a Castelfiorentino (M.Boskovits, 1975, cit., pp. 36-37), by Giovanni del Biondo. An artist who trained with Nardo di Cione and in around 1355 collaborated with him in the frescoes of the Strozzi Chapel in Santa Maria Novella, Florence carrying out his early works in the shadow of the Orcagna workshop.