Csornay Boldizsár - Hubai Péter szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 96. (Budapest, 2002)
VICTOR M. SCHMIDT: A Duccesque Painting Representing St John the Baptist Bearing Witness in the Museum of Fine Arts
on the ends of the predella box would almost certainly preclude the existence of substantial buttresses supporting the altarpiece, since the paintings would have been obscured by the buttresses". 12 What is more, a predella painted on the short ends is only met in the fifteenth century. As Stubblebine observed, such a predella is found in Taddeo di Bartolo's huge Assumption of the Virgin altarpiece in Montepulciano, dated 1401 (figs. 23-24). 13 One other possible candidate with a predella including scenes on the short sides is a series of scenes from the life of St Catherine of Siena, now dispersed, painted by Giovanni di Paolo, which according to a number of scholars belonged to his Pizzicaioli altarpiece formerly in the hospital of Santa Maria della Scala in Siena (fig. 25). 14 Although some of the Christological scenes in Taddeo 's predella are derived from the Maestà, it is unlikely that the predella as such reflects Duccio's altarpiece. Its structure is different in that it does not have a back predella, since the altarpiece itself is not double-sided. Also, it has panels affixed to the main plank acting as pedestals for the vertical structural elements of the altarpiece above them. Most likely the same holds true for Giovanni di Paolo's predella as well. In short, both predellas are of little help to prove the existence of narrative scenes on the short ends of the predella of the Maestà. As to the scenes represented, the Baptism need not have been included. The central part of a roughly contemporary triptych in the Museo Civico of Trieste is divided into 36 units, which include an extensive Christological cycle, and also in this case the Baptism is left out. 15 Finally, it would seem doubtful whether the scene of the Baptist Bearing Witness was represented in the Maestà's predella at all. There is no parallel in early Italian painting for this scene as part of a cycle of the life of Christ. On the other hand, one does find the scene as part of - not surprisingly - a cycle of the life of the Baptist. Let us therefore look at the iconography of the scene more closely. BAPTIST BEARING WITNESS All four Gospels mention that on various occasions John the Baptist bore witness of Christ. According to Mt. 3:7-12, Mc. 1:5-8, Lc. 3:15-17, and John 1:19-28, John the Baptist, while baptizing the people, announced Christ who will baptize them not with 12 Bomford, D., Dunkerton, J., Gordon, D., and Roy, A., Art in the making. Italian painting before 1400, London 1989, 80. 13 Stubblebine, op. cit., 52. 14 Christiansen, K., 'Notes on "Painting in Renaissance Siena'", Burlington Magazine 132 (1990), 205-213, esp. 208, 210-211; Boskovits, The Thyssen-Bornemisza collection, 104-113, no. 17. In a recent reconstruction of Piero della Francesca's polyptych for S. Agostino in Sansepolcro, Andrea Di Lorenzo proposed to locate two half-length figures of saints on the short ends of the predella. See Di Lorenzo, A. (ed.), // polittico agostiniano di Piero della Francesco, Turin 1996, 34-36 and 44-46. 15 Trieste, Museo Civico Sartorio, Inv. no. 14/3408. Garrison, E.B., Italian Romanesque panel painting. An illustrated index, new ed. on CD-ROM, London 1998, no. 388. The work comes from the local Clarissan convent of Santa Maria délie Celle.
