Csornay Boldizsár - Dobos Zsuzsa - Varga Ágota - Zakariás János szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 98. (Budapest, 2003)

SALLAY, DÓRA: A Proposal for a Baptism of Christ-Lunette by Guidoccio Cozzarelli

While the Moscow fragment remained on the periphery of Sienese studies, the Baptism of Christ altarpiece in Sinalunga (fig. 12) is Cozzarelli's best known work and has been considered by many as his most outstanding achievement. In relation to this latter work, Ludwin Paardekooper has also pointed out the rarity of the subject matter in the main register of Sienese altarpieces, indicating Taddeo di Bartolo's altarpiece of 1397 in Triora as the only known precedent.

22 Indeed, while one often finds the Baptism of Christ on a small scale in early Renaissance Sienese painting, as in miniatures, predella scenes, and a custodia cover (?),

23 this subject matter is remarkably rare in larger-scale art forms, especially in a form independent of a narrative cycle. Another version of the Baptism of Christ by Cozzarelli is thus both a noteworthy addition to the history of this subject in Sienese Quattrocento art and an important iconographie analogy to the renowned work of the artist. A clearer understanding of its position can be gained by considering next its place in the artist's oeuvre, its relationship to the Sinalunga version and, in a wider context, some aspects of its connections to art beyond Siena. Regarding the date of the Budapest-Moscow Baptism, no one has advanced a suggestion for the Budapest fragment yet, while Viktoria Markova has proposed that the Moscow piece dates from after 1486 and is a later version of the central part of Sinalunga altarpiece.

24 The chronology of Cozzarelli's oeuvre has been little researched, especially his earliest (ca. 1470-1480) and latest activity ( 1498-1516/17) remains almost completely obscure. This lends further importance to the work partly recomposed here, whose stylistic characteristics, I believe, in fact mark it as one of the earliest known pieces by the master, predating the Sinalunga Baptism and other securely datable works of the early 1480s, such as the miniatures for the Sienese cathedral from ca. 1480-1482 or the signed and dated Enthroned Madonna and Child with Angels, Saint Jerome and the Blessed Colombini of 1482 (Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena, inv. 367). Among the earlier works, only one can be anchored in time: the altarpiece in San Michèle, Paganico, which Gaudenz Freuler convincingly dated to 1475 on the basis of its recorded fragmentary inscription ending in "...XXV".

2:1 The date of the Budapest-Moscow lunette appears to fall into the half-decade between these works, the second half of the 1470s. The artist's decreased interest in chiaroscuro effects suggests that this Baptism of Christ postdates the Paganico altarpiece, although the gradation of tones remains fine, lending a softness to the bodies that contrasts with the drier and more schematic 22 Paardekooper, loc.cit. (n. 1) p. 53. 23 Cf. miniatures by Benvenuto di Giovanni (Koninklijke Bibliothek, The Hague, KB, 78 A34e), Sano di Pietro (Museo Diocesano, Pienza, Antiphonary A I, fol. 185r; Museo Civico Médiévale, Bologna, Ms 562, fol. 120v); predella pieces by Domenico di Bartolo (fig. 8); Giovanni di Paolo (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; National Gallery, London); Sano di Pietro (formerly Coll. Brunati, repr. Angelelli, W. - De Marchi, A.G., Pittura dal Duecento al primo Cinquecento nelle fotografie di Girolamo Bombelli, Milan 1991, p. 252, fig. 529); Girolamo di Benvenuto (cf. n. 19); custodia cover for the statue of St. John the Baptist (?) by Giovanni di Paolo (Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena). 24 Markova, 2002 (n. 7) p. 148, where it is erroneously claimed that the Sinalunga Baptism dates from 1486. This date appears in Cozzarelli's other work in San Bernardino in Sinalunga, the signed and dated altarpiece of SS. Simon and Thaddeus. 25 Freuler, G., Biagio di Goro Ghezzi a Paganico, Milan 1986, p. 134, referring to Ademollo, A., / monument! medio-evali della Provincia di Grosseto, Grosseto 1894, p. 30, and Cappelli, E., Paganico e il suo territorio. L'Ombwne, 1 January, 1893.