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

to the altarpiece).

27 To judge from the close affinity with the Christ child in these works, from the middle or the second half of the 1470s seem to date also three winged putti that pretend playfully to support coats of arms enclosed in wreaths and hung above them with ribbons (Private collection, Fig. 8).

28 For a similar idea of landscape as the one seen in the Budapest-Moscow Baptism, perhaps the Nativity in Assisi (Museo di San Francesco) and the compositionally related predella in Buonconvento (Museo d'Arte Sacra della Val d'Arbia) could be cited.

29 Some works then datable to the later 1470s or around 1480 include two further, especially ornate Madonnas (The Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin; Museo Civico e Diocesano d'Arte Sacra, Montalcino) that reflect Matteo di Giovanni's elegant Virgins with a thin and pointed face from the same period,

30 and a little known medallion with a fragile and Neroccioesque mourning St. John the Evangelist (Private collection, fig. 14).

31 27 Freluer, op.cit. (n. 25) p. 134 (formerly in a tabernacle on the Piazza del Campo, Siena, repr. Berenson, 1968 [n. 1J fig. 824; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, Amherst MA; The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, inv. 37.586). 2S The pieces, known to me from a photograph only, are painted on wood and measure 32.5 by 13.5 cm each. Grateful acknowledgements are due to Gaudenz Freuler who called my attention to this unpublished work and generously shared with me the information and the photograph at his disposal. 29 Another, now dismembered predella that shows a comparable concept of landscape is the one variously attributed to Matteo di Giovanni, Matteo"s shop or Cozzarelli, which, besides the Crucifixion (City Art Gallery, Manchester, inv. 1951.2), included the Crucifixion of St. Peter (Christian Museum, Esztergom, inv. 55.167), the Banquet of Herod (The Hyde Collection, Glens Falls, NY), andSaint Bernardino Restoring a Child to Life (Private coll.), cf. Kanter, L.B., in Painting in Renaissance Siena, op.cit. (n. 1 ) pp. 279-281. (A further scene from the life of St. Paul associated with these pieces is in fact by Luca di Tommè.) Let it be remarked here that the problem of the association of the Manchester piece with the other panels and that of the sequence of the scenes - including a lost, fifth piece - can be resolved on the basis of the remains of the different decorative borders between the individual scenes. Contrary to what has been claimed, traces of the gilt border decoration do survive on the Manchester panel as well, revealing along both vertical edges fragments of the wings and haloed head of a cherub between geometric fields decorated with blue and red. This decoration is completed by the fragmented motifs on the right border of the Banquet of Herod and the left border of the Crucifixion of St. Peter. The right border of the latter shows a vase and foliate motifs, similar but not identical to the pattern found along the left edge of the St. Bernardino scene. Too little remains of the right border of the S. Bernardino scene and of the left border of the Banquet of Herod to exclude that originally they were contiguous. The order of the panels can thus be established as follows: Saint Bernardino Restoring a Child to Life, Banquet of Herod, Crucifixion, Crucifixion of St. Peter, lost piece. The total width of the predella can be calculated to about ca. 245 cm (without the presumed pilaster bases). I am grateful to Peter Hartley for his detailed report on the Crucifixion in Manchester (written communication, 4 April, 2002) and to Melva Croal for arranging the examination of this piece. Thanks are due also to Stratton D. Green for examining the Banquet of Herod in the Hyde Collection upon my request (written communication, 2 July, 2002). 30 Cf. the Virgin in the Placidi altarpiece, finished in 1476 (San Domenico, Siena) or in the Celsi altarpiece. 1480 (Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Siena).