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Cenni di Francesco di Ser Cenni
active in Florence between 1369 and 1415
The panel illustrating Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata encompasses several distinctive elements of Cenni di Francesco’s figurative style. The episode is recounted with an abundance of detail, a hallmark of this artist. The depiction of La Verna’s rugged and remote landscape occupies a significant portion of the composition. The artist meticulously portrays the architecture of two convents in the background, the trees, the crevices in the rocks, and even the grain on a wooden plank laid as a pathway along the precipice. The warm tonalities of the colour palette are bathed in the light that falls upon the rocks, the tunic, and the serene, almost smiling countenance of Saint Francis.
Tempera on panel, 25.5 x 32 cm
Provenance
Munich, Jacob Doppler collection, until 1931;
Munich sale, 20-22 October 1931, lot 26;
Munich, private collection, 1953 and again in 1955;
Munich Andreas Rudigier, 1991;
London, Christie’s, 8 July 2005, lot 1;
Delaware, Alana collection.
Bibliography
S. Chiodo, in The Alana Collection: Italian paintings from the 13th to 15th century, Florence 2009, pp. 58-61
In the 1931 sale catalogue, the attribution of the painting was assigned to Taddeo Gaddi. However, it was later attributed to Cenni di Francesco di Ser Cenni, under whose name it was listed during its sale in 2005, by Miklós Boskovits, who also proposed that the small panel belonged to the same predella as the three other scene, dating them to the earliest known period of Cenni's career, Sonia Chiodo in 2009 confirmed the attribution.
This panel constitutes one of the sections of a predella and was part of the same unidentified polyptych together with a Temptation of Saint Anthony (Florence, Stibbert Museum), a Beheading of the Baptist (private collection) and a Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence (Florence, Stibbert Museum).
The panel illustrating Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata encompasses several distinctive elements of Cenni di Francesco’s figurative style. The episode is recounted with an abundance of detail, a hallmark of this artist. The depiction of La Verna’s rugged and remote landscape occupies a significant portion of the composition. The artist meticulously portrays the architecture of two convents in the background, the trees, the crevices in the rocks, and even the grain on a wooden plank laid as a pathway along the precipice. The warm tonalities of the colour palette are bathed in the light that falls upon the rocks, the tunic, and the serene, almost smiling countenance of Saint Francis.
As is typical in his works, Cenni avoids dramatic exaggerations, a tendency evident in the other episodes that once formed part of the same predella. In the Beheading of the Baptist, one of the executioners is depicted pulling the Saint from his prison by his hair. In the Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence, baskets filled with charcoal for the brazier are featured, and one of the executioners employs a bellow to fan the glowing coals. In the Temptation of Saint Anthony, the artist indulges in imaginative depictions of various kinds of monsters tormenting the Saint. The palette characteristic of Cenni di Francesco is distinguished by vibrant hues and warm tonalities.
Regarding the dating of the ensemble to which our panel belongs, valuable insights can be gleaned from specific compositional elements. Notably, the meticulous and well-balanced arrangement of architectural features within the landscape, as well as the disposition of secondary figures, serve to encircle the space of the action. This deliberate composition directs the observer’s focus toward the central group, a characteristic favoured by artists during the third quarter of the century, as Nardo di Cione, whose influence is also evident in other works from the same period.
In this stage of his artistic development, various facets of the artist’s training appear to have coalesced into an original and self-contained idiom. Consequently, considering the present state of our comprehension, a later dating, around the 1380s, emerges as the most plausible hypothesis.