Circle of Francesco di Giorgio Martini (Siena 1439–1501)
A Desco da Parto, Vulcan forging Cupids wings with Venus in a landscape,
tempera on panel, polygonal, diameter 53.5 cm, integral frame

Provenance:
Louis de Magny Collection, Nice, 1919;
Private collection, San Remo, 1935;
Private European collection

Executed for private patrons, this Desco da parto is a sixteen-sided polygonal form which preserves its original gilded frame. The verso is entirely covered in glue-gesso prepared canvas, this incamottatura is painted light brown and bears a centrally positioned decorative geometric motif. This motif must have originally borne a coat of arms, but now only traces of this remain.

The desco da parto (see: P. Thornton, The Italian Renaissance Interior, London 1991, pp. 252-253) is a panel with a polygonal or circular form, which is painted and decorated on both sides. They are very particular objects and only a few examples survive; they were circulated almost exclusively in central Italy from the late Trecento through to the beginning of the sixteenth century. The desco were commissioned by noble, or high ranking, families as a ceremonial gift of great symbolic significance which was given to a mother at the time of childbirth. They were used as a salver to bring the just alleviated puerpera her first meal. For this purpose, the painted surface of the desco would be protected by a fine cloth, as can be seen in the scene represented in the celebrated desco by Masaccio in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, and in the picture by Bartolomeo di Fruosino dated 1428, formerly with the Historical Society, New York, and exhibited in the Metropolitan Museum (see: L. B. Kanter in: Painting and Illumination in Early Renaissance Florence 1300-1450, New York 1994, pp. 311-314). Subsequently the desco would be hung in the bridal bedchamber as a precious memorial of the propitious event. Deschi were often the product of the greatest master’s studios and they depicted very varied subjects: the representation of sacred or profane births, allegorical images, biblical scenes, stories drawn from literature, and even complex mythological themes (see the repertoire by C. de Carli, I deschi da parto e la pittura del primo Rinascimento toscano, Turin 1997).

The present work is a very rare and important record of early Renaissance Sienese painting. There are very few surviving deschi made in Siena during the fifteenth century, and almost all are from a later date, with the exception of one attributed to Domenico di Bartolo, or his circle, in the Galleria Franchetti alla Ca’d’Oro, Venice (De Carli, 1997, pp. 122-23, no. 26). The present work evokes with classicising, cultured intentionality, a family scene drawn from Roman mythology: Venus with Vulcan forging the wings of Cupid, their son, according to one of the many versions from ancient literature. The goddess is represented standing, holding a long arrow while she caresses the young Cupid’s head. He bears a bow, arrow and quiver, while Vulcan, seated on a rock before an anvil and a bronze brazier full of burning coals, is intent at work on Eros’ golden wings. This is maybe the first representation of the subject in Italian art: it is likely older than the bronze plaquette attributed to Vittore Gambello, called Camelio, which is preserved in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (inv. 67-1865), and it certainly pre-dates an engraving by Nicoletto da Modena as well as one of the stuccos in Palazzo Te in Mantua.

With unusual artifice, the artist has surrounded the scene with a fictive marble border decorated with gilded foliate motifs showing a foreshortened edge, as if representing a window. This creates an effect of spatial recession which is more typical of mural painting than painting on panel. In its compositional conception and in the form of the figures, the distinctly Sienese style appears to be closely connected to the works of Francesco di Giorgio Martini. However, the palette and the linear but soft and ductile drawing style of the contours also recalls examples by Neroccio de’Landi. The composition is organised across two clearly distinct planes: the figures are arranged on a rocky foreground that overlooks a broad landscape with a city view, and a background of sky and mountains. This compositional concept recurs in the late work of Francesco di Giorgio, such as in the signed altarpiece with the Nativity and Saints Bernard and Thomas Aquinas in the Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena, commissioned in 1475, and in the magnificent drawing on parchment in the Gabinetto dei Disegni e Stampe of the Uffizi (inv. 342E) representing Saint John the Baptist in the desert (for these works see: A. S. Weller, Francesco di Giorgio Martini 1439-1501, Chicago 1943, pp. 109 ff., 252-254).

The dress of Venus, which is based on antique models, reveals considerable similarities to that of the figure at the centre of the bronze plaquette by Francesco di Giorgio representing the Judgment of Paris conserved in the National Gallery, Washington (Kress Collection, no. 1957.14.140; see: A. S. Weller 1943, pp. 161-162; J. Pope-Hennessy, Renaissance Bronzes from the Samuel H. Kress Collection, London 1965, p. 25). However, at the same time, the marked linearism is close to the marble intarsia representing the Hellespont Sybille in the Duomo di Siena paving, executed by Neroccio de’Landi in 1483 (G. Coor, Neroccio de’Landi, Princeton 1961, pp. 67 ff.). The rounded features of Love also point to Neroccio, while the imposing figure of Vulcan appears to be based upon, and transposes, the graphic manner of archaic style classical prototypes.

This desco, which was made in the circles closest to Francesco di Giorgio, can be dated to the very beginning of the classicising fashion in Siena which began during the last two decades of the fifteenth century. It is the work of a hand that shows considerable affinities to the author of the splendid Gabella panel of 1485 representing the Sacrifice of Isaac (Archivio di Stato, Siena, inv. 43), attributed to one ‘famulo di Francesco di Giorgio’ (C. Brandi, Quattrocentisti Senesi, Florence 1949, p. 162), and more recently to the rare Mariotto di Andrea da Volterra, a painter active in Siena in the ambit of Neroccio (L. Bellosi/M. Parisi in: Francesco di Giorgio e il Rinascimento a Siena 1450-1500, Milan 1993, pp. 81, 434-37).

Technical analysis:

IR reflectography reveals careful drawing under the main figures and the castle, made with a thin medium (see fig.1). Small changes can be seen under the towers, initially a little higher, and along some profiles. The faint silhouettes of possibly two horses can be read in IR in the middle ground near the two walking men, close to the tree, while the white hares chased by the dog disappear in IRR, indicating they were added later. Infrared image of the verso helps to visualize the complete monochrome brown rose in the centre, with its oak leaves around the central circles.

According to Reflectance Spectroscopy (RS) and X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) analyses, Venus’ red mantle is made with a coccid-based red lake, and lead white, while iron oxide-based pigments were used in the flesh tones together with lead white.

Cross sections carried out on samples show a gesso ground covered by azurite and lead white in the original sky as well as the presence of vermillion and iron oxides (yellow and red ochre) in the figure of Venus. Gold leaf was used for Cupid’s wings. Azurite in the sky was confirmed by RS and it was also detected in Vulcan’s green-blue robe, probably mixed with yellow. The painted surface was restored in different periods, as IR and UV images reveal.

We are grateful to Gianluca Poldi for the technical examination.