(Siena circa 1290 - 1348) circle of; Crucifixion, tempera on gold ground panel, 22 x 30cm.

The present panel shows the crucified Christ, flanked by the Virgin Mary and St John the Evangelist, against a homogenous gold ground. The figure of St Ansano is depicted kneeling underneath the Cross. Along the margins, the painting is decorated with elegant quatrefoil embossings. The circular halos vary in diameter, and all the details are carefully and delicately executed. Because of the picture’s dimensions it can be assumed that it once formed part of a family altar destined for the purpose of private adoration. The work’s typology and formal characteristics clearly point to Siena and suggest a date of origin in the second quarter of the fourteenth century. Particularly the treatment of Christ’s conspicuously outlined body and the saints’ expressive physiognomies, calling to mind Duccio’s and Martini’s art, make it plausible to date the painting to the 1330s or ‘40s. The drapery, the expressivity of the figures in general and of St John in particular, as well as the postures of the protagonists, who are set off against the gold ground, are suggestive of Siena and the circle of Pietro Lorenzetti, who had been active during the first half of the fourteenth century, but whose influence extended well into the century’s latter half and also manifests itself in the dramatic representation of the figure of Christ. The manner of painting seems to be closest to that of Niccolò di Segna, the son of Segna di Bonaventura, who was active in the 1330s and ‘40s. Influenced by Lorenzetti, he was also familiar with the works of Duccio and Simone Martini.

The size of the present composition would indicate that is was conceived as a private devotional image and may have been originally incorporated in a portable altar. A possible date of circa 1330-1340 has been suggested for the present work, executed in S