(Florence active circa 1340-1360)
Saint Paul,
tempera and oil on gold ground panel, shaped top, 82 x 37 cm, framed

Provenance:
with Moretti Gallery, Florence;
Almagià collection, Rome;
thence by descent to the present owner

Exhibited:
Florence, Galleria dell’Accademia, Da Puccio di Simone a Giottino. Restauri e conferme, 15 November 2005 - 29 January 2006

Literature:
R. Offner/M. Boskovits, A critical and historical Corpus of Florentine Painting. The Fourteenth Century. Bernardo Daddi and his circle, sec. III, vol. V, Florence 2001, p. 18, p. 355, pl. XXXII, p. 599-600, add. pl. XIII;
A. Tartuferi, in: F. Moretti (ed.), Da Ambrogio Lorenzetti a Sandro Botticelli, exhibition catalogue, Florence 2003, pp. 38-43;
A. Tartuferi, in: A. Tartuferi/D. Parenti, Da Puccio di Simone a Giottino. Restauri e conferme, exhibition catalogue, Florence/Milan 2005, p. 18, pp. 50-51, no. 3 and pl. IV.

Miklós Boskovits suggested that the present panel of Saint Paul original formed part to a triptych, the central panel of which is now in the Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena (the Madonna and Child enthroned with two music making Angels, 96.5 x 57.2 cm, inv. no. F.1965.1.046.P; fig. 1). The left panel of the triptych of Saint Sebastian is in a private collection, London (82.3 x 31.4 cm; fig. 2) (see R. Offner/K. Steinweg, A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting. The Fourteenth Century, sec. III, vol. V, New York 1947, pp. 157-163).

The attribution of the present panel to Puccio di Simone was suggested by Boskovits, who first published this work in his revised edition of the Corpus of Florentine Painting by Richard Offner, inserting the work in the section dedicated to the Master of the Fabriano Altarpiece. The name derived from the polyptych that came from the church of Sant’Antonio Abate in Fabriano and is now in the National Gallery, Washington (inv. no. 1937.1.6.b), which until then had been attributed to Allegretto Nuzi, a painter of Umbrian origin. Offner recognized, however, that the altarpiece was the work of two artists: that of Allegretto, who painted the left lateral panel, representing Saint Anthony Abbot, and another Florentine follower of Daddi who Offner called the Master of the Fabriano Altarpiece. This artist was responsible for the rest of the altarpiece: the central and right panels which represent The Madonna enthroned with Angels and Saint Venanzio. It was Roberto Longhi in 1959 who connected this anonymous painter, known as the Master of the Fabriano Altarpiece, to the name of Puccio di Simone, who was one of the most important artists active in Florence during the middle years of the Trecento (see R. Longhi, Qualità e industria in Taddeo Gaddi ed altri in Paragone, 10, no. 111, pp. 9-10).

The close stylistic resemblance between the Washington polyptych, executed jointly by Puccio and Allegretto Nuzi and dated 1354, and the triptych to which the present Saint Paul once belonged, provides an important reference for dating the present work, that can therefore be assigned to the middle years of the 1350s.

Offner proposed that given the presence of Saint Sebastian on the left panel of the triptych to which the present Saint Paul once belonged, it is entirely possible that it may have been commissioned for the cathedral of Florence where in 1353 an altar was consecrated to Saint Sebastian (see R. Offner/K. Steinweg, A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting. The Fourteenth Century, sec. IV, vol. IV, New York 1967, p. 130).

There are striking compositional elements derived from the school of Giotto and Bernardo Daddi in the work of Puccio, as can be seen in the signed polyptych in the Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence (inv. no. 1890, 8569), and in mature works such as the present Saint Paul which is distinguished by the soft modelling of the figure, and the densely sculptural handling of the drapery folds. These same characteristics can also be found in the right panel of a triptych by Puccio conserved in Trinity Cathedral, Cleveland: it shows an almost exact duplicate of the present Saint Paul, turned to the left and holding a book and the sword, but flanked by Saint Bartholomew (see Tartuferi 2003 in literature).