(Viterbo? circa 1407 – before 1476)
Saint John the Baptist with Saint Agatha above; and Saint Nicholas with a female Saint, possibly Saint Catherine of Alexandria above,
oil and tempera on panel, gold ground, shaped top, overall including frame: each 162.5 x 47 cm, painted surface: each 122 x 33.5 cm, a pair (2)

Provenance:
Private European collection

We are grateful to Filippo Todini for suggesting the attributions of the present paintings as works by Francesco d’Antonio da Viterbo, called Il Balletta, on the basis of high resolution digital photographs.

The two panels presented here comprise an important record of the activity of the painter from Viterbo, Francesco d’Antonio, called Balletta. The corpus of work and the chronology of this painter are still largely to be defined, and what is known, has been reconstructed by scholarship on the basis of the only known signed and dated work by the artist, the polyptych representing: The Madonna and Child between Saints Peter, John the Baptist, John the Evangelis and Paul executed in 1441 for the church of San Giovanni in Zoccoli at Viterbo. The polyptych has a very similar frame to the present two panels.

Francesco d’Antonio trained in Viterbo but assimilated stylistic influences from Sienese painting and from that of Umbria and the Marches. He asserted himself as a refined interpreter of the late Gothic culture that was still in vogue in his native city, during the first half of the Quattrocento. The polyptych of San Giovanni in Zoccoli is probably pre-dated by the triptych conserved today in the church of San Lorenzo at Tuscania: the latter’s panels recall the works of Sienese painters of the previous generation like Taddeo di Bartolo. References to this painter are also encountered in the paintings presented here, and especially in the features of Saint Nicholas.

The Saints in these panels present forms of elegant linear construction while their features are expressively accentuated: they can be compared to other figures painted by Francesco d’Antonio such as the Saint Peter of the left panel of the triptych preserved in the Musée du Petit Palais in Avignon. Balletta was also an able painter of frescoes, as witnessed by the pictorial cycles in the church of Santa Maria Nuova at Viterbo, which likely date to a late phase of the artist’s activity.

The female saint presented in the present panel with Saint Nicholas could be identified as Saint Catherine of Alexandria on account of her fair unbound hair, which is a typical attribute, while it is more unusual, but not exceptional, that she is shown only with a sword, the ultimate instrument of her martyrdom, emblematised by the palm she bears. From the Middle-Ages Saint Catherine was considered the holiest and most illustrious of the virgins of Christ after the Virgin Mary and she was venerated as the protector of young maidens; at this time Saint Nicholas was considered a patron of young bachelors.