FOREIGN COLLECTIONS

FILE : Boston Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum 1

TITLE : Christ washing the feet of the Disciples

LOCATION: Boston, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

DIMENSIONS: Right panel of a diptych - cm. 112 x 61

PROVENANCE: From A Pickert Nuremberg (1875). Once the panel belonged to the New Testament Cycle window in the Milan Cathedral (sII window). Actually, the remnants panels of this stained glass window, are dismembered and partially get up in the Cathedral sXVI window. Therefore, several panels of the three apse windows were scattered on account of the Bertini family restorations and sold by auction.

CRONOLOGY : 1480 – 1490

AUTHOR: Antonio da Pandino (attributed)

PATRONAGE: Venerabile Ruffino parish-priest of the St. Maria della Scala Church

SUBJECT/S: Christ washing the feet of the Disciples

CRITICAL NOTES:G. Marchini recognized this panel as belonging to a diptych of the New Testament in the rear choir of the Milan Cathedral; the other one - the left side of the diptych - is yet in situ. C. Pirina identified the Christ head as the only remnant fragment of the lost St Ambroise window painted by Agostino de’ Mottis and destroyed by P. Bertini. See Milano Duomo 5

CONDITION: Many cracks and mending leads; several modern tesseras. The buildings above the arch are new. The panel was covered by a layer darkening the scene and cleaned during the recent restoration (1996). The Christ head is a stopgap attributed to Agostino de’ Mottis.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

G. MARCHINI Vetri italiani in America in "Arte in Europa, Scritti di Storia dell’Arte in onore di Edoardo Arslan, Milano, 1966, 431-36;

C. PIRINA Pannelli di vetrate italiane in collezioni straniere, "Le vetrate italiane: patrimonio da salvare" – Seminari della VII Settimana dei Beni Culturali, Rendiconti dell’Istituto Lombardo, Accademia di Scienze e Lettere, Milano, vol. 125 (1991),1992, 97-98;

ID Stained Glass from Milan Cathedral in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, in " Fenway Court" , 1983, 27-37;

ID Le due fasi delle vetrate nella Certosa di Pavia, "Le vetrate italiane: patrimonio da salvare" – Seminari della IX Settimana dei Beni Culturali, Rendiconti dell’Istituto Lombardo, Accademia di Scienze e Lettere, Milano, vol. 127 (1993),1995, 142-43;

M.H.C. item “ Studies in the History of Art Stained Glass before 1770 in American Collections :new ”,Corpus Vitrearum Checklist I, National Gallery of Art Washington vol. 15, 41;

M.P.FOUCAULT Conservation de six vitraux du Musée Isabella Stewart Gardner de Boston – Anciens panneaux de la cathédrale de Milan Italie “Grisaille, jaune d‘argent, sanguine, émail et peinture à froid - Forum pour la Conservation et la Restauration des Vitraux”, Liège, 19-22 juin 1996, 91-92..

PHOTOGRAPHIC REF: Boston, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Archives

COMPILER: Caterina Pirina May 2006