FOREIGN COLLECTIONS

FILE : Boston Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum 2

TITLE : Ruth and Boaz

LOCATION: Boston, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

DIMENSIONS: cm 112 x 61

PROVENANCE: From A. Pickert, Nuremberg, 1875 Originally the panel belonged to the Old Testament window in the rear choir of the Milan cathedral (nII window). In occasion of the Bertini family restorations, several panels were detached and sold.
The main group of the Old Testament window panels is now in several south aisle windows.

CRONOLOGY: 1549 - 57

AUTHOR: Currado Mochis da Colonia (documented)

PATRONAGE:

SUBJECT/S: Booz ransoms Ruth in the presence of Noemi – Old Testament Book of Ruth, IV

CRITICAL NOTES: The start of the grand Old Testament window goes back to 1420 when Maffiolo da Cremona executed about half part of the panels. After that for a long time the window was unfinished. Currado Mochis da Colonia, when was engaged by the Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo (the Cathedral board), executed several panels on the Arcimboldi designs: the panels of St. Caterina of Alexandria window (see Milano Duomo 24), and almost all these for the Old Testament window. G. B. Bertini detached and substituted them with a new modern stained glass window. The remnant ancient panels are now collected in the south aisles windows (see Milano Duomo 34 -112)

CONDITION: In good conditions, although the heavy mending leads. On the back side a layer of rosin mixed with a dark colour was applied regularly. Replacements appear to be restricted to a few stopgaps (the hairs of Noemi). Restored in 1996.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

• 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. 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, 44.
• M.P.FOUCAULT Conservation de six vitraux du Musée Isabella Stewart Gardner de Boston – Anciens panneaux de la cathédrale de Milan Italie in “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.
  
  For a general bibliography on Currado Mochis da Colonia see Bibl. Duomo n. 24 and Milano Duomo 34 -112

PHOTOGRAPHIC REF.: Boston, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Archives

COMPILER: Caterina Pirina, April 2006