FOREIGN COLLECTIONS

FILE : Boston Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum 3

TITLE : The Baptism of St John of Damascus

LOCATION: Boston Isabella Steward Gardner Museum inv. nn.C 30 s24 e C 30 s25

DIMENSIONS: diptych 112 x 61 cm. (every one panel)

PROVENANCE: From A. Pickert Nuremberg 1875. Originally the panels belonged to the St. John of Danascus window in the transept of the Milan Cathedral (nVI window). The two panels have been detached and sold in occasion of the restorations made by Giuseppe and Pompeo Bertini, in the period between 1861 (when the brothers introduced to the Cathedral Deputies the design of the new stained glass organisation), and 1866 (when the Kensington Museum acquired by the Bertini’s Studio the panel Testis est mihi.

CRONOLOGY : 1479 1516 ab.

AUTHOR: Niccolò da Varallo (documented)

PATRONAGE: The Guild of the Chemists

SUBJECT/S : The Baptism of the Saint

CRITICAL NOTES: As the others episodes of the St. John window this scene reveals the narrative style peculiar to the Niccolò da Varallo. The artist offers a delicious portrait of the domestic life. About the style of Niccolò da Varallo see Milano Duomo 4.

CONDITION: In fairly good conditions although several leads and a dark varnish. The faces are repainted. The inscription is lost. 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, 41
• M.P.FOUCAULT Conservation de six vitraux du MuséeIsabella Stewart Gardner de Boston – Anciens panneaux de la cathédrale de Milan Italie in “Grisaille, jaune d‘argent, sanguine, émail et peinture à froid”m, Forum pour la Conservation et la Restauration des Vitraux”, Liège, 19-22 juin 1996, 91-92.
  
  For the general bibliography on the St. John of Damascus window see Bibl Duomo 4
  
  PHOTOGRAPHIC REF: Boston Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Archives
  
  COMPILER: Caterina Pirina May 2006