Piero della Francesca’s polyptych for the high altar of the old Augustinian church in Borgo Sansepolcro, completed in 1469 and probably dismantled in the mid-16th century, has never regained its narrative unity. Many of the panels that made up the different sections of the polyptych are still missing, or perhaps lost forever, including the central panel and a large part of the predella.
Ms Quarto, how did you manage in such a short time to bring together for the first time the surviving panels of this extraordinary work by Piero, which are now kept in Lisbon, London, New York, Washington and in this museum?
Firstly by seizing the moment, as Horace would say, by taking advantage of the temporary closure of the Frick Collection and then by initiating discussions with the directors of the other three museums involved (the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the National Gallery in London and the Museu National in Lisbon) to present the exhibition project and convince them to lend the works in order to ‘reunite’ the eight compartments that exist today for the first time in history. Thanks to the excellent relations with the museums and the extraordinary scientific project presented, it was possible to achieve this great result of which we are very proud.
When you enter the room, in front of the panels of the four saints that make up the main section, you see Piero’s monumental composition and his ability to transform perfect forms into human figures. How did you feel when you saw it reconstructed after more than five centuries?
Unbelievable! I have worked in museums for more than 20 years and have seen thousands of boxes opened and witnessed very important exhibitions. We were breathless, speechless, in religious silence. On the first evening, when the four saints were placed on the supports that give perspective to the main register of the great altarpiece, we thought that, finally, after more than five centuries, they had been reunited with the different histories that the life of collecting had brought them in five different states. Our thoughts immediately turned to what must have been the grandeur and solemnity of the entire altarpiece, which consisted of some thirty panels, and to the beauty of the central panel.
What do we know about the history that links the panel of St Nicholas of Tolentino to the collection of Gian Giacomo Poldi Pezzoli?
Gian Giacomo Poldi Pezzoli purchased the panel painting of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino in the late 1870s from the antiquarian Antonio Fidanza, the official restorer of the Brera Art Gallery from 1813 to around 1840. The panel was attributed to Fra Carnevale even though a card was found on the back showing the attribution to Mantegna, but in fact in the early museum inventories and collection catalogues it was always referred to as Fra Carnevale.
At the time of Gian Giacomo Poldi Pezzoli’s death, Nicholas of Tolentino was in Giuseppe Bertini’s studio in Brera and had an estimated commercial value of 2,000 lire.
Nicholas of Tolentino, depicted as an Augustinian friar who enjoys the pleasures of the table, holds a book in his left hand and points to a star suspended over his right shoulder. He is depicted wearing the tonsure, the clerical crown that reproduces in form the crown of thorns and that Christ had granted Peter to wear in his image, the extent of which indicates that he was ordained a priest.
To what extent do the diagnostic investigations conducted on the Poldi Pezzoli’s Saint Nicholas of Tolentino, supported by the Bracco Foundation, help us to better understand the Augustinian polyptych in particular, and Piero’s modus operandi in general?
The scientific analysis of the Saint Nicholas of Tolentino sheds light on the materials and techniques Piero used to create the Augustinian polyptych. Researchers have adopted established analytical methods to obtain the maximum amount of scientific information from the painting. The investigations were based on high-resolution imaging techniques, including multiband and hyperspectral imaging, together with microscopy and point spectroscopy analyses.
Thanks to the cooperation of the lending museums, investigations were carried out coordinated by curator Machtlet Brüggen Israels, who defined clear lines of research to specifically investigate certain aspects that needed to be answered. The results were satisfactory.
It has been said that Piero, a master of light, was inspired by Flemish influenced painters. By re-examining the various samples taken in the past from the polyptych panels on the occasion of the exhibition, the almost exclusive use of oil as a binder was discovered and, like the Flemish painters, Piero applied semi-transparent glazes in a very subtle and refined manner.
In addition, along the edges of the panels that stood next to the central panel in the polyptych, there are elements of its composition. With the aid of a stereo-microscope, the pink and blue wings of two angels that spread from the central panel to the side panels depicting St Michael and St John the Evangelist, which were erased when the polyptych was dismantled, have been traced.
Among the remaining elements of the central composition on the edges of the panels that flanked it in the polyptych, the flap of a mantle of crimson brocaded velvet lined with ermine of the greatest richness, as well as the steps of porphyry, a stone of royal assonance, suggest that at the centre of the polyptych was not a Madonna and Child, but a coronation with the Virgin kneeling at the feet of her Son to receive the crown, not unlike the figures in such compositions by Filippo Lippi, the Florentine artist with whom Piero collaborated, while Piero’s own invention was inspired by Giovanni Bellini’s great Pesaro altarpiece.
It is also clear that Piero reused a pre-existing 14th-century wooden frame, as stipulated in the contract of 1454.
For more information on the exhibition: https://wannenesgroup.com/magazine/ Migliori-mostre-esposizioni-arte/piero-della-francesca-il-polittico-agostiniano-riunito/
