The Meeting of Saint Anthony and Saint Paul
Master of the Osservanza (Sano di Pietro?)·c. 1430/1435
Historical Context
This panel of the Meeting of Saint Anthony and Saint Paul, attributed to the Master of the Osservanza (possibly Sano di Pietro), painted around 1430-1435, illustrates the legendary encounter between the two desert fathers in the Egyptian wilderness. The Master of the Osservanza, named after an altarpiece in the Osservanza church near Siena, was one of the most refined painters in the early Quattrocento Sienese tradition, possibly identifiable with the young Sano di Pietro.
Technical Analysis
The tempera-on-poplar technique produces the luminous, jewel-like color characteristic of Sienese painting. The desert landscape is rendered with decorative charm, while the two saints are depicted with the graceful linearity and narrative clarity that define this anonymous master's distinctive style.
Provenance
Granville Edward Harcourt Vernon [1816-1861], Grove Hall, Nottinghamshire; by inheritance to his wife, Lady Selina Vernon [later Lady Hervey], Grove Hall, Nottinghamshire;[1] (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 17-18 June 1864, 2nd day, no. 270, as _Two Monks embracing at the Foot of a Mountain_ by P. Laurenti); purchased by Anthony;[2] Wentworth Blackett Beaumont, 1st baron Allendale [1829-1907], London; by inheritance to his son, Wentworth Canning Blackett Beaumont, 1st viscount and 2nd baron Allendale [1860-1923], London; by inheritance to his son, Wentworth Henry Canning Beaumont, 2nd viscount and 3rd baron Allendale [1890-1956], London;[3] sold 1937 to (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris); sold June 1938 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[4] gift 1939 to NGA. [1] See Ellis Waterhouse, "Sassetta and the Legend of St. Anthony Abbot," _The Burlington Magazine_ (September 1931): 113, note 7; and a letter of 15 December 1964 from Ellis Waterhouse to the Kress Foundation (copy in NGA curatorial files), discussed in Fern Rusk Shapley, _Catalogue of the Italian Paintings_, 2 vols., Washington, D.C., 1979: 1:319 n. 2. According to Algernon Graves (_A Century of Loan Exhibitions, 1813-1912_, 5 vols., London, 1913-1915: 1:23, 439; 2:768, 883; 3:995, 1247), Harcourt Vernon allowed various early Italian pictures in his collection to be exhibited as early as 1857, at the _Art Treasures_ exhibition in Manchester. [2] Shapley 1979, 1:319. According to Ellis Waterhouse's 1964 letter (see note 1), the painting "was bought by the dealer Anthony for 1.2 Pounds. It was probably bought by W.B. Beaumont...soon after." [3] Ellis Waterhouse, in a letter of 4 March 1965 (in NGA curatorial files) to Fern Rusk Shapley, noted that he had "discovered" the painting "in a bathroom" on 29 October 1930. He adds that "the picture was never, I fancy, in Northumberland [Bretton Hall, Viscount Allendale's country estate], but in London, at 144 Piccadilly..." The year of the panel's acquisition by Duveen is given in the same letter. [4] The Duveen Brothers letter confirming the sale of eight paintings, including NGA 1939.1.293, is dated 21 June 1938; the provenance is given as "Lord Allendale" (copy in NGA curatorial files; Box 474, Folder 5, Duveen Brothers Records, accession number 960015, Research Library, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles. See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/2243.
