Saints Bartholomew and Andrew

This panel depicting Saints Bartholomew and Andrew by Ugolino di Nerio, dated to around 1324, is another fragment from the dismembered Santa Croce altarpiece, one of the largest and most ambitious Sienese polyptychs commissioned for a Florentine church. The pairing of apostles in lateral panels was a standard feature of Gothic polyptych design, allowing the faithful to venerate multiple saints within a unified altarpiece program. The fragment is now in the National Gallery, London.

Executed in egg tempera on panel with gold ground, the two apostles are rendered as dignified half-length figures holding their identifying attributes — Bartholomew his flaying knife and Andrew a cross. The refined facial modeling and elegant drapery treatment exemplify Ugolino's faithful continuation of Duccio's style.