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 * For the village near Livorno, see Sassetta, Tuscany

Stefano di Giovanni di Consolo, known as il Sassetta was a momentous Catholic Italian painter. He was active first half of fourteenth century-1450. He is considered one of the most important representatives of Sienese Renaissance painting.

Life and Works
The date and birthplace of Sassetta are not known. Some say he was born in Siena, although there is also an hypothesis that he was born in Cortona. His father, Giovanni, is called “da Cartona," which possibly means that Cortona was the artist's birthplace. The meaning of his nickname "Sassetta" is obscure and is not cited in documents of his time but appears in sources of the eighteenth century.

Sassetta was probably trained alongside artists like Benedetto di Bindo and Gregorio di Cecco, but he had a style all of his own, an orientation different from the late Gothic style that dominated Siena in this period.

His first certain work, which originally had his signature is the Arte della Lana altar piece (1423-1426) fragments which are now divided among various private and public collections.

Francesco di Giorgio e di Lorenzo, better known as Vecchietta, is said to have been his apprentice.

He exhibited even in his earliest work a very high level of skill, and refinement. He brought in artistic innovations of the time into his work as well. Artwork being done in Florence by artists such as Gentile da Fabriano and Masolino shows in Sassetta's own craft. In his second prestigious commission, the Maddonna of the Snow altarpiece which he painted between 1430 and 1432 for the Siena cathedral. He has been said to have brought Sienese tradition up to date with a solemn splendor. Sassetta excells at infusing his figures with a natural light that also molds their shape convincingly.

He died by pneumonia contracted while decorating the Assumption fresco in the Porta Romana of Siena. The work was finished by his pupil Sano di Pietro.

A Miracle of the Eucharist
Sassetta was a fiercely pious man. It has been said by Andrew Graham-Dixon that Sassetta's early fifteenth century painting of A Miracle of the Eucharist was not a work of art, in the museum sense, but rather, a threat: "Believe, or burn in hell forever." It is important to remember Sassetta's place in the Catholic imagination as well as the art historical context we more often see it in now. A miracle of the Eucharist is about the "marriage of righteousness and violence" and about the "consequences of sinfulness, the perils of feigning faith and the power of God."

The figure in black in the painting is an unbeliever, who has been found out in the process of receiving Communion. The officiating priest offers him The Host on a plate, which is pictured miraculously spurting blood. The unbeliever has been struck dead instantly, and the creature above his face is a tiny black devil which has swooped down to snatch away his soul to the depths of Hell. The other men pictured are Carmelite monks, caught in expressions of shock, amazement and disgust. They have become acquainted with their vengeful and savage God and it was Sassetta's intention that all who entered the church shook in the presence of their lord. His aim was to equally inspire fear and faith. The painting is a "carefully staged, meticulously created illusion" which commemorates the Miracle of Bolsena which is said to have taken place in 1263. The act of Communion is scarcely ever insisted upon with this kind of literal interpretation that the digestion of the Host will send your soul to blackness and hellfire. While it has been said of Catholicism that their theatricality interferes with their morality, Sassetta's paintings stand as a diatribe against mere show, or ritual without true faith. This painting is about a Carmelite Monk being found out in performance, about God finding out if your faith is not true and striking down your true self, the self others would not be able to see.

A Miracle of the Eucharist can now only be seen triply out of context, in the National Gallery (or other modern art museum). "It is no longer in a church; the world and the people for whom it was produced have vanished into the past; and it has been cut from the far larger altarpiece by Sassetta of which it was once simply one element." Sassetta's Altarpiece of the Eucharist was divided between three museums (British, Hungarian and Italian), the Vatican and a private collection.

In Sassetta's world, pictures were not so much looked at as art, but rather as truth. The way the public look at his paintings now would be considered a high blasphemy in his time. Sassetta so successfully renders and creates these worlds inside his paintings however, that this truth can never be entirely displaced.

2 Andrew Graham-Dixon, Paper Museum: Writings about Paintings, mostly (New York : Knopf, 1997), 33-36.

3 Miklós Boskovits; National Gallery of Art (U.S.); et al, Italian paintings of the fifteenth century (Washington : National Gallery of Art ; New York, 2003), 621-625.

The Borgo San Sepolcro Altarpiece
In October 1900 the Berenson family purchased three panels created by Stefano di Giovanni in the fifteenth century. The Berenson's collection consisted of St. Francis in Glory, flanked by the standing Blessed Ranieri and St. John the Baptist, which scholars determined are only a part of a complex altar which had now become scattered among twelve collections throughout Europe and North America.

Bernard Benson bequeathed many of Sassetta's painting from his Florence Villa to the Harvard University, in what became the Center for Italian Renaissance Studies in Florence. Two large volumes entitled Sassetta: The Borgo San Sepolcro Altarpiece which were edited by Machtelt Israels and released in 2009. It focuses on telling the full story of the Borgo San Sepolcro, the altarpiece created by Sassetta for the church of San Francesco in northeast Tuscany. These books were concerned with telling the story of the Borgo San Sepulcro Altarpiece, from its conception and creation in the fifteenth century to its restoration in twenty-first century.

Henk Van Os created a 3D computer-assissted reconstruction of the altarpiece's surviving parts with the technical assistance of the Florentine Opificio delle Pietre Dure and extensive staff which records of can be found in the second volume of Machtelt Israels book.

It is generally accepted by the art historical community that Sassetta’s San Francesco altarpiece was one of the largest and most expensive of the Quattrocento. The fact that it was produced by a Sienese artist in Siena, and shipped to the Tiber valley town in late spring 1444 also speaks to Sassetta's fame in his time period.

4 Machtelt Israels, ed. Sassetta: The Borgo San Sepolcro Altarpiece. 2 vols. Florence: Villa I Tatti, 2009. 624 p.

5 Fabrizio Nevola. “Reviews” Renaissance Quarterly (University of Chicago Press 2010). Vol. 63, No. 2, p589-591

Controversy
There is some contention in the art historical community over which Sienese masters were directly responsible for what paintings. Scenes from the life of St. Anthony of Egypt have been questioned as Sassetta's own work, and critics such as Donald Bruce believe that near-equals, such as the Griselda master also deserve attention for their achievements in art of this time period.

6 Donald Bruce, Sienese Painting at the London National Gallery. Contemporary Review; Winter2007, Vol. 289 Issue 1687, p481.

Selected works

 * Meeting of Saint Antonio and Saint Paul (c. 1440), tempera on wood, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., USA
 * Vision of Saint Thomas of Aquino before the Cross, (1423), Pinacoteca Vaticana
 * Saint Thomas inspired by the dove of the Holy Spirit, tempera on wood, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
 * Madonna of the Snows Altarpiece (c. 1430-1432), Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence
 * A predella of three works at the Detroit Institute of arts
 * San Domenico da Cortona Polyptych (c. 1434), Diocesan Museum, Cortona, Italy
 * The Journey of the Magi (1435) Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
 * Saint Anthony the Hermit Tortured by Devils, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena
 * Virgin and Child Adored by Six Angels (1437–44), Louvre Museum, Paris, France
 * Death of the Heretic on the Bonfire (1423), Melbourne, Australia
 * Last Supper (1423), Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena
 * Ecstasy of Saint Francis (1437–44), Villa i Tatti, Settignano, Italy
 * The Miracle of the Eucharist, Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, United Kingdom
 * Saint Francis receiving stigmata (1437–44), National Gallery, London, United Kingdom
 * Mystic Marriage of St. Francis (c. 1450), Musée Condé, Chantilly, France