Ugolino di nerio biography templates
Ugolino di Nerio, 'The Deposition', possibly 1325-8
These panels were once part of a large altarpiece made by the Sienese painter Ugolino di Nerio for the high altar of the Franciscan church of Santa Croce in Florence. In 1566 it was removed and replaced with a Crucifix. The altarpiece focuses on the Passion of Christ (his torture and crucifixion) and the Resurrection – an appropriate theme, as the church was dedicated to the Holy Cross. The imagery of the altarpiece was a suitable backdrop to the church’s annual procession of a relic of the Cross.
Although the altarpiece was later dismantled and its panels are now in collections around the world, we have a good idea of how it looked originally. Drawings made in the late eighteenth century show the altarpiece when it was in the friary connected to the church. At that time, Ugolino’s signature was noted on the altarpiece’s frame. Technical analysis of the panels, carried out at the National Gallery, revealed where the panels were connected to each other, and proves the drawing must be an accurate representation of their original arrangement.
The main tier followed the conventional pattern for altarpieces in fourteenth-century Italy, with an image of the Virgin and Child placed centrally and flanked by images of saints (in this case, three on either side painted within pointed arches). The panel with the Virgin and Child does not survive, but three of the panels with saints are now in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. Angels were painted in the spandrels of each panel, and those once above Saint Louis of Toulouse and those once above Saint Francis are in our collection.
Above this main tier of images was another row of saints, smaller in scale and framed in six sets of pairs; Saints Bartholomew and Andrew and Saints Simon and Thaddeus are in our collection. The uppermost tier consisted of six pinnacle panels, three on either side of a central image which probably showed the Crucifixion ,
The Last Supper
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Title:The Last Supper
Artist:Ugolino da Siena (Ugolino di Nerio) (Italian, Siena, active by 1317–died ?1339/49)
Date:ca. 1325–30
Medium:Tempera and gold on wood
Dimensions:Overall, with engaged (modern) frame, 15 x 22 1/4 in. (38.1 x 56.5 cm); painted surface 13 1/2 x 20 3/4 in. (34.3 x 52.7 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Robert Lehman Collection, 1975
Object Number:1975.1.7
Cappella Maggiore, Santa Croce, Florence (until 1566); upper dormitory, friary of Sante Croce, Florence; William Young Ottley, London; Warner Ottley, London; Warner Ottley sale, Foster and Son, London, 30 June 1847 (bought in); Warner Ottley sale, Foster and Son, London, 24 June 1850, lot 55; Rev. John Fuller Russell, Eagle House, near Enfield (see G. F. Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain, 1854, vol. 2, p. 462); Russell sale, Christie's, London, 18 April, 1885, lot 116; Canon L. Myers, Swanmore Park; F. Sabin, London; acquired by Robert Lehman in 1934.
N. Catalano. Fiume del Terrestre Paradiso, diviso in Quattro capi, o discorsi. Florence, 1652, pp. 424-425. These panels were once part of a large altarpiece made by the Sienese painter Ugolino di Nerio for the high altar of the Franciscan church of Santa Croce in Florence. In 1566 it was removed and replaced with a Crucifix. The altarpiece focuses on the Passion of Christ (his torture and crucifixion) and the Resurrection – an appropriate theme, as the church was dedicated to the Holy Cross. The imagery of the altarpiece was a suitable backdrop to the church’s annual procession of a relic of the Cross. Although the altarpiece was later dismantled and its panels are now in collections around the world, we have a good idea of how it looked originally. Drawings made in the late eighteenth century show the altarpiece when it was in the friary connected to the church. At that time, Ugolino’s signature was noted on the altarpiece’s frame. Technical analysis of the panels, carried out at the National Gallery, revealed where the panels were connected to each other, and proves the drawing must be an accurate representation of their original arrangement. The main tier followed the conventional pattern for altarpieces in fourteenth-century Italy, with an image of the Virgin and Child placed centrally and flanked by images of saints (in this case, three on either side painted within pointed arches). The panel with the Virgin and Child does not survive, but three of the panels with saints are now in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. Angels were painted in the spandrels of each panel, and those once above Saint Louis of Toulouse and those once above Saint Francis are in our collection. Above this main tier of images was another row of saints, smaller in scale and framed in six sets of pairs; Saints Bartholomew and Andrew and Saints Simon and Thaddeus are in our collection. The uppermost tier consisted of six pinnacle panels, three on either side of a central image which probably showed the Crucifixion , itself to Ugolino di Nerio (1280? - 1349) was active in his native city of Siena and in Florence between the years 1317 and 1327.
Guglielmo Della Valle. Lettere sansei. Vol. 2, Venice, 1785, p. 202.
Gustav Friedrich Waagen. Kunstwerke und Künstler in England und Paris. Vol. 1, 1837, pp. 393-395.
Art Treasures Exhibition. Exh. cat.Manchester, 1857, no. 25.
Exhibitions from the Works of Old Masters. Exh. cat.London, 1878, no. 177.
J. S. Sartain. The Reminiscences of a Very Old Man. Cambridge , 1899, p. 98.
Edward Hutton. The Sienese School in the National Gallery. London, 1925, pp. 16-21.
Giorgio Vasari. Le vite del Vasari nell'edizione del 1550. Vol. 1, Milan, 1927, p. 155.
Curt H. Weigelt. Sienese Painting of the Trecento. Florence, 1930, p. 18.
R. R. Tatlock. "Ugolino da Siena's Predella Completed." Apollo 32 (1935).
Bernard Berenson. Pitture italiane del Rinascimento: catalogo dei princi Ugolino di Nerio, 'David', possibly 1325-8
He was a follower of Duccio di Buoninsegna, from whose Maestà some of his scenes are clearly derived. He was a leading master who contributed to the spread of Sienese painting in Florence by earning commissions to paint in the two main basilicas there, Santa Maria Novella and Santa Croce. Ugolino's major work was the altarpiece for the church of Santa Croce in Florence.
Nerio was born around 1280 in Siena to a family of painters. His father as well as his siblings, Guido and Muccio, were artists. His only signed work is his altarpiece for the main altar of Saint Croce, dated around 1325; the signature has been lost but is recorded by Vasari. The work was moved from the main altar in 1566 to make way for a ciborium designed by Vasari, and it was broken up and the surviving parts sold to W. Young Ottley, an English collector. Today the panels are scattered in several museums around the world; the National Gallery, London has eleven. Studies of this work have resulted in it being reconstructed.[1]
He emerges as an independent master around 1315, with some early paintings like the Madonna Contini Bonaccossi in the Pitti Palace, in a style drawn from that of Duccio, but from about 1320 aa distinct mature style emerges, spiritual and elegant. His choice of brighter colours is perhaps influenced by Simone Martini. The altarpiece for Santa Croce was the most important commission in a series of works that the Franciscans entrusted to him; at least eight polyptychs have survived in parts. Other important polyptychs are in the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts. His best known Madonna is in the Chiesa della Misericordia, San Casciano in Val di Pesa and there is one in the Louvre (illustrated above).
According to Vasari Ugolino di Nerio died in