Spinello di Luca Spinelli, called Spinello Aretino

Originally part of an altarpiece painted for Santa Maria Nuova, Rome or for Monte Oliveto Maggiore, Siena;
Possibly Johann Anton Ramboux, Cologne;¹
Gio Scrivanelli[?}/ Perugia inscribed on the back of the panel of Mary Magdalene;
Heffner collection, Würzburg, in the mid-19th century;
By inheritance to Carl Lamb (1905-1968), Munich, through his mother née Heffner;
From whom acquired by Gerhard Freiherr von Preuschen, Stuttgart, in 1951;
From whom acquired (via the Munich-based dealer Heinrich Steinmeyer) by Paul Drey, New York, in 1958;²
Private collection, London;
With Agnew's, London;
From whom purchased by G. Hamilton Southam, Ottawa, ON, in 1972;
Thence by descent to the present owner.

Stuttgart, Württembergische Staatsgalerie, Frühe Italienische Tafelmalerei, May 13-June 25, 1950, hors catalogue. 

H.D. Gronau, "Early Italian Paintings at Stuttgart," in The Burlington Magazine, XCII, November, 1950, p. 325, and note 14;
G. Coor, "Trento-Gemälde aus der Sammlung Ramboux," in the Wallraf-Richartz Jahrbuch,  XVLLL, 1956, p. 131.
M. Boskovits, "Ancora su Spinello Aretino: Proposte e inediti," in Antichità Viva, 2, V, 1966, p. 23, note 6, reproduced figs. 7 and 8;
A.R. Calderoni Masetti, Spinello Aretino giovane, (Raccolta pisana di saggi e studi, 35), Florence 1973, p. 15, note 32;
S.A. Fehm, "Notes on Spinello Aretino's so-called Monte Oliveto Altarpiece," in Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, 2-3, XVII, 1973, p. 266 and note 20, reproduced figs. 12 and 13;
M. Boskovits, Pittura fiorentina alla vigilia del rinascimento 1370-1400, Florence 1975, p. 437, reproduced figs. 504-505;
J. Pope-Hennessy, The Robert Lehman Collection, Italian Paintings, New York 1987, p. 72;
F. Dabell, "Spinello Aretino," in The Dictionary of Art, London-New York 1996, Vol. 29, p. 405;
S. Weppelmann,  Spinello Aretino und die Toskanische Malerei des 14. Jahrhunderts, Florence 2003, pp. 153-154, cat. no. 22, reproduced figs. 22a and 22b.

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com , an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The paint layer of both of these figures in this pair of works is remarkably and thankfully very resilient and there is very little, if any, restoration addressing either figure. There are a few small losses in the right side of St. Bartholomew's green gown and in his right elbow in the red chemise, but the bulk of this figure is in beautiful state. The right side of Mary Magdalene's red gown is very slightly abraded and there are two or three small losses in the left side of her gown. The large crack beneath her right hand is unrestored and this is a painting which has been allowed to be viewed almost completely unrestored. The bulk of the gilding and tooling of both paintings is original and although the lower left corner of St. Bartholomew's panel has been lost and reformed – with the loss of the first few letters of the saint's name (in pastiglia) – and there are a few losses visible around the edges, a great proportion of the gilded surrounds of both pictures seems to be very healthy. Overall both pictures are in very good condition.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

St. Bartholomew and Saint Mary Magdalene are part of Spinello's grandest polyptych, commissioned by the Olivetans, a reformed Benedictine order, in 1384.   In his life of the artist, Giorgio Vasari describes the altarpiece, which he saw in the monastery of the Monte Oliveto Maggiore near Siena:  Spinello made an infinite number of figures both great and small on a ground of gold, with much judgment .... [At the foot was the inscription]  Simone Cini, the Florentine, made the carving; Gabriello Saracini overlaid it with gold; and Spinello di Luca of Arezzo painted it in 1385.³ 

In 1810 the monastery was deconsecrated and the altarpiece was disassembled.  A number of the panels ended up in a hayloft in Rapolano, near Monte Oliveto, where they were discovered by Gaetano Milanesi and Carlo Pini and acquired by the latter in 1840.⁴  Pini gave two, The Death of the Virgin (Weppelmann  20f)  and The Cornation of the Virgin (W. 20e) which had formed the central elements of the altarpiece, to the Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena.  The lateral wings of the altar were also in Rapolano and were described by Milanesi , in his critical edition of Vasari's Lives, published in 1846.  The left wing depicted the Standing Saints Nemesius and John the Baptist and on the predella below The Decapitation of Saint Nemesius and The Feast of Herod (Szépmüszeti Mùseum, Budapest; Weppelmann 20a and b); the right wing the Standing Saints Benedict and Lucilla and on the predella  The Death of St. Benedict and The Martyrdom of St. Lucilla (Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Mass.; W. 20c and d).  These two wings and the two central panels in Siena form the core for subsequent reconstructions of  what has become known as the Monte Oliveto altarpiece. 

In 1842 Pini sold the wings (now in Budapest and Cambridge) to Johann Anton Ramboux,  for his already famous collection of early Italian art.  They were included in the sale of  Ramboux's collection in 1867, as lots 82 and 83.  There were another four pilaster panels included in the same auction that were not described by Milanesi, but have since been identified as belonging to the same altarpiece:   lot 84, St. Philip,  (Metropolitan Museum of Art, N.Y.; W. 20h); lot 85, St. James the Less (formerly Rothermere collection (sold Sotheby's London, April 21, 1982, lot 72; W. 20j); lot 86, An Apostle (Van Heek, 's Heerenberg; W. 20i); and lot 87, A Monk, (Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Mass.; W. 20g),

When Hans Gronau published Saint Bartholomew and Saint Mary Magdalene in 1950, he described them as being part of the San Ponziano Altarpiece, an earlier commission executed by Spinello.⁵  However, following Fehm's article in 1973, virtually all scholars have agreed that these two panels were part of the Monte Oliveto Altarpiece.⁶  Comparing them to St. Philip and St. James, Metropolitan Museum and the Rothmere Collection, respectively, we recognize the similarities in the handling of the figures, the pastigilia columns and the punchwork and,  like Saint Philip they also have their names in the pastiglia below.

While the attribution to Spinello is clear, what still confuses scholars are the specifics of the original contract for the altarpiece.  In 1878 Milanesi discusses a document that provides some details, noting that it was commissioned on April 17, 1384 by Don Niccolò da Pisa and was to be based on an earlier altarpiece in San Ponziano.⁶  Because the language of the document is somewhat imprecise, scholars have disagreed about whether the altarpiece was originally intended for the church of Santa Maria Nuovo in Rome, where Don Niccolò da Pisa was Prior, or for Monte Oliveto Maggiore, near Siena, where Vasari eventually saw it.⁷  Both churches, as well as San Ponziano, belonged to the Olivetans, whose patron saints were Nemesius and Benedict, which explains their prominent role in the iconography. Weppelmann suggests that the altarpiece went to Monte Oliveto because of a monastic rivalry between the Olivetans and the Franciscans.  The latter had just commissioned a gigantic altarpiece from Bartolo di Fredi to be placed in the church of San Francesco in nearby Montalcino, so not to be outdone, the Olivetans sent Spinello's altarpiece to their  motherhouse in Monte Oliveto.⁸  Putting aside whether it was intended for Santa Maria Nuovo or Monte Oliveto Maggiore, the altarpiece was one of Spinello's greatest achievements,  strong yet elegant in its conception and treatment, and the remaining portions that we can see today confirm the artist's importance to the development of Florentine painting.

1.  According to Boskovits (1966) under Literature, note 6, Paul Drey recorded that these panels were from the Ramboux collection, as were many of the other panels from the Monte Oliveto Altarpiece.  However, we have been able to find no written record or any numbering on the panels themselves to confirm this. 
2.  Weppelmann, see under Literature, p. 153, states that the two panels were with Drey between 1933 and 1936.  However, as they were exhibited in Stuttgart in 1950 as property of a private collector and Von Preuschen was director of the Stuttgart Galerie Association from 1948, it is reasonable to assume it was still in his collection at that time.  In 1966, Boskovits, Op. cit., notes that the panels were then with Paul Drey.
3.  G. Vasari, Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects, trans. by G. du C. de Vere, ed. by D. Ekserdjian, New York and Toronto, 1996, vol. 1, p. 221.
4.  See under Literature, S. A. Fehm, p. 258, note 4.
5.  See under Literature, H. Gronau .
6.  See under Literature, J. Pope-Henessey, p. 71.  For the document and its ramifications see Weppelmann, Op. cit., pp. 50-52, 149 and 363-66.
7. For a very lucid summary of the commission see Pope-Hennessey, Op. cit., pp. 71-72.
8.  Weppelman, Op. cit., p.150