Arezzo of Margaritone

Byzantine School. One of the few painters before Cimabue whose names have survived.

LONDON, NATIONAL GALLERY

THE VIRGIN AND CHILD, WITH SCENES FROM THE LIVES OF THE SAINTS Nine small compartments. In the centre is the Virgin between two angels enclosed in an almond-shaped glory, or Vesica, full length, facing us; outside the glory are the emblems of the four Evangelists. The Child on His mother's knee gives the benediction according to the Greek rite. At the sides the Nativity; St. John the Evangelist liberated from the cauldron of boiling oil; St. John resuscitating Drusiana; St. Benedict rolling himself in thorns; the martyrdom and burial of St. Catherine; St. Nicholas of Bari and the sailors; the same freeing the condemned; and St. Margaret swallowed and disgorged by the dragon. Gold background. Signed "Margarit de Aritio me fecit." It has been said that among the very few paintings by Margaritone which now remain, this is on every account the most characteristic and important.

Painted (on linen) as an altar cloth for the Church of Santa Margherita at Arezzo.

Purchased from the Lombardi-Baldi Collection at Florence in 1857.

( Originally Publihed 1910 )