# St Andrew [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [SIMONE MARTINI]() - Date: 1301-1350 - Technique: Tempera on wood, gold ground, 57 x 38 cm ## Commentary St Andrew c. 1326 Tempera on wood, gold ground, 57 x 38 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York The Picture: Although the MMA panel was widely ascribed to the mid-fourteenth century master Lippo Vanni, in 1974 Boskovits made the case for attributing it and four related panels to Simone Martini, and this attribution is now widely accepted. He also identified the saint as the apostle Andrew, as had Weigelt \(1929\), and this identification has been borne out by the traces of the apostle’s name that was once painted on the gold background to either side of the saint’s head \(the traces are clearly visible in the image appearing on the website\). Further, Boskovits suggested that these five panels formed an altarpiece commissioned from Simone in 1326 for the Palazzo Pubblico and that was mentioned rather generically by Ghiberti in his Commentaries: "and in the said palace a very good altarpiece." The five panels in question are, left to right: Saint Ansanus \(Robert Lehman Collection, MMA, 1975.1.13\), Saint Peter \(Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid\), Madonna and Child \(Robert Lehman Collection, MMA, 1975.1.12\), Saint Andrew, and Saint Luke \(J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles\). Saint Ansanus is the patron saint of Siena and in this work he holds the official black and white banner—the balzana. His presence would be expected on an altarpiece for the Commune, but is not conclusive evidence. Unusually for an altarpiece, the panels are all rectangular—not gabled—and they are all of the same size \(in traditional Italian altarpieces the center panel is invariable wider than the lateral ones by approximately one third\). The frames are no less unusual, being of a cassetta-type normally associated with small, portable panels. For that reason they were frequently supposed to be later. However, technical examination demonstrates that they are original; indeed, that on the Saint Luke is still engaged \(the others were removed from their respective panels, which were then cradled: for the construction of the frames see Newbery and Kanter 1990\). Curiously, there is no sign that the panels were hinged together, and this may be important for understanding the function of the altarpiece, as unhinged panels could be re-combined according to need. Boskovits’ attribution of the panels to Simone Martini as well as his proposal for the identification of the altarpiece was not universally accepted \(Eisenberg 1981\). Both points were, however, upheld by Christiansen \(1988, 1994\), who undertook a thorough re-examination of the documents. He noted that the altarpiece commissioned from Simone in 1326 could not have been commissioned for the Cappella dei Signori on the main floor of the Palazzo Pubblico, since that chapel did not exist before the fifteenth century \(the first notice is in 1405\). He also argued that it does not seem initially to have been painted for the earlier ground floor Cappella dei Nove, which was constructed between 1307 and 1310 and for which documents mention other works. Rather, he suggested that the 1326 work must have been a multi-functional altarpiece and that the two notices related to it suggest its possible identity with the five panels that concern us. The first notice describes what was either an altarpiece or single panel painting that was kept—at least temporarily, as a fire had damaged part of the Palazzo Pubblico—in the Palazzo del Capitano \("una tavola per tenere nel Palazzo del Capitano"\) and for which "Maestro Simone" was paid thirty lire in April and August 1326. Six months later, in February 1327, what must be the same work—the value was the same—was lent by the Commune to the residence of the Podesta and then returned to the Palazzo Pubblico. This document makes it clear that there were three panels, not one, and these showed the Madonna and Child, Saint Peter, and Saint Andrew, thus agreeing with three of the panels of our reconstructed altarpiece. Of the two remaining saints, Ansanus was the patron of the Comune \(as already… ## Related artworks - [Altar of St Louis of Toulouse \(detail\)]() - [Altar of St Louis of Toulouse: predella]() - [Altar of St Louis of Toulouse]() - [Altar of St Louis of Toulouse \(without predella\)]() - [Annunciation and Two Saints \(detail\)]() - [Annunciation and Two Saints \(detail\)]() - [Annunciation and Two Saints \(detail\)]() - [Annunciation and Two Saints]() - [Blessed Agostino Novello Altarpiece \(detail\)]() - [Blessed Agostino Novello Altarpiece \(detail\)]() - [Blessed Agostino Novello Altarpiece \(detail\)]() - [Blessed Agostino Novello Altarpiece \(detail\)]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()