The Swaddled Christ Child (fragment of a Nativity)

Master of Le Palazze (Italian (Umbrian), active in late 13th or early 14th century)

Medium/TechniqueFresco, transferred to canvas

Dimensions43.7 x 50.5 cm (17 3/16 x 19 7/8 in.)

Credit LineGift of René Gimpel

Accession number24.115

On View

Not on view

ClassificationsPaintings

Collections

Europe

Provenance13th century, part of a series of frescoes in the upper room at the Monastery of Santa Maria inter Angelos (called Le Palazze), near Spoleto, Italy; 1860, property passed to the Italian State; 1871, property sold by the State to Francesco Cianni (d. 1908), Spoleto; 1908, by inheritance to his son, Guglielmo Cianni, Spoleto; December, 1920, frescoes sold by Cianni, through Enrico Salvatorelli, to Baron Ernesto Bayet, Cavallasa, near Como, Italy and, in May of 1921, the frescoes were removed from the church [see note 1]. 1921, Bernardo Bazzani, Bergamo, Italy [see note 2]. By 1924, René Gimpel (dealer, b. 1881 - d. 1944), Paris; 1924, gift of René Gimpel to the MFA. (Accession Date: March 6, 1924)

NOTES:
[1] On the history of the frescoes, see Martin Davies, "European Paintings in the Collection of the Worcester Art Museum" (1974), p. 471; and Tomasso di Carpegna Falconieri and Grazia Maria Fachechi, Gli Affreschi delle Palazze -- The Palazze Frescoes (Rome: Gangemi, [2017]), esp. Cristiano Giometti, "La notifica non è stata mai fatta," pp. 196-209.

[2] For this information, Davies (as above, n. 1), p. 474, n. 60, citing a typescript in the files of the Worcester Art Museum, "probably a copy of information supplied in 1948 by Professor Achille Bertini Calosso, Soprintendente ai Monumenti e alle Gallerie dell'Umbria at Perugia."