Conservation Status: Before Treatment; Group shot: 37.410.1-7

Images(7)

Conservation Status: After Treatment; 37.410.3

Conservation Status: After Treatment; 37.410.2

Conservation Status: After Treatment, 37.410.4

Conservation Status: After Treatment, 37.410.5

Conservation Status: After Treatment, 37.410.6

Conservation Status: After Treatment, 37.410.7

Virgin and Child with Saints Christopher, Augustine, Stephen, John the Baptist, Nicholas, and Sebastian

Unidentified artist, Italian (Cretan-Venetian), early 15th century

early 15th century

Medium/TechniqueTempera on panel

DimensionsCenter panel: 229 x 72 cm (90 3/16 x 28 3/8 in.)
Each of six side panels: 175 x 34 cm (68 7/8 x 13 3/8 in.)

Credit LineGift of Dr. Eliot Hubbard, Jr.

Accession number37.410.1-7

On View

On view

ClassificationsPaintings

Collections

Europe

Provenance15th century, the high altar of Santo Stefano, Monopoli, Italy; between 1806 and 1813, the church was privatized during the Napoleonic suppressions; October 2, 1813, the property at S. Stefano, including the abbey church and castle, was sold by Joachim Murat (b. 1767 – d. 1815) to Don Rocco Morelli; by 1854, the property was owned by the Sgobba family [see note 1]; before 1871, the altarpiece was removed from the church [see note 2] and, by 1892, it passed by descent, probably through Rosa Sgobba dell'Erba, to her son, Marchese Luigi dell'Erba (b. 1853 - d. 1937), Palazzo Filomarino della Rocca, Naples [see note 3]. Probably about 1900/1910, acquired by Eliot Hubbard (b. 1856 – d. 1932) and his wife, Helen Wetherell Faulkner Hubbard (b. 1860 –d. 1937) [see note 4]; by descent to their son, Dr. Eliot Hubbard, Jr. (b. 1893 - d. 1977), Cambridge, MA; 1937, gift of Dr. Eliot Hubbard, Jr. to the MFA. (Accession Date: May 5, 1937)

NOTES:
[1] For a history of S. Stefano, see Graziano Bellifemine, Il Castello di S. Stefano presso Monopoli: Storia ed Arte (Fasano, 1990), particularly pp. 91-92.

[2] The altarpiece was reproduced in Demetrio Salazaro’s publication Studi sui Monumenti della Italia Meridionale dal IVo al XIIIo secolo, part 1 (Naples, 1871), pl. xxiv and discussed in part 2 (Naples, 1878), pp. 23-24, as having “at one time adorned the high altar” of the church.

[3] Domenico Morea, "Chartularium del monastero di S. Benedetto di Conservano," vol. 1 (1892), pp. 294-295, recorded the altarpiece at the Palazzo Della Rocca, Naples in the possession of Luigi dell'Erba, the nephew of Francesco and Leonardo Sgobba, at one time the owners of S. Stefano.

[4] A letter from Dr. Eliot Hubbard, Jr., to W. G. Constable of the MFA (January 1, 1940) states that, while he did not know exactly when his parents acquired the altarpiece, they were collecting art when he was a child.

Thanks are extended to Prof. Lucio Mercurio Navarra dell'Erba, great-grandson of Marchese Luigi dell'Erba, for his assistance in researching the Sgobba and dell'Erba families.