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Lot Essay
This panel was the left hand element of Giovanni di Paolo’s predella for an altarpiece of which the main panel is the Madonna and Child with Saints Peter Damian, Thomas, Clare and Ursula in the Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena. For a full discussion please see the previous catalogue entry.
The Investiture of Saint Clare was recounted by Thomas of Celano in his celebrated life of the saint:
[in S. Maria degli Angeli at Assisi] with a bright expression and an angelic countenance Clare forsook the wretched world and obtained as sign of the redeeming penance the robes of the Franciscans. This happened before the altar of the Virgin, whose Son was pleased to welcome the devout virgin Clare. When Saint Clare was dressed, Saint Francis himself cut off her tresses, girdled her with a coarse cord and laid a white and a black veil of rough cloth on her head. Clare vowed before Francis to adhere always to the strictest observance, poverty and chastity in her monastic life. In return Francis promised her Jesus Christ as husband and eternal life (Tommaso da Celano, La Legenda sanctae Clarae virginis, cited in translation in Z. Lazzeri, ed., La vita di Santa Chiara, Collegio di S. Bonaventura, 1920, pp. 27-28).
Giovanni di Paolo interpreted the text freely, reducing for instance the number of brethren who were with Saint Francis. Saint Clare is shown after receiving her habit from Saint Francis, who with his attendant brothers holds the white garments that the saint has forsaken. The scene takes place in a modest chapel, intended no doubt to represent the Portiuncula at Santa Maria degli Angeli below Assisi, with a small Crucifix above the altar: through the arched doorway on the left there is an oblique view of a small cloister with a trio of cypresses, their number no doubt a reference to the Trinity.
As was customary, the lines of the architecture were incised on the panel after this was primed: that these continue downwards into the altar suggest that the artist may initially have planned to place this somewhat lower. After the composition had been completed, he incised the pavement and the roof above the cloister with even finer lines, which cut through the paint surface and in doing so clarify our reading of the areas in question. Giovanni di Paolo’s training as a miniaturist is implied in such passages as the delicately drawn gold decoration of the altar front, which is comparable in finesse with the spray of the companion panel.
In the reconstruction of the original altarpiece (see the previous lot in this sale, fig. 3), The Investiture of Saint Clare would have been placed below the full-length figure of Saint Peter Damian. The inclusion of Saint Peter Damian in the altarpiece may have resulted from a confusion with his near namesake, San Damiano, after whom was named the church just below the walls of Assisi. It was there that Saint Francis installed Saint Clare’s second order of poor nuns, and where relatively unusually the cloister was north of the chapel, as the orientation of the altar implies was the case with that depicted by the artist.
The Investiture of Saint Clare was recounted by Thomas of Celano in his celebrated life of the saint:
[in S. Maria degli Angeli at Assisi] with a bright expression and an angelic countenance Clare forsook the wretched world and obtained as sign of the redeeming penance the robes of the Franciscans. This happened before the altar of the Virgin, whose Son was pleased to welcome the devout virgin Clare. When Saint Clare was dressed, Saint Francis himself cut off her tresses, girdled her with a coarse cord and laid a white and a black veil of rough cloth on her head. Clare vowed before Francis to adhere always to the strictest observance, poverty and chastity in her monastic life. In return Francis promised her Jesus Christ as husband and eternal life (Tommaso da Celano, La Legenda sanctae Clarae virginis, cited in translation in Z. Lazzeri, ed., La vita di Santa Chiara, Collegio di S. Bonaventura, 1920, pp. 27-28).
Giovanni di Paolo interpreted the text freely, reducing for instance the number of brethren who were with Saint Francis. Saint Clare is shown after receiving her habit from Saint Francis, who with his attendant brothers holds the white garments that the saint has forsaken. The scene takes place in a modest chapel, intended no doubt to represent the Portiuncula at Santa Maria degli Angeli below Assisi, with a small Crucifix above the altar: through the arched doorway on the left there is an oblique view of a small cloister with a trio of cypresses, their number no doubt a reference to the Trinity.
As was customary, the lines of the architecture were incised on the panel after this was primed: that these continue downwards into the altar suggest that the artist may initially have planned to place this somewhat lower. After the composition had been completed, he incised the pavement and the roof above the cloister with even finer lines, which cut through the paint surface and in doing so clarify our reading of the areas in question. Giovanni di Paolo’s training as a miniaturist is implied in such passages as the delicately drawn gold decoration of the altar front, which is comparable in finesse with the spray of the companion panel.
In the reconstruction of the original altarpiece (see the previous lot in this sale, fig. 3), The Investiture of Saint Clare would have been placed below the full-length figure of Saint Peter Damian. The inclusion of Saint Peter Damian in the altarpiece may have resulted from a confusion with his near namesake, San Damiano, after whom was named the church just below the walls of Assisi. It was there that Saint Francis installed Saint Clare’s second order of poor nuns, and where relatively unusually the cloister was north of the chapel, as the orientation of the altar implies was the case with that depicted by the artist.