The Betrayal of Christ

Once called the Master of the Urbino Triptych, this rare Marchigian master was named after an altarpiece from the church of San Bartolo (or San Bartolomeo), Urbino, dating to 1408. The altarpiece, representing The Virgin of Humility with angels, was removed from the church in 1864 and can now be found in the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, Urbino (A. De Marchi, ‘Due ignoti pittori tardogotici a Urbino e a Rimini,’ Nuovi studi sulla pittura tardogotica. Intorno a Gentile da Fabriano, Livorno, 2007, p. 133, fig. 1). Federico Zeri and Ferdinando Bologna were first to attempt a reconstruction of the anonymous painter’s oeuvre, linking the Urbino triptych with a processional banner dated 1406, similarly depicting The Virgin of Humility and also now in the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche (loc. cit.). Recognizing the importance of the relatively unknown artist as perhaps the most prolific painter in Urbino of the period, Andrea De Marchi renamed him the Master of the San Bartolomeo Triptych and, dedicating a lecture conference and article to him in 2007 (loc. cit.), further expanded the master’s body of work.

Though the scale and horizontal format of this panel would initially indicate it belonged to a predella, its vertical grain suggest it more likely formed part of a closeable wing of a polyptych. The reverse of a predella would be hidden from the viewer and therefore would typically have a plain, rough surface, while the reverse of the present panel, which would be visible when the wings were closed, is prepared with a smooth, red gesso.

The lateral panels and predella in the master’s eponymous triptych all bear a marked similarity to this Betrayal of Christ, each scene having a sense of anecdotal narrative. According to De Marchi, however, this panel significantly predates the triptych, dating to the last decades of the fourteenth century, making it one the master’s earliest known works.