In 1487, the Perusian painter Bartolomeo Caporali painted an altarpiece for the Cacciatori (Hunters) of Castiglione del Lago that was intended for the ancient parish church of Santa Maria Maddalena. During the 18th century, the panel was divided into nine fragments, which were sketched in 1864-shortly before their dispersal-by G.B. Cavalcaselle on two sheets now preserved in the Biblioteca Marciana, Venice. This article retraces the conservation history of the altarpiece and publishes, for the first time, a fragment belonging to it with 'Saint Roch', which may be thought to have been purchased in the 1860s by Kurd von Schl & ouml;zer, then secretary to the Prussian legation in Rome. The study of this altarpiece forms part of a broader re-examination of Caporali's ca reer. Looking back, it briefly surveys the artist's earlier phase, marked by his collaboration with Benedetto Bonfigli, from which several predella fragments-here reassigned to the elusive 'Maestro della Piet & agrave; di San Costanzo' - are excluded.
Two unpublished letters from 1460, sent from Siena by Bartolomeo Bonatti to the Gonzaga family of Mantua, whom he served, describe the Easter celebrations conducted by Pope Pius II. These archival sources provide details on the customs of the papal court present in the Tuscan city at the time. Among the vestments displayed on the occasion, one is described as a very unusual fabric, painted by Fra Filippo Lippi. This paper analyses the letters, their content and context, and proposes several hypotheses regarding this previously unknown work by Lippi, commissioned by Pope Nicholas V. The vestment can be traced in a few later 15th-century inventories, but it is now considered lost.
This article examines the frescoes in the bell-tower chapel of the church of San Martino in Siena, the most important testimony to its Gothic phase. The initial uncovering of the paintings on the vault and walls, previously whitewashed, was carried out by the Sienese restorer S. Cresti between 1899 and 1903, in accordance with the principles established by G.B. Cavalcaselle, which excluded any integration of missing portions. In 1922, the reopening of the chapel's Gothic single-light window led to the discovery of the 'Crucifix with Mourning Figures', painted in the niche below. In 1925, this work was restored by T. Baldini, who intervened extensively in the summary reconstruction of the missing parts, following the directives of P. Bacci, who favoured reconstructive integration. The first comprehensive restoration of the complex, in 2000, concerned all the painted surfaces, also revealing six 'Apostles' painted on the intrados of the arch between the chapel and the presbytery area. Executed by restorers Giuseppe and Massimo Gavazzi, and Amedeo and Alessio Lepri, according to philological criteria, the intervention sought, as far as possible, to preserve the narrative function of the scenes and the illusionistic effect of the architectural structures and decorative framing. It is now possible to attribute the 'Apostles' to the Duccesque painter Segna di Bonaventura, while the 'Stories of Saint Leonard', several 'Saints', the 'Evangelists', and a 'Christ the Judge' may be regarded as an important commission executed by Francesco di Segna in 1333 for the Agazzari family. The 'Crucifix with Mourning Figures', by contrast, appears to be the work of a collaborator of Simone Martini and Lippo Memmi, who adapted their inventions between the late 1310s and early 1320s.
This paper-following Giovanni Previtali's reappraisal of the "vitality and originality of the socalled 'minor' centres" - proposes the identification of a new exponent of Gothic sculpture in the lands of marble: the 'Maestro dell'Annunciata di Pietrasanta', seeking to reconstruct a corpus of works in Apuan marble sharing distinctive stylistic features, distributed along the Via Aurelia, between Pisa, Lucca, Massa, and Sarzana. The authors focus on defining the Master's cultural profile and artistic development, identifying his training in the Pisan workshop of Lupo di Francesco and his participation in the ornamentation of the Oratorio della Rosa in Lucca. The formal characteristics and geographical distribution of the artist's works suggest that he had roots in the diocese of Luni, between Versilia and Lunigiana, and that he was active in Pietrasanta-a centre of marble quarrying and a natural crossroads of sculptural styles.
