Metropolitan Museum

New York

See also the buttons to the left for the Biga di Monteleone.

SS Bartolomew and Simon (ca. 1272)

These panels, which are attributed to the Maestro di San Francesco, belonged to a large double-sided polyptych that was originally on the high altar of San Francesco al Prato, Perugia.  For a description of the polyptych, see the page on the Galleria Nazionale, Perugia (Room 1a).

Reliquary of St Juliana (14th century)

The relics of St Juliana were translated from Cuma to Naples in 1207, and a fragment of her skull subsequently passed into the possession of the friars of San Domenico, Perugia.   They enclosed it in a reliquary bust of the head of St Juliana, which was inscribed with the additional information that it had been made in Rome by Master William.  In 1376, Bishop Andrea Bontempi persuaded the friars to give the relic and its reliquary to the nuns of what then became the Monastero di Santa Giuliana, Perugia  They enclosed it in a gilded copper tabernacle that is now in  the Galleria Nazionale, Perugia (Room 17).

The reliquary appeared on the market in 1933 and subsequently found its way to the museum.  Recent examination has shown that the bust was modelled over an earlier copper bust of a man, and that this inner bust was covered with an unusually thick layer of gesso in which the features of St Juliana were modelled.  The face was then painted and the hair gilded.  The reliquary has a hinged cranium, with a ringlet crown covering the join.

Saint Bridget of Sweden receives the Rule of her order (1459)

This marble panel, which is attributed to Agostino di Duccio, almost certainly belonged to the predella of the Altare di San Lorenzo in San Domenico, Perugia.  It is illustrated on the museum's website.

Panels from the Colonna Altarpiece (ca. 1504)

This altarpiece came from Sant Antonio da Padova, Perugia. where it was originally on the altar of the nuns' inner church.  It was commissioned according to will (1478) of Sister Anna, who had joined this Franciscan tertiary nunnery after the death of her husband.  It was to be more than twenty years before the sisters honoured her wishes by commissioning the altarpiece (which is dated on stylistic grounds to the early 16th century) from Raphael.

There is no surviving documentation relating to the original commission, although there has never been any doubt about the attribution.  Giorgio Vasari records its presence in Sant’ Antonio, along with the fact that the sisters held it in great veneration.  Most authorities date it to ca. 1504, and its commission might have been associated in some way with the death of Sister Ilaria, the former Ministra and sister of Braccio Baglioni. 

The altarpiece was painted on a single piece of wood, except for the figures of SS Francis and Antony (see below), which presumably stood forward of the rest on the base of the frame.  It remained in situ until 1663, when the impoverished sisters had it sawn into its component parts so that they could be sold.

The Colonna family bought the main panel and the lunette in 1677 (which accounts for the usual appellation of the work).  These panels had a number of owners until 1902, when J. P. Morgan bought them at huge expense.  He gave them to the Metropolitan Museum in 1916.

  • The main panel, which is illustrated on the museum's website, depicts the Madonna and Child enthroned with saints.  The baby Jesus  blesses the infant St John the Baptist: both are fully clothed, a stipulation of the nuns according to Vasari.  The flanking saints are:

    • SS Peter and Catherine of Alexandria to the left, and

    • St Paul and another female martyr to the right.  Vasari describes this fourth saint as St Cecilia, but other documents relating to the later sale of the work identify her as St Margaret.  It is possible that she is St Margaret of Antioch, and was included in memory of Sister Ilaria, whose given name was Margherita.

  • The lunette above the main panel depicted God the Father with two angels.

Queen Christina of Sweden bought the panels of SS Francis and Antony of Padua  and the predella panels in 1663.  They stayed together until 1702 but were then dispersed:

  • Christ’s agony at Gethsemane is in the Metropolitan Museum;

  • the procession to Calvary, with Christ carrying the Cross and the Virgin swooning into the arms of her ladies, is in the National Gallery, London;

  • the dead Christ with  the Virgin and SS John the Evangelist and Mary Magdalene, with Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea standing to the sides, is in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston; and

  • SS Francis and Antony (who are barefoot, in keeping the the Observant vocation of the community) are in the Dulwich Picture Gallery, London.