Pietro di Francesco Degli Orioli
Angel Playing a Lute
1479
Physical Qualities
Tempera with oil on wood panel, 12 3/4 x 8 1/2 in. (32.4 x 21.6 cm.)
Credit Line
Gift of M. Knoedler & Co. in Honor of Adelyn D. Breeskin
Object Number
1962.16
This panel is thought to be a fragment from a large altarpiece showing the "Assumption of the Virgin," a representation in which Mary, having completed her life on earth, is transported to Heaven surrounded by prophets, bishops, and groups of angels. Here, an angel plays the lute, his head tilted back as he gazes in the direction of the Virgin in the center of the composition. The scroll in the lower left corner of the fragment represents the top of a crozier, a pastoral staff carried by a bishop who probably stood near the angel in the original work. Formerly attributed to Sienese painter Giacomo Pacchiarotti (1474-1540), this panel is now given to Orioli based on stylistic analysis and new documentation.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by gift, 1962; M. Knoedler & Co., New York, by purchase, March 21, 1946 (said to have been found in southern France near Avignon); Paul Drey (1884-1953) Gallery, 11 E 57th St, New York, NY; Drey Gallery, New York, NY, (by 1935?).
Winnipeg Art Gallery Association, "Great Masters of the Italian Renaissance," October 4 to November 1, 1953, no. 8.
Vancouver Art Gallery, "Italian Renaissance," November 17 to December 13, 1953, no. 25.
The Baltimore Museum of Art, "Four Thousand Years of Modern Art," November 27, 1956 to January 13, 1957, no. 65, circulated to Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, NY; Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh; Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, 1957 (as Melozzo da Forli).
Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, "The Christian Drama as Seen in the Painting of Five Lands over 500 Years," December 4, 1960 to January 29, 1961, no. 1, ill. cover.
Vancouver Art Gallery, "Italian Renaissance," November 17 to December 13, 1953, no. 25.
The Baltimore Museum of Art, "Four Thousand Years of Modern Art," November 27, 1956 to January 13, 1957, no. 65, circulated to Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, NY; Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh; Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, 1957 (as Melozzo da Forli).
Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, "The Christian Drama as Seen in the Painting of Five Lands over 500 Years," December 4, 1960 to January 29, 1961, no. 1, ill. cover.
William E. Suida, "Mantegna and Melozzo," Art in America, vol 34, issue 2, April 1946, pp. 69, 72, Fig. 10.
“Masterpieces of Italian Religious Paintings XIV to XVIII century. A Special Loan Exhibition from the Collection of M. Knoedler & Co., Inc.,” Knoedler & Co: New York, c. 1949, Exhibition catalog, no. 5, fig. 5.
Gertrude Coor, "Notes on Six Parts of Two Dismembered Sienese Altarpieces, II--Four Fragments from an Assumption of the Virgin," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 65, March 1965, pp. 134, 136, n. 21, fig. 8.
Luisa Vertova, “On Pacchiarotto’s dismembered Assumption and a cut up altarpiece by Andrea di Niccolo,” Gazette des Beaux-Arts 69 (March, 1967), p. 159.
Bernard Berenson, “Italian Paintings of the Renaissance: Central Italian & North Italian Schools”, vol I, London: Phaidon, 1968, p. 308.
Fern Rusk Shapley, “Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools,” vol 2, XV-XVI, London: Phaidon Press, 1968, pp 111-2.
Federico Zeri, Italian Paintings in the Walters Art Gallery, I, 1976, p 139.
Gertrude Rosenthal, "Italian Paintings XIV-XVIIIth Centuries from the Collection of The Baltimore Museum of Art," Baltimore: The Baltimore Museum of Art, 1980, pp. 117-127, ill. p. 116 [published as Giacomo Pachiarotti (Jacopo Pachiarotti), Italian, 1474-1510(?)].
Keith Christiansen, Laurence B. Kanter, Carl Brandon Strehlke, “Painting in Renaissance Siena, 1420-1500”, New York” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Exhibition catalog, 1988, p. 339, no. 1.
“Pietro de Francesco degli Orioli (1458/9-1496). The Collections of the Late Sir John Wyndham Pope-Hennessy, 10 January 1996, Christie’s, New York,” Christie’s: New York, Auction Catalog, p. 113.
Laurence Kanter and John Marciari, "Italian Paintings from the Richard L. Feigen Collection," New Haven, CT: Yale University Art Gallery, pp. 104, 106, 107, fig. 5 b&w ill.
Artist
Pietro di Francesco Degli Orioli
1457–1495
Italian, 1458-1496
Meet Pietro di Francesco Degli Orioli
On View: Jacobs, Gallery 6
