primitives

Another frequent activity of mine is spending time in the Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery with the early Italian paintings. It's free, and a few of my all-time-favorite paintings are on view. I think the guards may think I am a bit odd. People generally walk through these rooms briskly, on their way to the famous Van Eycks nearby. I'm the only person that sits on the bench admiring these undervalued gems:


Sassetta, The Wolf of Gubbio, 1437-44
This is one panel of an altarpiece depicting scenes of the life of St. Francis; who you see here shaking hands with a wolf who had been terrorizing the inhabitants of Gubbio. To the right you can just make out the parts of a dismembered body he's maimed, and in the background the path in the woods is strewn with limbs. One of the best details is the women peeking through the spaces in the city wall. I realize it's impossible to see here. You really need to be in front of the painting to appreciate it.


Giovanni di Paolo
Saint John the Baptist Retiring to the Desert, probably about 1454
I think it's the way these Sienese artists treated landscapes that interests me most. That, and the palette. The soft pastels these artists used were probably not purely an aesthetic decision - I'm not sure that egg tempera allowed for much variety. And the flatness, the use of shape, and form - this is before the rules of perspective and the Renaissance ruined everything.

Other favorites, not in London, but on my make-believe wish-list:


Maybe by Sassetta, but more likely the Osservanza Master
Saint Anthony the Abbot Tempted by a Heap of Gold, ca. 1435
Lehman Collection, the Met, NYC


Master of the Osservanza
The Meeting of Saint Anthony and Saint Paul, ca. 1430/1435
National Gallery, Washington DC


Master of the Osservanza
Temptation of Saint Anthony Abbot, ca. 1435
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut


Giovanni di Paolo
Saint Clare Saving a Child from a Wolf, ca. 1455—60
Museum of Fine Arts Houston


Giovannii di Paolo
Ecce Agnus Dei (Behold the Lamb of God), 1455-60
Art Institute of Chicago


Sassetta
Ranieri saves the poor from a prison in Florence, ca. 1437-1444
The Louvre, Paris
(thank yous to john ennis for starting it all with this painting)

Alright I could post like twenty more...