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The Painting Technique of Two Panels from the Saint Victor Altarpiece in Siena Cathedral 

by troels flintenborg 

wo Sienese altarpieces from the 

middle of the 14th century were 

restored in 2003-4, and in this 

process underwent a technical examination 

with the purpose of exploring their 

relationship to the painting tradition of 

Siena. The two altarpieces, depicting St. 

Victor of Siena and Santa Corona (fig. 1) 

have been ascribed to different artists in the 

past. Today the Master of the Palazzo Venezia 

Madonna is regarded as responsible for the 

work, and it has been demonstrated that the 

panels must have been part of the St. Victor 

altarpiece which was set up in Siena 

Cathedral in 1351. 1 In the 1590s, this 

altarpiece was replaced by a new one by 

Alessandro Casolani. 2 It must have been 

taken apart in the 1790s at the latest, when 

the two lateral panels with the saints’ images 

were brought to England by the Earl Bishop 

of Bristol. During the following decades they 

were part of English collections, thereafter 

briefly in different French, Danish and 

American hands until they were acquired by 

Statens Museum for Kunst in 1923. The 

remaining extant parts of the St. Victor 

altarpiece are the main section of the central 

panel, which is a depiction of The Adoration 

of the Shepherds (Fogg Art Museum, 

Cambridge, Mass. – fig. 2), and two fragments 

of the predella with The Crucifixion (Louvre, 

Paris – fig. 3) and The Blinding of St. Victor 

(Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt am 

Main – fig. 4) respectively. These are all 

ascribed to Bartolommeo Bulgarini. 

The two painters are from stylistically 

different traditions in Siena, as the Master of 

the Palazzo Venezia Madonna comes from 

the orbit of Simone Martini, whereas 

Bulgarini was presumably a pupil of Pietro 

Lorenzetti. This has influenced their 

individual contributions to the St. Victor 

altarpiece resulting in stylistic divergences, 

which are remarkable in comparison to the 

cathedral’s three other 14th T 

century 

altarpieces consecrated to the patron saints 

of the city. On this background it is interesting 

to view the results of the technical 

investigation in relation to reference material 

from the other parts of the altarpiece. 

The composition and painting materials of 

the panels were examined by X-radiography, 

139 english version 

infra-red reflectography as well as cross 

section, paint medium and pigment 

analyses. 3 Furthermore, comparative studies 

of punchmarks were carried out. On the 

background of these investigations, it can be 

concluded that the panels are part of a 

Sienese painting tradition which in some 

respects differs from the contemporary 

Florentine practice, and moreover from the 

technique later formulated in a dogmatic 

fashion in Cennino Cennini’s treatise. At the 

same time, they are examples of the diversity 

in the technical execution of the works, which 

is to be found within 14 th century Sienese 

painting; this is illustrated among other things 

by the differences and variations in relation 

to the other pictures of the altarpiece. 

The construction of the panels. 

X-ray examination 

The saints are painted on two poplar planks 

with the dimensions 163 x 51 cm (St. Victor) 

and 162 x 51,9 cm (Santa Corona) and 

thickness 4,6 cm. Both panels have been 

reduced to about half thickness by planing 

the bottom part of the reverse, presumably to 

give room for horizontal battens in 

connection with the mounting of the present 

19 th century frame. At the top section of the 

reverse, the original surface of the planks is 

visible, covered with a thick layer of gesso 4 , 

apart from a vertical and a horizontal stripe 

where the approximately 10 cm wide original 

battens were nailed on when the pictures 

were still part of the altarpiece. 

X-radiography revealed two dowel holes, 

12.5 – 14 cm long and approximately 1.5 

cm wide, close to the bottom and a little 

above the middle on the right side of the St. 

Victor panel and the left side of the Santa 

Corona panel respectively, corresponding to 

the lateral positions of the two panels in the 

altarpiece. Research has shown that this 

method of auxiliary strengthening of the joins 

between central and side panels is 

characteristic of Sienese altarpieces in 

particular. 5 

The canvas, which was glued to the front 

of the panels before the application of the 

gesso layer, could be seen in several areas of 

the X-radiographs as well as with the naked 

eye, after the removal of filling from an 

earlier restoration (fig. 5). The canvas 

completely covers the panels, except for the 

pastiglia decorated spandrels at the top; it is 

a slightly irregular and comparatively open 

weave linen. In comparison, the canvas 

covering the panel of the predella fragment 

The Blinding of St. Victor is more regular and 

more closely woven. 6 Even at Cennino 

Cennini’s time, it was an old-fashioned 

technique to cover the entire panel with 

canvas. Cennino writes: ”You may also do as 

our forefathers used to, that is, apply canvas 

all over the whole acona before you gesso” 7 , 

but otherwise recommends the use of 

narrower strips of canvas, presumably to 

cover joins in the panel, even though this is 

not specifically mentioned. 8 

Underdrawing 

The underdrawing is discernible in both 

panels locally where a few lines in the 

costumes can be seen with the naked eye. 

The fluent unbroken character of the thin 

lines and several small drops suggest that a 

fine brush has been used. In addition, where 

the paint layer meets the gilded areas, 

contours of the figures as well as outlines of 

details like the palm leaves, olive branch, 

crowns and the sword are marked by incised 

lines. The same applies to Santa Corona’s 

gown where main lines of the folds in the 

gold brocade imitation are incised. 

Even though it could be concluded that 

underdrawing was present in both panels, it 

was, however, only visible in the one case 

when examined by infra-red reflectography. 9 

In Santa Corona’s cloak, the reflectography 

revealed a very sketchy drawing to designate 

folds in the drapery. They are exclusively 

contour lines, with no apparent corrections or 

attempts to indicate shadows by means of 

hatching or washes, making the drawing 

consistent with the sort of underdrawing 

without distinct individual characteristics, 

which is often found in 14 th century Sienese 

painting. It is true though that Cennino 

mentions shadowing in the underdrawing of 

faces and drapery folds, and examples of this 

method have indeed been found in works by 

Duccio, Ugolino di Nerio, Luca di Tommè and 

the Florentine Nardo di Cione. 10 

In the St. Victor panel, no part of the

underdrawing was visible in the reflectogram, 

presumably because the ink or paint used for 

the drawing had too low a content of carbon 

to be perceptible. The examination did show, 

however, that there had originally been spurs 

on the saint’s boots (fig. 6). Even though it is 

surprising to find different materials used for 

the drawing in the two connected pictures, 

the lack of visibility is not an unknown 

phenomenon with this technique. A similar 

result is reported from infra-red 

reflectography of works by for example 

Bartolommeo Bulgarini and Neroccio di 

Bartolommeo. 11 It also occurs on two other 

panels by the Master of the Palazzo Venezia 

Madonna, depicting Mary Magdalene and St. 

Peter, where only few traces of underdrawing 

were detected. 12 

Concerning the other parts of the St. 

Victor altarpiece, examination by infra-red 

reflectography of the predella fragment The 

Blinding of St. Victor has revealed extensive 

underdrawing. Although still without 

shadowing and again carried out with a fine 

brush, the drawing here is rather more 

detailed and precise than in the two larger 

saints. The main lines of the architecture and 

the contours bordering on the gilded areas 

are incised, too. 13 

The composition of the paint layers. 

Modelling of draperies and flesh colour 

At first sight it could look as though 14 th 

century Sienese tempera practice was very 

rigorous, following the methodology later 

formulated by Cennino Cennini and 

consequently with little possibility for a 

personal stamp in terms of technique. Closer 

examination, however, has shown that there 

were individual variations in the technical 

execution of paintings. For example as early 

as the first part of the century, there were 

marked differences between artists like 

Duccio and Ugolino di Nerio, both as regards 

underdrawing and choice of pigments. 14 In a 

wider context, different methods of modelling 

the drapery of the Virgin’s blue mantle have 

been established. 15 Distinct differences 

between the works from Simone Martini’s 

and the Lorenzetti brothers’ workshops have 

been demonstrated, both as regards the 

composition of paint layers, the execution of 

the painting and the use of decorative techniques 

like sgraffito and punchwork. This should 

be born in mind when considering the panels 

of the Master of the Palazzo Venezia Madonna. 

The paint layers of the two saints are only 

faintly visible on X-radiographs. In this 

connection, it is also significant that the 

transition from painted to gilded areas is not 

particularly conspicuous, either. This would 

have been the case if the artist, after gilding 

the panels, had covered the edges with lead 

white paint where the gold overlapped areas 

that were to be painted. As the first step in 

the construction of the picture, the gilding 

took place before the painting and would 

inevitably overlap the incised contours of the 

figures. To re-establish these, one could 

either paint the excess gold over with lead 

white in a glue medium or alternatively 

scrape away the gold. These two methods are 

described by Cennino Cennini, who 

recommends the latter. The former, known as 

ritagliare, besides having the covering effect 

of the lead white layer on the gold, 

presumably also served the purpose of 

assisting in the subsequent adhesion of the 

tempera paint. The method is described by 

Cennino as follows: 

”When you have shaped up the diadems and 

ornaments in this way, take a bit of white 

lead in a little dish, thoroughly ground with a 

little diluted size; and with a smallish miniver 

brush cover and mark out the figures from 

the ground, just as you see those little marks 

which you scratched in with the needle 

before you laid the bole. Again, if you want to 

do without marking out with white lead and 

the brush, take your little tools, and scrape 

off all the gold which is superfluous, or which 

laps over the figure: and this is better 

practice.” 16 

Because of the lead white pigment in the 

ritagliare method, it appears in X-radiographs 

as a radio-opaque, i.e. whitish, zone along 

the edges of the paint layer where it adjoins 

gilded areas. In 14th-century Sienese 

painting, this has been found primarily in 

works by Peitro Lorenzetti and artists 

stylistically related to him, like Bartolommeo 

Bulgarini and Luca di Tommè (though not 

Ambrogio Lorenzetti), but is not seen in 

works by other artists. 17 The technique is 

employed in Bulgarini’s central panel of the 

St. Victor altarpiece and here and there, 

more discretely, in the predella fragment The 

Blinding of St. Victor; however, it is absent in 

the two Copenhagen panels. It is interesting 

to note that here the artist has, however, also 

omitted to use the alternative technique of 

scraping away, but has painted directly on 

top of the overlapping gold. 18 

There are also characteristic features in the 

modelling of the draperies visible to the 

naked eye. Although a certain weight and 

depth have been achieved, form has been 

created to a great extent with the help of the 

sinuous contours of the edges of the drapery 

and to a lesser degree by the modelling of the 

individual folds, where there is little contrast 

between light and shade (fig. 7). A similar 

soft though nuanced modelling is seen in 

works by Simone Martini. 19 The shaping of 

the two saints’ garments has been carried out 

with thin, flowing parallel brush strokes 

without distinct highlights and entirely 

without cross-hatching. 

The paint layers are generally thin, so the 

gesso (and sometimes the underdrawing) is 

discernible in several places. Santa Corona’s 

blue mantle is to some degree modelled with 

juxtaposed colour tones, painted against 

each other with no common underlying 

colour and with a moderate use of 

transitional zones (fig. 8). There is a wide 

range from the darkest to the lightest colours 

in the drapery, but again not in the individual 

separate fold. The method deviates from 

Cennino’s directions for modelling drapery in 

three shades, not only because of the scope 

in the shades of colour, but also because 

there is no systematic modelling from dark to 

light. Finally, the deepest tones are achieved 

through the addition of black pigment (see 

below) instead of consisting of the pure blue 

colour prescribed by Cennino. In comparison, 

the Virgin’s blue mantle in Bulgarini’s central 

panel on the St. Victor altarpiece The 

Adoration of the Shepherds is composed 

around an overall middle tone. The folds, 

whose contours are delineated with incised 

lines, have presumably been modelled with a 

dark blue glaze which has now 

disappeared. 20 

The technique used for St. Victor’s cloak 

and boots is in accordance with a similar 

method known from Simone Martini’s 

painting, where highlights and shadows are 

painted over an underlying middle tone. The 

red lining of the cloak is painted with a 

general tone of vermilion, on which are 

applied discrete highlights in red lead and 

one or two shadows in red lake. 21 The same 

principle is followed in the modelling of the 

blue outer side of the cloak and boots, which 

are built up in ultramarine and white, around 

an intense blue middle tone. 

The composition of the left, lighter side of 

english version 140

the saint’s pink tunic follows more closely 

Cennino’s system with modelling in three 

shades of colour. The paint layer is only 

partly preserved here, but has apparently 

been created with shadows in a dark red 

glaze and with modelling from dark to light. 

The folds on the shadow side of the tunic 

however, are almost entirely modelled in a 

red (now brown-red) lake, which is mainly 

applied pure and like watercolour, and with 

the addition of a trace of white only in a few 

highlights (fig. 9). As the pigment has 

become rather faded over time, these areas 

appear rather uneven and striped. But it is 

evident that the artist has utilised the semitransparent 

nature of the red lake, where the 

modelling is achieved exploiting the white 

ground colour by applying the paint more 

thinly in the light areas and more heavily 

where he wanted a deeper tone. The same 

simple method is used in the darker areas of 

the red lining of Santa Corona’s cloak. A 

similar technique is found in a couple of 

places in Jacopo di Cione’s Florentine San 

Pier Maggiore Altarpiece (1370-71) 22 and in 

a slight variation in the Infant Jesus’ 

loincloth in Lippo Memmi’s The Virgin Mary 

with Child and Redeemer in the Siena 

Pinacoteca. 23 Another example of an 

economical way of painting is the marble 

floor which the two saints are standing on. 

Here the gesso has simply been employed as 

the white background colour for the 

brushstrokes in various colours, which 

constitute the marbling. 

In painting St. Victor’s scabbard, the 

artist has employed one of the striking 

techniques which are characteristic of 14thcentury 

Sienese painting. He has painted a 

deep green glaze on top of gilding, which is 

textured with short, parallel incised lines, the 

combination giving a spectacular, almost 

enamelled effect (fig. 10). Copper-green 

glaze on top of gilding is often employed by 

Simone Martini and his followers, among 

them the Master of the Palazzo Venezia 

Madonna, especially when representing the 

silk lining of the Virgin’s mantle. 24 

The green colour has often turned brown 

or black in the course of time; the green 

glaze on the scabbard had received two 

layers of overpainting over the years, probably 

because of this discolouration. During 

removal of later gilding a coat of arms also 

appeared at the top of the scabbard (fig. 11). 

The shield-shaped form with two fields under 

each other separated by a horizontal line as 


well as some preserved remnants of black 

paint in the bottom field suggest it is the city 

arms of Siena, an appropriate device for a 

patron saint of the city. 

Even though the painting does not follow 

the incised contours of the figures accurately, 

there do not seem to be actual divergences in 

relation to the underdrawing. But two 

remarkable changes in the figure of St. Victor 

have been made during the painting process: 

the red tunic has been adorned with a fur 

trimming at the bottom, painted on top of the 

red colour, and the blue boots originally had 

gilded spurs. The shape of the spurs can be 

seen both in the X-radiographs and the infrared 

reflectogram (fig. 6) and can be 

distinguished with the naked eye in the 

pentimenti in the blue paint and beside one 

heel. During the restoration of the painting, 

traces of gilding could furthermore be 

ascertained in paint losses in the left boot. 

In his build-up of faces and hands, the artist 

has in principle followed the traditional 

method as described by Cennino, in which a 

green earth with a cool bluish-green tone has 

been used as underpainting for the flesh 

colour (fig. 12) 25 . As a result of abrasion and 

possibly an increased transparency of the 

overlying layers of paint, the green colour has 

become more predominant than it was 

originally. Because of the worn state of the 

flesh paint, it has not been possible to 

establish an actual verdaccio layer in the 

modelling, but discrete shading has been 

done in a warm brownish colour, for example 

round the base of the nose and the chin. 

The modelling of the lighter areas of flesh 

paint has been carried out with parallel brush 

strokes which follow the form. The strokes lie 

close together, and for this reason crosshatching 

is not a prominent feature. Due to 

abrasion, in particular some of the middle 

tones of the faces have disappeared, and one 

must assume that the modelling was more 

differentiated than it appears today. The fact 

that it still has a graduated effect is due 

especially to the overall controlled colouring, 

where there is a moderate use of white in the 

paint composition even in the highlights. 

The green earth is also applied under the 

two saints’ hair, where it plays a certain part 

as background for the modelling, which is 

carried out with a yellow earth and white in 

the light areas, and warmer brown and 

reddish colours in the shadows. Contrary to 

Cennino’s instructions, the use of green earth 

under the hair seems to have been quite 

common practice, and can be found in other 

works by the Master of the Palazzo Venezia 

Madonna as well as in works by his 

contemporaries. 26 

The abraded state of the paint layer in a 

large part of the hands makes it difficult to 

judge their original appearance. There is a 

faint brownish sinopia line around Santa 

Corona’s hands, but the artist has not 

otherwise employed actual contour lines. The 

present, rather template-like quality of the 

hands is not, however, very different from 

that of his other works, where the linear 

effect is not accentuated despite a rather 

shallow modelling. 27 

In comparison examinations of Bulgarini’s 

style of painting have shown that in general, 

he employs greater contrasts in his 

modelling. 28 In his articulation of both 

drapery and flesh paint, he uses almost white 

highlights, often with distinct cross-hatching 

which is especially notable in the early works 

due to the space between each brush stroke. 

Another characteristic feature is his use of 

distinct contour lines. In The Adoration from 

the St. Victor altarpiece, these features also 

seem to be present, though the poor state of 

preservation of the paint layer makes some of 

them less conspicuous. 

Sgraffito decoration 

Santa Corona’s gown is designed with a 

striking sgraffito technique, executed by first 

gilding the whole area of the dress and then 

covering it with a layer of egg tempera paint. 

The pattern was then created by scraping in 

the dry paint and by granulating the 

uncovered gold with a fine punch, so that it 

caught and reflected the light in a more 

sparkling way (fig. 13). Finally the shadows 

in the folds of the dress were made with a 

glaze, which has turned mostly brown, but 

was originally a brilliant green. Cennino does 

not give instructions on shading in his 

section on sgraffito, but elsewhere in his 

treatise mentions modelling with green glaze 

on top of gilding. 29 

The sgraffito technique, which simulates 

gold brocade (or silver brocade), was known 

in Siena as early as the latter part of the 13th century, but was not fully utilised until the 

1330s by Simone Martini. The high quality 

of the sgraffito work of the Master of the 

Palazzo Venezia Madonna and the occurrence 

of patterns which already appear in Simone’s 

works could be read as the result of a pupilmaster 

relationship between these two

artists. 30 However, the technique did not 

come to play a significant role outside 

Simone’s circle until it was reintroduced in 

the 1350s, and there are indications that it 

was in fact the Palazzo Venezia Madonna 

Master’s sgraffito work on the St. Victor 

altarpiece around 1350 which gave the 

impetus to that development. In Bulgarini’s 

works from the 1340s, the technique does 

not appear, but it is employed on the Virgin’s 

gown as well as the white garments of the 

two groups of angels at the top of the central 

panel of the altarpiece. 31 Furthermore, the 

pattern of the angels’ garments is identical 

with a sub-element of the sgraffito pattern on 

Santa Corona’s dress. In Bulgarini’s San 

Giminiano Altarpiece from about 1353, the 

influence of the Palazzo Venezia Madonna 

Master can be traced yet again, here in the 

Virgin’s garments, whose pattern and quality 

of high craftsmanship are almost identical 

with those of Santa Corona’s gown. 32 In the 

ensuing years, an increasing use of the 

sgraffito technique is seen, both in 

Bulgarini’s work and in Sienese painting in 

general, where it is employed to such an 

extent that in some works it becomes the 

dominant technique. 

It has been suggested that the execution 

of pastiglia, mordant gilding, punch work and 

sgraffito decoration may have been left to 

assistants, 33 and it can be said that the 

time-consuming mechanical nature of these 

techniques makes them suitable for division 

of labour. The sharing of assistants could 

explain the occurrence of identical 

”decorative” elements in the works of 

different artists, 34 even though conscious 

artistic choices must have been made on the 

part of the masters, not least in an art like 

the Sienese, where the decorative element 

had such stylistic importance. 

In contradistinction to the Florentine 

painters’ sgraffito motifs, which for instance 

include animals and birds, the Sienese 

motifs were in the main abstract plant 

patterns with their point of origin in existing 

Chinese and oriental silks and brocades. 35 

Still, one finds patterns with close parallels 

in their morphology to the pattern of Santa 

Corona’s gown both in Florentine and other 

Northern Italian works from the period about 

1340-70. 36 

Pigments and paint media 

A comparatively limited range of pigments 

has been used in the two panels. 

Ultramarine, the only blue pigment 

employed, is found in St. Victor’s cloak and 

boots as well as in the paint mixtures of the 

saints’ palm leaves, the olive branch and the 

fur trimmings. A cross section from the 

darkest shadows of Santa Corona’s mantle 

reveals that the pigment is mixed with black 

to make the colour deep enough, which is an 

unusual feature, as one would normally 

expect to find the pure ultramarine or a dark 

glaze as the top layer (fig. 14). An underlying 

layer with a corresponding pigment mixture, 

although more thinly pigmented, also seen in 

the cross section, may have been an initial 

layer to define the extent of the shadows in 

the drapery. But it is hardly the dark grey 

underpainting, like the one which is found 

under ultramarine paint layers in a great 

number of Tuscan pictures of the period 

1350-1450. 37 

It is a distinctive feature of Simone 

Martini and painters from his circle that more 

than other contemporary painters they 

preferred ultramarine for the modelling of 

blue drapery 38 (by comparison, Bulgarini 

employed azurite for the modelling of the 

Virgin’s mantle in the central panel of the St. 

Victor altarpiece). The use of ultramarine in 

the mixtures for green colours, among others, 

may be seen as a result of this preference for 

the pigment. Even the fur trimming and the 

fur lining of St. Victor’s garments are painted 

with a mixture of black and white with an 

addition of high quality ultramarine. The 

same high quality is seen in St. Victor’s olive 

branch, where the pigment is apparently 

mixed with an organic yellow (fig. 15). Only 

the substrate of the yellow dyestuff is 

preserved, so the colour of the leaves has 

changed considerably in a bluish direction. 

The poor stability of the organic yellow 

dyestuffs must have been well-known, as 

Cennino writes for example of a couple of 

them, ”see that it is not exposed to the air, 

for it soon loses its color” and ”This is a very 

thin color. It fades in the open” as well as in 

a mixture with verdigris: ”it is beautiful to 

the eye, but it does not last.” 39 However, 

indications are that the Sienese painters still 

preferred the organic yellow dyestuffs for 

their paint mixtures, as they are found in 

their works more often than, for example, 

lead tin yellow which was the pigment of 

choice in Florence. 40 

As mentioned above, the red of St. 

Victor’s cloak is painted with vermilion, with 

a few highlights in the form of light touches 

of red lead and one or to shadows in a red 

glaze. The latter is probably the same as the 

dyestuff used for the saint’s tunic and for the 

red of Santa Corona’s mantle. Analysis of a 

sample from the right side of the tunic 

showed that the colour is a red lake, 

produced from the secretions of the Asiatic 

scale insect Coccus lacca. 41 Together with 

the related kermes insect Coccus ilicis from 

the Mediterranean area, it has proved to be 

the most important source of carmine 

dyestuffs in Northern Italian painting of the 

14 th and 15 th centuries, where it has been 

identified in numerous works. 42 Cennino, 

who was aware of the question of stability 

recommends using the imported Asian 

dyestuff in preference to the more local 

kermes colour. 43 In comparison with the 

Italian tradition for these animal colours, 

there seems to have been a greater tendency 

in contemporary Northern European art to 

use the vegetable dye madder. 

The white colour in Santa Corona’s 

sgraffito decorated gown is lead white, while 

the shading is, as mentioned earlier, carried 

out with green glazes of verdigris (fig. 16). 

The same technique is used on top of the 

gilding in St. Victor’s scabbard and in the 

buttons of the garments. The colour has 

turned brownish in most places, but here and 

there the original green can be distinguished 

(fig. 17). The paint medium for the green 

colour is linseed oil. 44 Cennino describes the 

technique as follows: ”Gild the ground; draw 

on it the subject which you want; lay in the 

grounds with verdigris in oil, shading some 

folds twice; then lay some uniformly all over 

the grounds and the subjects evenly.” 45 

Linseed oil has been used as a the medium 

for the green glazes, as the paint would not 

get the same degree of translucency in egg 

tempera, which is otherwise the general paint 

medium in the two paintings. The analyses 

also showed that the linseed oil was 

apparently heat-bodied to improve its drying 

qualities. 

Green earth, the other green pigment in 

the paintings, can be seen in the 

underpainting of faces and hands (fig. 12). It 

deviates in colour from the green earth used 

for example in the two panels by the Palazzo 

Venezia Madonna Master depicting Mary 

Magdalene and St. Peter. 46 The pigment in 

the latter picture in particular has a warmer, 

more yellow tone. As there was a number of 

natural occurrences of green earth in Central 

and Southern Europe, and in Italy near 

english version 142

Verona and Venice, among other places, 

painters very likely had several qualities at 

their disposal, with different tones from bluegreen 

over yellow-green to olive green. So a 

variation in the colour in the works of the 

individual painter is not surprising. 47 

When imagining the original appearance of 

the two panels, one must take various factors 

into account. Some colours like the yellow 

and red lakes have faded, others like the 

vermilion in St. Victor’s cloak have darkened 

or have changed colour in a brownish 

direction, like the green of St. Victor’s 

scabbard or Santa Corona’s dress. Finally, a 

combination of wear and increased 

transparency of the paint layers in certain 

areas, as well as the effect of a fairly thick 

layer of varnish, have all contributed to 

altering their appearance. 

The earliest description we have of the 

pictures is from 1854, when they were in the 

Davenport Bromley collection in England 

(and ascribed to Simone Martini). The 

German art historian G. F. Waagen visited the 

collection at Wooton Hall and described his 

impression: 

”Simone Martini, called Memmi [sic] – St. 

Catherine, whole-length figure, three-quarters 

size: one of the most beautiful works by this 

great painter preserved to us. The proportions 

are slender, the refined and noble features 

indicate an unusual feeling for beauty, and 

the purest religious feeling. In the right hand, 

in reference doubtless to her double 

martyrdom, she holds two palms. The tunic, 

according to the style of the school of Siena 

at that period, consists of a richly-patterned 

gold stuff: the mantle, the folds of which are 

disposed with much originality and purity of 

style, is of a cool blue, with lining of broken 

violet, which renders the general effect much 

more harmonious than in most pictures of 

the time, and particularly so as compared 

with the companion picture, a youthful saint, 

with sword, palm, and olive-branch, whose 

blue and red drapery is far more gaudy, while 

at the same time the head is much less 

beautiful and significant.” 48 

Despite Waagen’s misattribution and - 

interpretation of motif, as well as the 

uncertainty latent in a description 

presumably written after his visit to the 

collection, perhaps based on notes or in part 

from memory, there can be no doubt as to the 


identity of the two pictures. And the passage 

is telling in the choice of words, with the 

expressions cool blue, broken violet, 

harmonious, gaudy, as well as the absence of 

the colour green in the description. 

Pastiglia decoration and mordant 

gilding 

The removal of 19th-century gilding and a 

secondary gesso layer in the spandrels at the 

top of the panels revealed the original 

pastiglia decoration with its 14 th century 

gilding and punch work (fig. 19). The 

pastiglia pattern consists of slight variations 

on a type also to be found in Bulgarini’s San 

Gimignano Polyptych from about 1353 49 and 

has been demonstrated in almost identical 

form in his Madonna and Child Enthroned 

from Ovile, about 1355-60 (Museo 

Seminario, Siena) and in Jacobo di Mino del 

Pellicciaio’s later Coronation of the Virgin 

(Museo Civico, Montepulciano). 50 The 

striking similarities in the patterns can be 

seen as yet another indication of an on-going 

connection between the Master of the 

Palazzo Venezia Madonna and Bulgarini after 

their collaboration on the St. Victor 

altarpiece. But as is the case with the other 

decorative techniques, the resemblance 

could also be explained by a scenario where 

one assistant carried out the work for the 

different artists. 

The striking and extensive mordant 

gilding which creates the impression of gold 

embroidered trimmings on the borders of the 

costumes in the two paintings has the effect, 

among others, of emphasising the line of the 

borders and thus strengthening the 

impression of form in the drapery. This is 

especially evident in Santa Corona’s mantle. 

The mordant pattern appears in slight 

variations in different places in the figures 

but clearly derives from the pattern of the 

sgraffito decoration (fig. 13). This again is a 

decorative element which can also be found 

in a work by Bulgarini, the Madonna and 

Child Enthroned with Angels 51 from after 

1356, in which the mordant border at the 

bottom of the Virgin’s cloak has the same 

pattern. 

Punchmarks 

Examination of punched decorations in the 

gilded parts of paintings has for many years 

been a tool in the study of individual 

painters’ ooutput and the chronology of their 

works, and has also contributed to our 

knowledge about their apprenticeship and 

the connection between workshops. The 

development of the technique reached a 

climax in Siena in the 14 th century, when 

the repertoire of punchmarks and the 

individual artistic use of them culminated. 

By comparison, contemporary Florentine 

painters (with a few exceptions like Bernardo 

Daddi) generally used fewer different 

punches and patterns of more simple design. 

In the two saints by the Master of the 

Palazzo Venezia Madonna, there is punch 

work in the haloes, in the two crowns of 

Santa Corona and the gold borders of her 

bodice, as well as on St. Victor’s scabbard 

and belt. The gilt buttons in the garments are 

granulated with a point-shaped punch and 

afterwards formed by shading with a glaze. 

The composition of the haloes is typical of 

the style of the Master of the Palazzo Venezia 

Madonna, influenced as it was by Simone 

Martini, with a relatively narrow central band 

with one or two repeated motif punches, 

demarcated on both sides by a narrow band 

of identical small marks as well as several 

closely adjoining circular indentations and a 

slender outer ring composed of gothic arches 

(fig. 19). In comparison, Bulgarini’s version 

of the haloes is seen in the central panel of 

the St. Victor altarpiece, in his traditional 

heavier style with a broader central band 

encircled by double bands of small motifs 

and no outer ring of arches. 52 Bulgarini’s San 

Gimignano Polyptych from 1353 testifies 

however to the influence of the Master of the 

Palazzo Venezia Madonna after their 

collaboration on the St. Victor altarpiece, as 

the haloes here are designed after the same 

prototype as St. Victor’s and Santa 

Corona’s. 53 However, there seems to have 

been only a passing effect; in his later works, 

Bulgarini reverts to his earlier style of haloes 

with their broader and heavier design. 

About 47 different punchmarks have been 

identified in works ascribed to the Master of 

the Palazzo Venezia Madonna. 54 The majority 

of these have also been found in the works of 

other artists, while eight marks seem to be 

specifically associated with his output. 

There are 11 different punchmarks in the 

panels of St. Victor and Santa Coronoa. 

These 11 marks can be found on 16 other 

works by the artist. In the remaining parts of 

the St. Victor altarpiece are a further six 

marks which come from Bulgarini’s 

repertoire, and it has been shown that only a 

minor exchange of punches between the two

painters occurred: each borrowed two from 

the other. In the case of Bulgarini, the two 

borrowed punches appear for the first time in 

his works. 55 

Bulgarini’s output exhibits the greatest 

number of punchmarks known in any 

workshop: 83 different marks have been 

identified. 56 The large number is partly due 

to the situation in Siena in the 1350s. In 

Sienese works from these years, immediately 

after the first outbreak of the Black Death, 

one sees a large number of punches from 

different workshops apparently being pooled 

and used collectively by several artists. 57 

This phenomenon has been interpreted as a 

sign of the creation of a compagnia, meaning 

a form of collaboration under the leadership 

of Bulgarini and with varying participation of 

Jacopo di Mino del Pelicciaio, Naddo 

Ceccarelli, Niccolò di Ser Sozzo, Luca di 

Tommè and Giovanni da Milano. 58 

The shared use of a large number of 

punches complicates matters, naturally, if 

one wishes to use the punchmarks 

specifically as a tool to help differentiate 

between painters. But on the other hand, the 

appearance of the same marks in parallel 

artistic outputs can also be a sign of contact 

or collaboration. 

The Master of the Palazzo Venezia 

Madonna may have participated in the 

Sienese compagnia in an early phase, even 

though his degree of involvement is not very 

clear. To judge by the material which the 

punchmarks constitute, his contact with 

Bulgarini and the varying members of the group 

was mostly on an individual basis, independent 

of the common enterprise. Altogether, 21 of 

his marks appear in works by the abovementioned 

painters, distributed as follows: 

Bulgarini: 8 punchmarks (in 20 works spread 

over his production) 59 

Naddo Ceccarelli: 8 punchmarks (in 17 works, 

of which 1 is dated 1347) 

Jacopo Pellicciaio: 6 punchmarks (in 3 works, 

of which 1 is dated 1362) 

Luca di Tommè: 4 punchmarks (in 8 works) 

Giovanni da Milano: 3 punchmarks (in 4 works) 

Niccolò di Ser Sozzo: 1 punchmark (in 1 

work) 60 

Thus there has been a certain amount of 

exchange between the Master of the Palazzo 

Venezia Madonna and the aforementioned 

painters. But it is striking that in every 

instance, there is only a very small degree of 

overlapping between the punchmarks which 

he shared separately with each painter. The 

immediate conclusion could be that only few 

of the marks employed by the Master of the 

Palazzo Venezia Madonna come from the 

common pool. Apart from this, his 

connection to another circle, the one around 

Simone Martini and Lippo Memmi, is 

illustrated by the fact that 24 of his marks 

are also recorded in works by these two 

painters, as well as works ascribed to Barna 

da Siena. 61 They are: 

Simone Martini: 9 punchmarks (in 15 works) 

Lippo Memmi: 7 punchmarks (in 25 works) 

Barna da Siena: 15 punchmarks (in 15 works) 

Not surprisingly, there is considerable 

congruity among these 24 punchmarks, 

between the marks found in Simone Marini 

and Lippo Memmi (6 marks are shared), 

while there is little overlapping with the 

marks shared by Barna da Siena (only 2 

marks can be found also in Simone Martini 

and Lippo Memmi). Out of the complete 

group of 24, there is a moderate congruence 

with the first-mentioned, as only 10 of the 

24 marks are repeated among the marks 

which the Master of the Palazzo Venezia 

Madonna shared with the painters in the 

1350s’ compagnia. 

Final remarks 

In terms of painting technique, the two 

panels by the Palazzo Venezia Madonna 

Master are in many ways typical of Sienese 

practice at the middle of the 14th century. 

As such their technique differs in certain 

areas from the ”standard” laid down by 

Cennino Cennini. At the same time, the artist 

is clearly a product of schooling in the 

Simone Martini painting tradition with its 

characteristic use of special decorative 

techniques and differentiated modelling of 

the paint layers. It must be said, however, 

that the pictures also contain examples of 

individual modifications of the painting 

technique, which are not prevalent and which 

illustrate the technical diversity and 

individuality found within Sienese painting. 

The constellation of the centre panel, side 

panels and predella fragments of the St. 

Victor altarpiece is generally accepted 

today, 62 despite the stylistic divergences of 

the contributions of the two painters. It is 

true there are signs that Bulgarini altered 

certain elements of his style and technique 

under the influence of his collaborator, but 

this does not seem to have been mutual. 63 

Even though the modifications made by the 

Master of the Palazzo Venezia Madonna to 

St. Victor’s boots and tunic may presumably 

be seen as an adaptation of details in the 

figure in relation to the altarpiece as a whole, 

it is hardly a case of stylistic adjustment. 

And the heterogeneity is reflected in the 

dissimilarities in the technique of the two 

painters, where not least a detail like the 

difference in the use of the ritagliare 

technique at a basic physical level 

demonstrates the differences of their 

separate schooling. 

Acknowledgements 

I would like to thank Catherine Higgitt, Jo 

Kirby, Marika Spring and Raymond White of 

the Scientific Department, The National 

Gallery, London, for their work on the crosssection, 

pigment and paint-medium analyses 

of the two paintings. I also wish to extend 

thanks to Rachel Billinge, Conservation 

Department, The National Gallery, for carrying 

out investigations with infrared reflectography, 

as well as Chief Restorer Martin Wyld and 

the other conservators in the department for 

helpful advice during the restoration. I am 

also grateful to Norman Muller, Princeton 

University Art Museum, for valuable comments 

and information, and not least for 

pointing out the significance of the ritagliare 

technique. Finally Stephan Knobloch, 

Städelsches Kunstinstitut, and Kate Oliver, 

Fogg Art Museum, must be thanked for readily 

making available works and technical data. 

english version 144

1 Henk van Os (Sienese Altarpieces 1215 – 1460, 

Groningen 1984 and 1990, vol. 1, pp. 84-89) 

suggested the connection between the panels on an 

iconographic basis. 

Elizabeth H. Beatson, Norman E. Muller and Judith B. 

Steinhoff (‘The St. Victor Altarpiece in Siena Cathedral: 

A Reconstruction’, The Art Bulletin 68, vol. LXVIII, no. 4, 

December 1986, pp. 610-631) supported the 

hypothesis on the basis of technical examination and 

written sources, and further pointed out the link with 

the predella fragments in Frankfurt and Paris. 

2 Cf. Judith Steinhoff-Morrison: Bartolomeo Bulgarini and 

Sienese painting of the mid-fourteenth century. Ph.D. 

dissertation, Princeton University 1989, Ann Arbor 

1990, pp. 67-76 and Rudolph Hiller von Gaertringen: 

Italienische Gemälde im Städel, 1300-1500, Toskana und 

Umbrien, Mainz am Rhein 2004, p. 84 n. 7, p. 87 n. 18. 

3 The analyses were carried out at The National Gallery, 

London, with the exception of the X-radiography. 

Examination of the underdrawing by means of infra-red 

reflectography was carried out by Rachel Billinge. Paint 

medium analyses with GC-MS and FTIR-microscopy 

were carried out by Catherine Higgitt. The HPLC analysis 

of red lake was carried out by Jo Kirby. Cross-section 

and pigment analyses were carried out by Marika Spring. 

4 This protective measure has been found occasionally in 

other Sienese altarpieces, cf. Beatson, Muller and 

Steinhof, 1986, p. 623. 

5 Cf. Beatson, Muller and Steinhoff, 1986, pp. 622-623 

for the method of construction of the St. Victor altarpiece. 

6 The average thread count was 13.7 x 13.1 threads/cm 

(St. Victor) and 9.1 x 11.8 threads/cm (Santa Corona) 

and 15.8 x 15.9 threads/cm (The Blinding of St. Victor). 

The central panel with The Adoration also had canvas 

under the ground originally, but this was removed when 

the paint layer was transferred to another support in 

1940 (personal communication from Norman Muller). 

7 Cennino Cennini: The Craftsman’s Handbook “Il Libro 

dell’Arte”. Translated by Daniel V. Thompson, Jr., 2nd 

edition, New York 1960, Chapter CXXXIII, p. 80. 

8 Cennino Cennini, transl. Thompson 1960, Chapter 

CXIIII, p. 70. 

Apparently not all painters used the method of covering 

the panel with canvas. Several of Amrogio Lorenzetti’s 

works thus do not seem to have canvas (personal 

communication from Norman Muller, who has examined 

a number of A.L. works). This is also the case with 

Ambrogio’s St. John the Baptist, Statens Museum for 

Kunst, inv. no. KMS8314. 

9 Examination with infra-red reflectography was carried 

out by Research Associate Rachel Billinge, Conservation 

Department, The National Gallery, London. The 

equipment employed was a Hammamatsu C2400 

camera with an N2606 series infra-red vidicon tube. 

The camera was mounted with a 36 mm lens and a 

Kodak 87A Wratten filter. The mosaic of reflectograms 

was assembled using Vips-ip software. 

10 A summary underdrawing carried out with a brush has 

been found in Ugolino di Nerio’s altarpiece from Santa 

Croce in Florence, cf. David Bomford, Jill Dunkerton, 

Dillian Gordon, Ashok Roy and Jo Kirby: Art in the 

Making. Italian Painting before 1400. The National 

Gallery, London 1989, p. 112. But a moderate form of 

shading by hatching has been reported in another work 


by the same painter, cf. N. Delsaux, F. Delteil-Ruffat and 

P. Ausset: ”Restauration d’un primitif Italien; Ugolino da 

Siena, Vierge à l’enfant”, Technologie de la Conservation 

et de la Restauration des oeuvres d’art et du patrimoine, 

no. 1, 1988, p. 70. The same method of shading with 

close parallel lines is also reported in Luca di Tommè, cf. 

Norman E. Muller: ‘Observations on the Painting 

Technique of Luca di Tommè’, Los Angeles County 

Museum of Art, Bulletin, vol. XIX, 1973, p. 14. In works 

by Duccio and Nardo di Cione (but not Jacopo di Cione) 

underdrawing with a certain degree of shading has 

been found, cf. David Bomford et al., 1989, pp. 81-82, 

93-94, 97, 129-130. The underdrawing here is 

apparently made with a pen, which is also seen in 

Simone Martini, cf. David Hemsol: ‘Simone Martini’s ‘St. 

John the Evangelist’ re-examined: A panel from an early 

portable triptych’, Apollo, vol. CXLVII, no. 432, 1998, p. 3. 

11 Bartolommeo Bulgarini: Madonna of Humility, 

Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv. no. A4002 as well as all 

works by Neroccio di Bartolommeo in the Siena 

Pinacoteca. Cf. H. W. van Os, J. R. J. van Asperen de 

Boer, C. E. de Jong-Hansen, C. Wiethoff (ed.). The Early 

Sienese Paintings in Holland, 1989, pp. 24, 33, 38. 

12 The National Gallery, London, NG 4491 and NG 4492. 

The examination with infra-red reflectography was 

carried out by Rachel Billinge, cf. note 9. 

13 Cf. von Gaertringen, 2004, pp. 88-90. 

14 Cf. Bomford et al., 1989, pp. 78-123. 

15 Norman Muller: ”Three Methods of Modelling the 

Virgin’s Mantle in Early Italian Painting” JAIC vol. 17, 

no. 2, 1978, pp. 10-18. 

16 Cennino Cennini, transl. Thompson, 1960, p. 86. 

17 This is a discovery made by Norman E. Muller, who 

kindly drew my attention to the phenomenon. Cf. also: 

Norman E. Muller: ”Observations on the Painting 

Technique of Lucca di Tommè”, Los Angeles County 

Museum of Art, Bulletin, vol. XIX, 1973, p. 16, and 

Steinhoff-Morrison, 1989, p. 173, and Bruce Hardin 

Suffield: ”Andrea di Bartolo’s Madonna and Child: 

Investigations of the Materials, Techniques and Original 

Effects”, Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University, 

vol. 59, no. 1-2, 2000, p. 21. 

18 A certain amount of paint loss along the edges of the 

figures as well as the top of St. Victor’s olive branch 

could be connected with this procedure. 

19 Cf. Cathleen Sara Hoeniger: The Painting Technique of 

Simone Martini, Ph.D. dissertation, Princeton University 

1989, p. 141 and pp. 172 ff. 

20 The method is described in Muller, 1978, pp. 3-7. The 

paint layer in question in The Adoration is preserved only 

in parts and is discoloured so as to be almost black. 

21 The same composition is seen in the Master of the 

Palazzo Venezia Madonna’s Mary Magdalene (The 

National Gallery, London, NG 4491) in the vermilion 

cloak and also in corresponding draperies in Jacopo di 

Cione’s San Pier Maggiore altarpiece from Florence, 

1370-71 (The National Gallery, London, NG 569.1) cf. 

Bomford et al., 1989, pp. 32, 150. 

22 Cf. Bomford et al., 1989, p. 180 and p. 33; the 

technique is also reported by Knut Nicolaus in an 

altarpiece by the Portuguese Alvaro di Piero, who 

worked in Pisa and Volterra around 1450, cf. Knut 

Nicolaus: ‘Untersuchungen zur Italienischen 

Tafelmalerei des 14. und 15. Jahrhunderts. Eine 

maletechnische Analyse an Werken aus dem Besitz des 

Herzog-Anton-Ulrich-Museums in Braunschweig’. 

Maltechnik Restauro 79, 1973, p. 150. 

23 Siena Pinacoteca, No 595. In the Child’s loincloth, the 

red lake is mixed with a little white in the highlights, 

but is unmixed in the darker parts of the drapery. 

24 The Master of the Palazzo Venezia Madonna: Madonna 

with Child, Palazzo Barberini, Rome, inv. 1545, cf. also 

Hoeniger, 1989, p. 260. 

25 Green earth with a warmer, more yellowish tone is seen 

in the Master of the Palazzo Venezia Madonna’s St. 

Peter (The National Gallery, London, NG 4492). 

However, Mary Magdalene (The National Gallery, NG 

4491) has a more coolly coloured green earth layer, 

even though the two panels originate from the same 

altarpiece. 

26 In the Master of the Palazzo Venezia Madonna’s The 

Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine (Siena Pinacoteca 

inv. 108) and his St. Peter (The National Gallery, London 

NG 4492) this method is seen. It is also apparent in 

Bulgarini’s Madonna and Child Enthroned with Angels 

(Siena Pinacoteca, inv. 80), in an altarpiece by Naddo 

Ceccarelli (Siena Pinacoteca, inv. 115) and in Niccolò di 

Ser Sozzo and Luca di Tommè’s Madonna with Child, 

Angels and Saints (Siena Pinacoteca, inv. 51) Ambrogio 

Lorenzetti often used a grey colour for underpainting 

rather than a green earth, cf. Norman Muller: 

‘Lorenzettian technical influences in a painting by the 

Master of Figline’ La pittura nel XIV e XV secolo. Il 

contributo dell’analisi tecnica alla storia dell’arte, ed. Henk 

W. van Os and J. R. J. Asperen de Boer, p. 287; there are 

also examples of underpainting completely lacking (ibid. 

pp. 286-87). 

27 Cf. Mary Magdalene (London, The National Gallery, NG 

4491), The Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine (Siena 

Pinacoteca, inv. No. 108), Madonna with Child, Rome, 

Palazzo Barberini, inv. No. 1545). 

28 Cf. Steinhoff-Morrison, 1989, pp. 174-180. 

29 Cf. Cennino Cennini transl. Thompson 1960, p. 88. 

30 Cf. Hoeniger, 1989, pp. 232-233. 

31 The paint layer of the Virgin’s gown is very damaged, 

making it difficult to evaluate precisely the design of 

the sgraffito pattern. 

32 Bartolomeo Bulgarini: Polyptych, c. 1353, private 

collection, Florence, cf. Judith Steinhoff: ”A Trecento 

Altarpiece Rediscovered: Bartolomeo Bulgarini’s 

Polyptych for San Giminiano”, Zeitschrift für 

Kunstgeschichte, vol. 56, 1993, pp. 102-112 and 

Steinhoff: ”Artistic working relationships after the 

Black Death: a Sienese compagnia, c. 1350-1363(?)’, 

Renaissance Studies, vol. 14 No 1, 2000, pp. 10-13. 

33 Cf. Steinhoff, 2000, p. 12 and Hayden B. J. Maginnis: 

The World of the Early Sienese Painter, 2001, p. 99. In 

Cennino’s instructions for the representation of gold or 

silver brocade, he even ends the section with the 

following advice: ”And, indeed, I advise you, if you want 

to teach boys or children how to do gilding, have them 

lay silver, so as to get some experience with it; for it is 

less expensive” (Cennino Cennini, transl. Thompson 

1960, p. 88). 

34 The statutes of the Sienese painters’ guild contained 

rules about assistants’ work for other masters. Heavy 

fines were exacted for using assistants who were 

contractually tied to another master. Cf. ch. XVII in the

statutes from 1356, reproduced (in toto) in Hayden B. 

J. Maginnis, 2001, p. 206. 

35 The foreign silks which were imported to Italy via 

Venice from the end of the 13 th century were 

significant especially in Siena as a source of inspiration 

for painters as the town, unlike Lucca and Florence, did 

not have its own silk industry. Cf. Lisa Monnas: 

”Costume and Textiles in Simone Martini’s St. Louis of 

Toulouse crowning of Robert of Anjou” in Essays in 

Honour of John White, ed. Helen Weston and David 

Davies, University College London 1990, pp. 152-162 

and Paul Hills: The Light of Early Italian Painting, Yale 

University Press, New Haven and London 1987 p. 96 

and Maginnis, 2001, p. 98 and Gustave Soulier: Les 

Influences orientales dans la peinture toscane, Paris 

1924, and Brigitte Klesse; Seidenstoffe in der 

Italienischen Malerei des 14. Jahrhunderts, Bern 1967, 

pp. 52, 102, 119, 487, 488, and Hoeniger, 1989, pp. 

229, 237-238. 

36 Cf. Klesse, 1967, pp. 233-237, 272, 474. E.g. works by 

Bernardo Daddi, Giovanni del Biondo, Allegretto Nuzi, 

the Master of the Fabriano Altar, Puccio di Simone, 

Zannino di Pietro and Taddeo Gaddi. 

37 Cf. Elisabeth Martin and Ségolène Bergeon: ”Des bleus 

profonds chez les Primitifs italiens” Techne, no. 4, 

Laboratoire de Recherche des Musées de France, 1996. 

Investigation of approx. 50 Tuscan works from the 

period 1350-1450 revealed a dark grey paint layer 

underneath a thin layer of ultramarine as a frequently 

used method for achieving a deep blue colour. 

38 Cf. Cathleen Hoeniger: ”The Identification of Blue 

Pigments in Early Sienese Paintings by Color Infrared 

Photography”, JAIC, vol. 30, no. 2, 1991, pp. 115-124; 

and cf. Hoeniger, 1989, p. 167. In the works of the 

Master of the Palazzo Venezia Madonna there are h 

owever examples of the use of azurite in blue draperies. 

In The Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine (Siena 

Pinacoteca, inv. No. 108), the pigment is apparently 

used in the Virgin’s now almost blue-black cloak. 

Similarly in one of the angels in the painter’s Madonna 

Enthroned with Angels in the Berenson collection, where 

it is applied on top of a reddish underpaint, cf. Conti, 

Alessandro: ”Oro e Tempera: Aspetti della Tecnica di 

Simone Martini” in Simone Martini: atti del convegno, 

Siena, 27-29 March 1985, Florence 1988, p. 127, n. 

11) There are several examples in 14th-century 

Sienese painting of a differentiated use of the pigment, 

in the sense that painters employed a deep blue, high 

quality pigment for the most important figures and a 

paler, less intense one for the secondary figures, cf. 

Hoeniger, 1991, pp. 115-124. 

39 Cennino Cennini transl. Thompson 1960, Chapter 

XLVIII, pp. 29-30; Chapter L, p. 30, Chapter LVI, p. 33. 

40 Cf. Bomford et al., 1989, pp. 39, 120-123. 

41 Analysed with HPLC by Jo Kirby, The National Gallery, 

London, Scientific Department. 

42 Cf. Bomford et al., 1989, p. 33 and Jo Kirby, Raymond 

White: ‘The Identification of Red Lake Dyestuffs’, 

National Gallery Technical Bulletin, no. 17, 1996, pp. 56- 

80 and Jo Kirby, David Saunders, John Cupitt: 

’Colorants and colour change’ Early Italian Paintings; 

Techniques and Analysis. Symposium, Maastricht 9 th - 

10 th October 1996, pp. 65-71. 

43 Cf. Cennino Cennini, transl. Thompson 1960, Chapter 

XLIII, pp. 26-27. 

44 Paint medium analyses were carried out with GC-MS, 

IR microscopy and FTIR-analysis by Catherine Higgitt, The 

National Gallery, London, Scientific Department. 

45 Cennino Cennini, transl. Thompson 1960, p. 88. 

46 The National Gallery, London, Inv. No. NG 4491 and NG 

4492. 

47 Cf. Bomford et al., 1989, p. 41 and Libby Sheldon: ”The 

Rise and Fall of Green Earth: An Investigation of the 

Terre Verde Tradition from the Thirteenth to the 

Sixteenth Century”; Essays in Honour of John White, ed. 

Helen Weston and David Davies, University College 

London, 1990, p. 175. 

48 G. F. Waagen: Treasures of Art in Great Britain, vol. 3, 

London 1854, p. 373. 

49 Cf. Steinhoff, 1993 (note 32) 

50 Cf. Steinhoff, 2000 (note 32) 

51 Siena Pinacoteca, inv. No. 80. 

52 Like other parts of The Adoration, the haloes are much 

damaged and extensively restored. However, enough 

original material has been preserved to show their 

general composition. 

53 Cf. Steinhoff, 1993, p.104, fig. 3, p. 109, fig. 8, p. 110, 

fig. 10; and Steinhoff, 2000, pp. 10-12. 

54 Mojmìr S, Frinta’s Punched Decoration on Late Medieval 

Panel and Miniature Painting; Prague 1998, has been 

used as the basis for the following calculations. As is 

the norm in these kinds of estimations, only figurative 

punchmarks have been taken into account, i.e. simple 

circular or point-shaped punchmarks are not included. 

The estimations are approximate as a couple of Frinta’s 

attributions are tentative, and as further a few works 

appear with divergent attributions in other parts of the 

publication. The works in question are omitted from the 

calculations. 

For an overview of Bulgarini’s punchmarks cf. Erling 

Skaug: Punchmarks from Giotto to Fra Angelico, Oslo 

1994, vol. II, table 7.12. 

55 This investigation was undertaken by Norman E. Muller, 

cf. Beatson, Muller and Steinhof, 1986, pp. 627-628 

and cf. further Steinhoff-Morrison, 1989, pp. 100-101. 

56 Cf. Skaug, vol. II, table 7.12. 

57 Many of the punches in question come from workshops 

that closed on the outbreak of the plague in 1348. A 

corresponding phenomenon is also true to a lesser 

extent of Florentine works in the years after 1348 (cf. 

Skaug, 1994, pp. 154-161). The Sienese collaboration 

of the 1350s apparently continued until about 1362, 

after which a large number of punches were taken to 

Florence, apparently by Giovanni da Milano; here they 

appear in works by Florentine painters in the years 

following the second outbreak of plague in 1363, cf. 

Skaug, 1994, pp. 253-257; and Erling Skaug: 

”Punchmarks – what are they worth? Problems of 

Tuscan workshop interrelationships in the midfourteenth 

century: the Ovile Master and Giovanni da 

Milano”, La pittura nel XIV e XV secolo; il contributo 

dell’analisi tecnica alla storia dell’arte, H. W. van Os and J. 

Aspersen de Boer (ed.) in Atti del XXIV congresso 

internationale di storia dell’arte, III, 1979, Bologna 

1980, pp. 253-282. Cf. also Steinhoff, 2000, pp. 1-45. 

58 The absence of written sources makes it difficult to 

estimate the degree of formalisation of the 

collaboration; cf. Steinhoff, 2000, p. 8. 

59 Remarkably, none of the punchmarks of the Master of 

the Palazzo Venezia Madonna reappear in Bulgarini’s 

altarpiece for San Gimignano, which otherwise contains 

specific features in the composition of haloes, as well 

as sgraffito and pastiglia design, which are clearly 

drawn from the former’s contribution to the St. Victor 

altarpiece. 

60 Erling Skaug (Skaug 1994, vol. II, table 7.12) lists 6 of 

the Master of the Palazzo Venezia Madonna’s 

punchmarks from the St. Victor altarpiece as also used 

by Niccolò di Ser Sozzo. Two of these marks (nos. 100 

and 340) cannot however be found in the two saints’ 

panels. 

61 Remarkably, only one single mark used by Andrea Vanni 

and the Master of the Straus Madonna respectively is 

also used by the Master of the Palazzo Venezia 

Madonna. 

62 Judith Steinhoff (Steinhoff, 2000) sees the St. Victor 

altarpiece as the first example of a new model of 

collaboration in Siena after the Black Death, where 

artists from stylistically different traditions 

collaborated on commissions, each apparently retaining 

their separate stylistic characteristics. 

63 Cf. Steinhoff-Morrison, 2000, pp. 1-4. 10-12. 

english version 146

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