LUCA DI TOMMÈ

This Adoration of the Magi employs a conventional composition, however, it is also a good example of the evolution taking place in painting in the second half of the 14th century, especially in Italy, towards a closer imitation of nature, in a desire to represent reality. Thus, while the landscape is indicated in no more than conventional shorthand and is compositionally subordinate to the main scene, located in the immediate foreground, the artist has succeeded in creating a sense of real space between the figures, who are also depicted in more or less naturalistic proportion. This sense of three-dimensional space is achieved in the foreground through the arrangement of the Virgin’s robe, the two angels on the right (who are modelled with great skill and harmony both in their colouring and volumes), and the empty spaces. We see a real ground and can appreciate how Joseph, situated in a second plane further back, contributes to the impression of depth.

The painting illustrates how, in their striving towards the imitation of nature along the path to the Renaissance, artists first conquered the representation of the human body. Since the primary aim of painting was still to relate stories, mainly religious ones, landscape and other elements of secondary importance served simply as the backdrop to the principal events.

This panel belonged to the predella of a larger altarpiece. Three other parts of the predella are known, two in the Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena, and one in the Seattle Art Museum.

The painter placed the scene of the apostle’s death among antique-looking scenery and characters. Having finished their task, the soldiers stand around near the pyramid before the city gate of Ostia (present-day Porta San Paolo) in Rome, not far from the site where tradition says Paul was martyred. The picture also shows a rarely represented element of the legend, according to which the saint’s falling head bounced three times on the ground and each time it cried Jesus’ name (written in the picture as “GESU”). Springs broke forth from the three depressions. In memory of this miracle, a famous pilgrimage place dedicated to the three holy wells (Abbazia delle Tre Fontane) was later founded on the site.

The work belongs to the late production of Luca di Tomm�: it is characterized by strong contours, dark tones and expressive lights. The sketchy execution may indicate the intervention of workshop assistants.

This panel was one of the pinnacles to a polyptych now in the Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena, which is signed and dated 1367. The polyptych’s central panel depicts the Madonna and Child with St Anne and is flanked by four wings showing Sts Catherine of Alexandria, John the Baptist, Anthony Abbot and Agnes. The Blessing Christ would once have crowned the central Madonna and Child, but was detached by the middle of the 19th century and replaced with a representation of St Andrew from an unrelated altarpiece. The lateral saints, meanwhile, have retained their original pinnacles, each depicting one of the evangelists.

The polyptych was executed for the church of Santa Mustiola alla Rosa, Siena.

This painting belongs to the early part of the artist’s career, when his figures were endowed with an emotional intensity inspired by Lippo Memmi and Simone Martini. It depicts the Crucifixion with the two thieves, the Madonna, Saint John and Mary Magdalene, and a pelican piercing its breast above. The panel was intended for private devotion.

The miniature like detail of the pelican’s nest above the cross is an interesting motif: according to legend, the pelican pierced her own breast with her beak to feed her chicks with blood from her own heart. This image of self-sacrifice was used in medieval art as a symbol of Christ’s sacrifice for humankind and a parallel for the Eucharist.

In this scene of the Flagellation, Christ is bound to a column in a colonnade. Left and right are soldiers and two executioners with whips. On the left is Pilate pointing to Christ.

The polyptych’s central panel depicts the Madonna and Child with St Anne and is flanked by four wings showing Sts Catherine of Alexandria, John the Baptist, Anthony Abbot and Agnes. Originally, the pinnacle to the central Madonna and Child was a Blessing Christ, but it was detached by the middle of the 19th century and replaced with a representation of St Andrew from an unrelated altarpiece. The lateral saints, meanwhile, have retained their original pinnacles, each depicting one of the evangelists.

The polyptych was executed for the church of Santa Mustiola alla Rosa, Siena.

This panel, together with three others also in the Edinburgh museum and a fifth in the Vatican formed the predella of an altarpiece. It seems likely that this predella was originally attached to a polyptych, now in the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Siena. This polyptych, representing the Virgin and Child with Saints was signed and dated by both Niccolò di Ser Sozzo and Luca di Tomm�. While critics are divided about the respective roles of the two painters in designing and executing the principal panels of the triptych, this does not extend to the predella by Luca di Tomm�.

The predella panels illustrate the less familiar story of St Thomas’s sea journey to southern India, his foundation of a Christian church there, and his eventual martyrdom. This panel depicts the following scene: Christ and St Thomas at Cesarea meet Abanes, the messenger from King Gondoforus of the Indies, who needs workmen to build a palace.

This panel, together with three others also in the Edinburgh museum and a fifth in the Vatican formed the predella of an altarpiece. It seems likely that this predella was originally attached to a polyptych, now in the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Siena. This polyptych, representing the Virgin and Child with Saints was signed and dated by both Niccolò di Ser Sozzo and Luca di Tomm�. While critics are divided about the respective roles of the two painters in designing and executing the principal panels of the triptych, this does not extend to the predella by Luca di Tomm�.

The predella panels illustrate the less familiar story of St Thomas’s sea journey to southern India, his foundation of a Christian church there, and his eventual martyrdom. This panel depicts the following scene: A butler strikes St Thomas at a wedding feast; the butler’s severed hand is then brought to St Thomas in the mouth of a dog.

This panel, together with three others also in the Edinburgh museum and a fifth in the Vatican formed the predella of an altarpiece. It seems likely that this predella was originally attached to a polyptych, now in the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Siena. This polyptych, representing the Virgin and Child with Saints was signed and dated by both Niccolò di Ser Sozzo and Luca di Tomm�. While critics are divided about the respective roles of the two painters in designing and executing the principal panels of the triptych, this does not extend to the predella by Luca di Tomm�.

The predella panels illustrate the less familiar story of St Thomas’s sea journey to southern India, his foundation of a Christian church there, and his eventual martyrdom. This panel depicts the following scene: St Thomas in prison; St Thomas baptises Gondoforus after the king’s brother Gad had risen from the dead.

This panel, together with three others also in the Edinburgh museum and a fifth in the Vatican formed the predella of an altarpiece. It seems likely that this predella was originally attached to a polyptych, now in the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Siena. This polyptych, representing the Virgin and Child with Saints was signed and dated by both Niccolò di Ser Sozzo and Luca di Tomm�. While critics are divided about the respective roles of the two painters in designing and executing the principal panels of the triptych, this does not extend to the predella by Luca di Tomm�.

The predella panels illustrate the less familiar story of St Thomas’s sea journey to southern India, his foundation of a Christian church there, and his eventual martyrdom. This panel depicts the following scene: The Broken Idol, St Thomas stabbed by the High Priest.

“Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh [away the sin of the world]”. These words, inscribed in Latin on the scroll held by St John the Baptist, announce the coming of Christ. Standing against a gold background and enclosed in a Gothic trefoil frame, St John wears a hair shirt that represents his ascetic life of prayer and penance. Using carefully curved brushstrokes, Luca di Tomm� described the woolly texture of St John’s shirt and the unruly curliness of his hair and beard. Patterned punch marks form the decorative halo around the saint’s head. The Old Testament prophets Elijah and David, who predicted the coming of the Messiah, occupy the upper corners of the frame.

This panel was once part of an altarpiece, possibly for a church in Siena.

In this scene text conveys dialogue: God’s voice speaking to the Roman skeptic Saul, whom he struck to the ground and blinded. This shattering encounter transformed Saul from a persecutor of Christians into the Apostle Paul, one of the founders of the Christian Church.

The painting was originally part of a predella, the lower register of an altarpiece, whose smaller scale and less prominent location allowed artists to experiment with drama and illusion in a way that was impossible in the static images of the main part of the altarpiece.

In the second half of the fourteenth century there are many instances of well-established Sienese master-painters collaborating on single commissions. It may be that the development was precipitated by the fact that there was not much work to go round and it had to be shared among different painters. But it seems more likely that the reverse was the case and that too much was being demanded of fewer specialist craftworkers. This large altarpiece signed on its lower edge by both Niccolò di Ser Sozzo and Luca di Tomm� in 1362 provides a striking example of such collaboration. Now divested of its original piers, pinnacle panels and predella, the altarpiece was painted probably for the high altar of San Tommaso, a church under the care of the religious order known as the Humiliati. Accordingly, the apostle Thomas is portrayed on the Virgin’s right-hand side, a position conventionally understood as that of greatest honour. To his right appears Saint John the Baptist, while Saints Benedict and Stephen appear to the left of the Virgin. The general consensus among art historians is that Niccolò di Ser Sozzo painted the Virgin and Christ Child, Saint Benedict and Saint Stephen while Luca di Tomm� painted Saints John the Baptist and Thomas.