Saint Augustine Altarpiece (Piero della Francesca)

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources:  –  ·  ·  · scholar · JSTOR (October 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in Italian. (October 2019) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the Italian article. Machine translation like DeepL or Google Translate is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 2,570 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Italian Wikipedia article at [[:it:Polittico di Sant'Agostino]]; see its history for attribution. You should also add the template {{Translated|it|Polittico di Sant'Agostino}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

The Saint Augustine Altarpiece was a mixed-technique 1454-1469 panel painting by Piero della Francesca, now split up and dispersed. It had at least ten panels, not including a probable predella (now completely lost) or other panels (also completely lost). Eight panels survive.^[1]

History[]

It is the artist's third known major altarpiece, following his Polyptych of the Misericordia (c.1444-1464) and Polyptych of Perugia (c.1460-1470). It was intended for the church of Sant'Agostino (now rededicated as Santa Chiara) in Sansepolcro. The Augustinians there signed a contract with the artist on 4 October 1454, with Angelo di Giovanni di Simone d'Angelo's signature and that of the artist. He received the last payment on 14 November 1469.

The Augustinians probably took the incomplete work with them when they moved out of the church. It was then completed in its new location before being broken into pieces, possibly during the 1550s century. Separate panels at least came into private hands in the early 16th century. In the first half of the 19th century the main panels of the work were in Milan, as shown by wax stamps on their reverses authorising their export from Austrian Lombardy and also the seals of a number of collectors from Milan. Towards the end of the 19th century the panels appeared as separate lots at an art dealership, leading them to be split between a number of mainly private collections, which later passed to their present public collections or institutions.

Main register[]

To the right of St Michael and to the left of St John can be seen traces of the throne from the lost central panel, Madonna and Child.

• 

  Augustine of Hippo (Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon)

• 

  Michael the Archangel (National Gallery, London)

• 

  John the Evangelist (Frick Collection, New York)

• 

  Nicholas of Tolentino (Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan)

Upper register[]

Between Monica and Crucifixion was another saint, now lost.

• 

  Monica (Frick Collection, New York)

• 

  Crucifixion (Frick Collection, New York)

• 

  Apollonia (National Gallery of Art, Washington)

• 

  An Augustinian Saint (Frick Collection, New York)

Possible reconstruction[]

References[]

This article about a fifteenth-century painting is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by .

• v
• t