Gherardo di Jacopo (called Starnina)
St. Stephen and St. Bruno (?)1404 - 1407

On view:

Geffen Galleries, floor 2

Tempera panel painting with two haloed figures on a gold ground: a youth in red robes holding palm fronds and a book, and a bearded elder in a white hooded cloak reading a small red volume

Artist or Maker: Gherardo di Jacopo (called Starnina)
Italy, Florence, active 1360-1413
Title: St. Stephen and St. Bruno (?)
Place Made: Italy
Date Made: 1404 - 1407
Medium: Tempera and gold on panel
Dimensions: Panel: 5 3/4 × 16 1/4 in. (14.61 × 41.28 cm) Framed: 6 1/2 × 17 × 1 in. (16.51 × 43.18 × 2.54 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of The Ahmanson Foundation
Accession Number: AC1996.137.1
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: European Painting and Sculpture
Curatorial Notes: Sometimes only a fragment survives from a larger composition. This small painting is one of two related pieces in LACMA’s collection, the other featuring a bishop saint and Saint Lawrence (47.23). Both fragments once formed part of a predella, or bottom register, of a larger altarpiece. Although these paintings have long been removed from their original viewing context, the saints’ iconography offers clues. Both panels contain references to the Carthusian order, a Catholic religious sect that emphasized contemplation and monasticism. Here, the figure on the left is easily identified as Saint Stephen by the three stones atop his head, a reference to his martyrdom by stoning. The white-robed figure likely represents Saint Bruno, founder of the Carthusian order—an appropriate inclusion in a commission for that community. Scholars hypothesize that the altarpiece was made for the Certosa di Firenze (Florence Charterhouse), a monastic institution in Galluzzo, near Florence. Starnina completed several ecclesiastical projects throughout Florence and its environs, including an altarpiece for the Chapel of the Virgin Mary in the Certosa.

Constructed with multiple panels showing religious scenes and framed by elaborate architecture, polyptych altarpieces were central to church decoration. The central panel of the predella from which LACMA’s panel derives, now in a private collection, is larger than its companions and depicts an angel supporting the dead Christ, his arms spread wide and wounds exposed. Mourning figures of the Virgin Mary and John the Evangelist flank Christ. Both side predella panels were once in the collection of Ernest Tross; he donated one to LACMA in 1947 and sold this one about a decade later. The subsequent owner encased it in a gilt frame, probably to make the fragment feel like a complete composition while evoking the engaged framing of the larger altarpiece. A generous gift by the Ahmanson Foundation in 1996 reunited the two panels.

2024
Provenance: Possibly Charterhouse of S. Lorenzo, Florence. Possibly Barbieri collection, Florence. Dr. Ernest L. Tross, Los Angeles, in the 1940s. (Sale, New York, Christie’s, 14 Nov. 1986, lot 189, to); [Matthiesen Fine Arts, Ltd, London, sold 1984 to]; LACMA.
Selected Bibliography: Gold backs, 1250-1480. London: Matthiesen Fine Art, 1996.
Lehmbeck, Leah, editor. Gifts of European Art from The Ahmanson Foundation. Vol. 1, Italian Painting and Sculpture. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2019.

Gherardo di Jacopo (called Starnina)
St. Stephen and St. Bruno (?)1404 - 1407

On view:

Geffen Galleries, floor 2

Artist or Maker: Gherardo di Jacopo (called Starnina)
Italy, Florence, active 1360-1413
Title: St. Stephen and St. Bruno (?)
Place Made: Italy
Date Made: 1404 - 1407
Medium: Tempera and gold on panel
Dimensions: Panel: 5 3/4 × 16 1/4 in. (14.61 × 41.28 cm) Framed: 6 1/2 × 17 × 1 in. (16.51 × 43.18 × 2.54 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of The Ahmanson Foundation
Accession Number: AC1996.137.1
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: European Painting and Sculpture
Curatorial Notes: Sometimes only a fragment survives from a larger composition. This small painting is one of two related pieces in LACMA’s collection, the other featuring a bishop saint and Saint Lawrence (47.23). Both fragments once formed part of a predella, or bottom register, of a larger altarpiece. Although these paintings have long been removed from their original viewing context, the saints’ iconography offers clues. Both panels contain references to the Carthusian order, a Catholic religious sect that emphasized contemplation and monasticism. Here, the figure on the left is easily identified as Saint Stephen by the three stones atop his head, a reference to his martyrdom by stoning. The white-robed figure likely represents Saint Bruno, founder of the Carthusian order—an appropriate inclusion in a commission for that community. Scholars hypothesize that the altarpiece was made for the Certosa di Firenze (Florence Charterhouse), a monastic institution in Galluzzo, near Florence. Starnina completed several ecclesiastical projects throughout Florence and its environs, including an altarpiece for the Chapel of the Virgin Mary in the Certosa.

Constructed with multiple panels showing religious scenes and framed by elaborate architecture, polyptych altarpieces were central to church decoration. The central panel of the predella from which LACMA’s panel derives, now in a private collection, is larger than its companions and depicts an angel supporting the dead Christ, his arms spread wide and wounds exposed. Mourning figures of the Virgin Mary and John the Evangelist flank Christ. Both side predella panels were once in the collection of Ernest Tross; he donated one to LACMA in 1947 and sold this one about a decade later. The subsequent owner encased it in a gilt frame, probably to make the fragment feel like a complete composition while evoking the engaged framing of the larger altarpiece. A generous gift by the Ahmanson Foundation in 1996 reunited the two panels.

2024
Provenance: Possibly Charterhouse of S. Lorenzo, Florence. Possibly Barbieri collection, Florence. Dr. Ernest L. Tross, Los Angeles, in the 1940s. (Sale, New York, Christie’s, 14 Nov. 1986, lot 189, to); [Matthiesen Fine Arts, Ltd, London, sold 1984 to]; LACMA.
Selected Bibliography: Gold backs, 1250-1480. London: Matthiesen Fine Art, 1996.
Lehmbeck, Leah, editor. Gifts of European Art from The Ahmanson Foundation. Vol. 1, Italian Painting and Sculpture. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2019.