Niccolò di Pietro Gerini
Italian, 1368-1415 (active)

St. Andrew Exorcising Devils, 1395-1400 ca.
tempera on panel
8 3/4 x 16 1/2 in.

SBMA, Gift of Mrs. Wolcott Tuckerman
1966.66

RESEARCH PAPER

“St. Andrew Exorcising Devils”, painted in egg tempera with gilt on a horizontal wooden panel 8 3/4" x l6 1/2", was a gift to the Museum from Mrs. Wolcott Tuckerman in 1966. The painting was attributed to Gerini by Bernard Berenson in 1958 and since then, other art historians have agreed with this attribution (Bisogni, Zeri). It was probably part of a predella depicting scenes from the life of St. Andrew since the episode is not a very important one and there are few representations of it at all in Italian art.

The panel itself is in good condition with a uniform crackle pattern over it. There are seals on the back, one of the Customs of the Papal States from the first half of the l9th century, a second one of an unknown collector, and a third, probably an export license issued by the National Museum in Florence, between 1860 and 1871 (when Florence was the capital of Italy). In his article on the panel Bisogni placed it among Gerini's work of the last five years of the 14th century.

St. Andrew is the central focus of the scene, the largest figure, dividing the painting into two parts. On the left side a man, possibly a disciple, gazes at two travelers to Nicea, who had already been killed by the demons while one devil disappears into its den behind him. The right side of the painting is taken up by a crowd worshipping the saint, who is in the process of exorcising the demons, who appear as dogs. They vanish, a literal portrayal of the word "evanuerunt", used by Gregory of Tours in his 6th century book on the miracles of St. Andrew. However, Gregory writes that the demons stoned the travelers. The “Golden Legend”, a hagiology compiled by Jacopus de Voragine in the 13th century, simply says that the demons killed them, leaving the means open to interpretation. There is no earlier known Italian painting of this particular event, though several cycles of the life of St. Andrew were painted in the l5th century.

In Tuscan painting St. Andrew is usually seen as an old man with white hair and a parted beard. He is thought to have evangelized Russia and then to have proceeded to Greece and Asia Minor where a series of miracles took place. The most common scene from his life that is painted is that of his crucifixion.

Niccolò di Pietro Gerini was a follower in the Giottesque tradition, particularly in the clear composition and solid figures of his work. He was probably a pupil of Taddeo Gaddi, who was himself a student of Giotto. The panel of St. Andrew recalls works by the Florentine master in the stage-like setting with a few elements such as the trees, the hill echoing the form of the disciples and the architecture at the right. The artist creates a sense of depth through the irregular overlapping of the figures in the crowd and the angling of the shoulders of several figures, although the linear perspective of the two rectangular boxes representing the demons’ lairs is not accurate. Gerini was also influenced by Orcagna (Andrea di Cione) in the heaviness of his figures; he is known to have collaborated on several pieces with Orcagna's brother, Jacopo di Cione.

By the time our painting was done, however, he had overcome most of the influence of both Gaddi and Orcagna and in his rendering of the crowd and the treatment of space follows the example of Spinello Aretino with whom he collaborated on commissions in Pisa. The panel also shows the influence of Lorenzo Monaco, another associate, in the repetition of splashes of color, which lead the eye through the painting.

The earliest date for Niccolò di Pietro Gerini is 1368, when he registered in the Guild of the "Medici e Speziali" in Florence. He is thought to have died in l4l5 because early in l4l6 his heirs were paid the commission for some of his work. Between those two dates he is known to have worked on frescoes, altarpieces, and some stained-glass window designs in the cities of Florence, Pisa and Prato. In 1391-2 Gerini collaborated in Prato with Agnolo Gaddi. He also worked with Lorenzo di Niccolo, until recently mistakenly thought to be his son but now considered simply a protegé of his.

Judging from the number of commissions he received, Gerini must have been one of the most popular Florentine artists at that time. However, based on the work attributed to him, today he is judged to be of fairly low importance among artists of the late Trecento. He is often criticized for not showing much creativity in his work, painting rigid figures in a traditional compositional format. Gerini is given credit, however, for the drama and emotion of his scenes. Because he employed many assistants and pupils in his workshop during the last decades of the 14th century, the Giottesque style of painting was carried on in Florence into the early 15th century.

Prepared for the Docent Council by Deanne Violich, (n.d.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

- BOOKS -

Antal, Frederick. “Florentine Painting and Its Social Background”. London: Kegan Paul, Trench Trubner & Co., Ltd., 1947.

Benezit, Emanuelle. “Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des Peintres”, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs. Paris: Librairie Grund, 1976.

Berenson, Bernard. “Italian Pictures of the Renaissance, Florentine School, Vol. I”. London: Phaidon Press, 1963.

Boskovits, Miklos. “Pittura Fiorentina alla vigilia del Rinascimento 1370-1400” Florence: Edam, 1975.

Crowe, J. A. & Cavalcaselle, G. B. “A New History of Painting in Italy from the 2nd to the 16th Century, Vol. 2”. London: John Murray, 1864.

Kaftal, George. “Iconography of the Saints in Tuscan Painting”. Florence: Sansoni, 1952.

Offner, Richard. “Studies in Florentine Painting”. Reprint of the 1927 edition. New York: Junius Press, 1972.

Sandberg-Vavala. “Studies in Florentine Churches, Part I, Pre-Renaissance Period”. Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 1959.

Thieme, Ulrich & Becker, Felix. “Allgemeines Lexikon Der Bildenden Kunstler, Vol. XIII”. Leipzig: EA Seeman, 1967.

Van Marle, Raymond. “The Development_of the Italian Schools of Painting, Vol. 3”. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1924.

- PERIODICALS -

Bisogni, Fabio, "Una rara scena della legenda di S. Andrea di Niccolò di Pietro Gerini", Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, Vol. l7, no 2-3, 1973, pp. 195-200.

Supino, J. B., "Una Ricordanza Inedita di Francesco di Marco Datini", Rivista d'Arte, Vol. V, 1907, pp. 134-8.

- LETTERS -

Zeri, Federico. To Mr. Thomas Leavitt, Director, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, August 16, 1966.

SBMA CURATORIAL LABELS

Gerini was one of the more talented members of the generation of Florentine painters that emerged after the Black Death, the plague that ravaged the city and Europe in the mid-fourteenth century. Employing a style based on that of the famous painter Lorenzo Monaco, he was responsible for important commissions in Florence as well as in the nearby Tuscan towns of Pisa and Prato. The present work was once part of the lower register - or predella – of an altarpiece, which probably featured a large central painting of the Virgin and Child surrounded by Andrew and other saints. The panel illustrates an obscure, apocryphal episode in the life of St. Andrew recounted in the Golden Legend, a collection of hagiographies compiled by Jacobus de Voragine in the later thirteenth century. Rarely represented in art, the scene shows Andrew exorcizing demons in the city of Nicea in Turkey. Seven devils had been killing passersby as they entered the town’s gates. Standing courageously amidst the bodies of their victims, the saint commands the demons to come forward and they appear in the form of winged dogs, apparently rising from tombs in which they had been hiding. Andrew’s moral authority is conveyed by the gravity of his gesture and by his resemblance to his powerful brother, the apostle Peter.

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