The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 19, 2024

Saint Nicholas of Bari

Saint Nicholas of Bari

1472
(Italian, 1430/35–1495)
Italy, Venice, 15th century
Tempera and gold leaf on wood panel
Framed: 109 x 41 x 6 cm (42 15/16 x 16 1/8 x 2 3/8 in.); Unframed: 96.2 x 32 cm (37 7/8 x 12 5/8 in.)
Gift of the Hanna Fund 1952.111
Location: 117A Italian Renaissance

Description

Saint Nicolas of Bari, patron saint of children, sailors, and travelers, and the prototype of Father Christmas, was bishop of Myra (Lycia) in Asia Minor during the AD 300s. His remains were said to have been taken to Bari in Italy during the 11th century. The saint is shown vested as bishop in an elaborately embroidered cope, fastened with a morse, and holding a crosier.

By the mid-1400s, most Florentine artists had stopped using gold backgrounds in their pictures, preferring instead naturalistic backgrounds of landscapes and blue skies. However, elsewhere in Italy gold-ground painting remained popular, as in this painting by Crivelli, a a painter of conservative Late Gothic decorative sensibility, who spent his early years in the Veneto where he absorbed influences from the Vivarini, Squarcione, and Mantegna. By 1458 he left the Veneto and was never to return; he spent most of the remainder of his career in the March of Ancona, where he developed a distinctive personal style that makes a contrast to his Venetian contemporary Giovanni Bellini.
  • Cardinal Fesch (Rome sale 1845); W. Davenport-Bromley, Wooton Hall (London sale 1863); Baroness Kerbeck, Paris; (Knoedler)
  • The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 398 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 88 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 88 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 102 archive.org
    Lightbown, R. W. Carlo Crivelli. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 127-137
    Boskovits, Miklós, ed. Italian Paintings from the 13th to 15th Century. Firenze, Italy: Polistampa, 2009. Mention: p. 65, no. 14
    Daneo, Angelica, ed. Glory of Venice: Masterworks of the Renaissance. Denver: Denver Art Museum, 2016. Mentioned: p. 68; Reproduced: p. 39
    Coltrinari, Francesca, Giuliana Pascucci, and Carlo Crivelli. Carlo Crivelli: le relazioni meravigliose. Cinisello Balsamo, Milano : Silvana editoriale, 2022. Mentioned: p. 157
    Cleveland Museum of Art. Catalogue of Paintings. Pt. 1. European Paintings before 1500. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974. Reproduced: fig. 26 & 26a, p. 68 - 69
  • Glory of Venice: Renaissance Paintings 1470–1520. North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC (March 4-June 1, 2017).
    North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC (3/4/2017 – 6/18/2017): "Glory of Venice: Renaissance Paintings 1470–1520"
    Ornament and Illusion: Carlo Crivelli of Venice. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, MA (organizer) (October 22, 2015-January 25, 2016).
    Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Biston, MA (10/22/2015 - 1/25/2016): "Ornament and Illusion: Carlo Crivelli of Venice" cat. no. 3, p. 39.
    Art and Humanism in the Renaissance. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 23-February 25, 1962).
    In Memoriam: Leonard C. Hanna, Jr.. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 4-April 7, 1958).
  • {{cite web|title=Saint Nicholas of Bari|url=false|author=Carlo Crivelli|year=1472|access-date=19 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1952.111