The Saints Bartholomew and Simon is the earliest Italian painting done by Master of Saint Francis to reflect the Italian culture. The 47.6 by 22.9 cm painting is done by applying tempera and gold on wood medium, formed a display above a Christian sarcophagus of the early period, with the painted arches together with the figure’s deposition in the altarpiece panel reflected the sarcophagus’ sculpture relief. The altarpiece is double spaced and was most probably commissioned for the San Francesco al Prato’s church displaying the faces of Saint James and Saint John the Baptist in the left face, while the right side of the other side depicted Isiah. The upper corners of the painting are incised into the panel right through the canvas and further painted on the gesso priming.
The painting has several characteristics that place it in the context of early Christian medieval arts. Like many other artworks of the medieval era, the painting is made using the frescoes technique, where gold colors and tempera are painted on a suitable medium such as wood to portray various Christian scenes and saints. Also, the painting has decorative patterns which form the framework around the picture, an artistic technique of the early Christian medieval period. Also, the painting is made using gold coloring instead of water painting, which reflects the medieval period, where Christian paintings and church objects such as sculptures were made using highly valuable materials such as gold (Dobrynin 2006). The painting also reflects the classical theme of a church, where one of the human forms captured in the painting is holding a bible and the painter has dressed it in the traditional church robes.
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Early Christian medieval paintings were theme-specific, to depict the various Christian traditions and cultures. Besides, the nature of the artwork is conservative to depict a Christian related subject matter, with little visual enhancements like patterns, lacks the aspect of three-dimensionality and flat with no shadow. This was the general form of Christian medieval artwork, done purposely to communicate serious Christian themes and specific biblical subjects in a very somber way.
Another characteristic of the image that places right in the center of the Christian medieval arts is the Romanesque architecture present at the background of the painting, where the architecture is characterized by stone walls supported by rigid semicircular arches. This kind of architecture shown in the painting was prevalent in the Christian medieval period to represent not only church doctrines but also the power of church monasteries as shown by the attachment below.
The Master of Saint Francis early Christian medieval painting differs with Saint John the Evangelist artwork adopted from page 372 of Janson’s History of Arts book in terms of both medium and details exhibited by the two pieces of artwork. While both arts reflect the Romanesque movement characteristic of the early Christian medieval era, the Saints Bartholomew and Simon painting is done by using tempera and gold colors on wood while the Saint John the Evangelist artwork is done by using tempera on vellum (Benton 2009). Another notable difference is the amount of details that are exhibited in each artwork, with the Saint John the Evangelist artwork displaying more details than the other painting showing numerous medallions that occur in the entire frame of the painting, to enhance both visual impression and thematic concern of the art. They also offer additional details that are not captured in the center space of the art, such as the dove and Abbot. This is evident from the level of interaction between each image and the frame. In the former artwork, St. Johns interacts with the frame of the photo playfully, where in one medallion he seems to be procuring ink from Abbot Wedricus while in another medallion he is listening to the dove that is conveying God’s inspiration to him, where the dove symbolizes the Holy Spirit. The Bartholomew and Simon painting offers less details, and the human images in the center of the painting do not interact with the frame of the artwork. Attached below is the Saint John the Evangelist artwork showing the various levels of interactions as well as the various thematic concepts expressed in the painting.
Reference
Benton, J. R. (2009). Materials, methods, and masterpieces of medieval art. ABC-CLIO.
Dobrynin, L. (2006). Bulgarini, Saint Francis, and the Beginning of a Tradition (Doctoral dissertation, Ohio University).
