Lot n° 100
Estimation :
10000 - 15000
EUR
Result without fees
Result
: 470 000EUR
Tablet of the Biccherna, called tavoletta,... - Lot 100 - Maison des enchères
Tablet of the Biccherna, called tavoletta, painted in tempera on wood on two registers.
Upper register: on the left, a representation of the camerlingue, a monk in front of a counter, a purse in his hands; on the right, the coats of arms of the four Sienese administrators.
Lower register, long inscription on nine lines in Italian:
QUESTO: E LIBRO - DEL ENTRATE E SITE - DELA BICHERNA DEL COMUNE - DEDI SIENA - DI - VI - MESI - AL TEMPO DI DONO MATTEO MONACO DI SANTO GALGANO - E DI FILIPPO DI MIS[SERE] PETRO - GIUANNI PETRONI - ANTONIO DI MIS[SERE] SOCCO - E PETRINO DI NADDINO - CAMARLENGO E QUATRO - DES S[PATER?]NA - DA KL JULIO - A KL GENAIO - [anno MCCCXXXVI] (illegible)
″ This is the book of the entries and exits of the Biccherna of the Commune of Siena for six months in the time of Don Matteo, monk of San Galgano, and Filippo of Messrs. Pietro, Gi[o]uanni Petroni, Antonio of Messrs. Socco, and Petrino di Naddino, camerle and four of S[an Paterno?], from the calendars of July to those of January - year 1336 (illegible) ″
Siena, school of Ambrogio Lorenzetti, second quarter of the 14th century, second half of 1336
Panel height : 40,3 cm - Panel width : 26 cm
Fixed in a frame, Total height: 52.7 cm - Total width: 37.2 cm
(some accidents and resumptions to the polychromy, date partially erased and restored, fragment of strap)
Provenance:
- Collection Johann Anton von Ramboux, painter and later curator of the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne (Trier, 1790 - Cologne, 1866), no. 15.
- Sale Cologne, Lempertz, May 23, 1867, Catalog der nachgelassenen Kunst-Sammlungen des Herrn Johann Anton Ramboux, cat. J.M. Herbele, N°15, lot 348, p 59.
- A former pre-war Parisian collection that has remained in the family.
In the Middle Ages, the Sienese referred to their financial and customs administrations as Biccherna and Gabella. This was the place where the registers of accounts, revenues and expenses were kept. The Biccherna was important because it was the one that collected all the rights and revenues and at the same time provided for all the expenses. The documents were kept between two wooden boards serving as a movable binding tightened by a strap attached to the upper cover. The decoration of the plate is divided into two approximately equal parts separated by the horizontal band corresponding to the passage of the strap; usually a scene was represented in the upper part, lower down, the inscription began with the ordinary formula "Questa è l'entrata e l'uscita della Biccherna del comune di Siena al tempo di ..." accompanied by the names of the camerlengo and the administrators, with the beginning and the end of their semester as well as the year.
The monk Mattheus of the abbey of San Galgano, located about 30 kilometers north of Siena, is depicted here and is well mentioned in the archives in 1336. He is depicted in his role as camerlingue pouring coins on a counter of a purse that he holds in one of his hands.
On the right, the coats of arms of the four administrators of the time:
- Filippo Petro Forteguerri of azure with three silver fess (coat of arms later found on a tavoletta of the year 1344)
- Antonio Sozzo di Legaccio of gold to three bars of azure
- Giovanni Petroni di Siena of gold to three stars to five branches of gold on a pale of azure (coat of arms that we find later on a tavoletta of the year 1348)
- Bellanti Petrino di Naddino da Siena of gules, to the band of gold, to the chief of gules to the lion of silver rampant, charged with a lambel to five pendants (coat of arms that we find later on a tavoletta of the years 1433 and 1437)
This tavoletta was part of the important collection assembled in the 19th century by the German painter Johann Anton von Ramboux who practiced his art in various countries. After training in Florenville, Belgium, and then in David's studio in Paris, he studied in Munich and then went to Rome in 1815 where he remained until 1822, ending his life in Cologne as curator of the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in 1866. He acquired up to thirty-one of these Biccherna covers, which were dispersed a year after his death by the antiquarian bookseller J.M. Lempertz in Cologne.
It appears in the sale catalog on page 59, under the n°15 of his collection of tavolettes, under this note taking up the designation that Ramboux himself made of it:
"Eine Tafel mit dem Kämmerer und vier Wappen. Al tempo di Dno Matteo Monaco di Santo Galgano 1336. Holz 1' 3" 6'" h., 10 "b." (Painting depicting the chamberlain and four coats of arms. Al tempo di Dno Matteo Monaco di Santo Galgano. 1336. Wood Height: 40,5 cm and Width: 26 cm).
Several of the 31 painted panels of the Ramboux collection are now preserved in various public collections, from the Museum of Fine Arts in Paris to the Museum of Fine Arts in Paris.
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