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This small but stunning and significant fourteenth-century altarpiece is one of the few Italian works in the Corcoran’s collection. In medieval Siena, portable altarpieces such as the Vanni triptych were very much in vogue, a testament to both the rising merchant class and the central role of the church. Intended for devotional use in a private household chapel, the panels could be folded shut and boxed in velvet to be carried with the traveler. Although stories drawn from the life of Christ or that of a particular saint may not be familiar to viewers today, in 1400 they were recognized by all. This triptych, which may have been part of a larger work, describes sequential stories from the Passion of Christ and is read from left to right. The particular versions of the Agony in the Garden, the Crucifixion, and the Harrowing of Hell depicted here were not drawn from the New Testament but from the apocryphal gospel of Nicodemus. . . .
:: Susan Badder, Senior Curator of Education Text excerpted from A Capital Collection: Masterworks from the Corcoran Gallery of Art, which is available for purchase in the Corcoran Shop. :: Click here to purchase this catalog online
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