The fact that the figure is turned slightly and gazing downwards suggests that this panel was originally located in the upper order and on the right of a larger work, namely the imposing twosided polyptych by Stefano di Giovanni, known as Il Sassetta, placed above the main altar in the church of San Francesco in Sanseplocro, on 2 June 1444.

Majestic and severe, St Augustine looks out from the three-part frame, with three volumes resting on its lower edge, whose bindings have the colours of the theological virtues: green for Hope, red for Charity, white for Faith. The tiara and the precious brownish-red cloak with its large circular clasp are the attributes of a bishop and it is worn over the black habit of the order named after him. The fact that the figure is turned slightly and gazing downwards suggests that this panel was originally located in the upper order and on the right of a larger work, namely the imposing twosided polyptych by Stefano di Giovanni, known as Il Sassetta, placed above the main altar in the church of San Francesco in Sanseplocro,¹ on 2 June 1444.

Painted on both sides, this panel of vertical grain poplar wood, was sawn and separated from its back. More recently,² the edges of the painted surfaces were trimmed, it was made thinner and lined with horizontal grain wood, and then remounted in the original frame.³ This must have terminated in a point as can be deduced from the gilded plaster reliefs decorating the upper portion, since no side elements from the upper order of the polyptych have come down to us, including the St Peter that must have been on the other side of St Augustine.⁴ The upper portion and the two pieces on the back have been reworked.⁵

After the dismemberment of the altarpiece, between 1578 and 1583, its panels remained in the minor church of Sansepolcro. After the dissolution of the monastery, they were sold to Cavalier Sergiuliani of Arezzo in 1810, which must have been when the two sides of the painting were sawn apart. The Stories of St Francis were already in Carlo del Chiaro’s Collection in Florence in 1819, while the two central panels and the four saints in the main order were in the possession of the parish priest Pietro Antonio Angelucci,⁶ at Montecontieri, Asciano. However, the St Augustine did not appear on the antiques market until 1963, when Federico Zeri recognised it at Wildenstein’s in New York, as being part of the Sansepolcro polyptych, “as the pointed section or an element of the side pilasters”.⁷ It was first suggested as being the pointed section of the front side⁸ by James Banker,⁹ thanks to the discovery of a document describing the iconographic programme, the scripta of 23 January 1438 (1439 usual dating), which located it correctly top right, on the back, above the scene of the Wolf of Gubbio. The prominent position of St Augustine, compared with that of the other doctors of the Church who were depicted at the bottom of the side pilasters, may have been at the request of the father superior, Frate Agostino di Angeluccio, of the monastery who countersigned the scripta in 1439: “Frate Agostino di Angeluccio”. We should also bear in mind that many of the saints and blessed in the iconographic programme were the patron saints of personages who were involved in some way in the undertaking.¹⁰

Apart from the extensive craquelure on the surface of the painting and some pictorial integrations and regilding of the ground, the quality of the St Augustine is superb. Despite the change of direction in Il Sassetta’s style of painting, where the strong reaction to Masaccio and Angelico has been replaced by close attention to the manner of Ghiberti,¹¹ we are struck by the skilful sotto in su (extreme foreshortening) viewpoint, the illusionistic tour de force of the books resting on the barely perceived windowsill and the space around the bust created by the turn of the shoulders. Many years after the Art of Wool altarpiece (1423-25), Il Sassetta’s desire to equal the refined metalwork, which he learnt from his youthful study of the works of Gentile da Fabriano,¹² has not diminished. In fact, the cloak of the bishop of Ippona – though it has partially undergone restoration – has been executed on what is probably a sheet of silver, painstakingly engraved and subsequently finished with a reddish-brown varnish, modulated to catch the light. The circular clasp, whose precious stones have been created through the use of colour and free-hand engraving, with the help of simple raised dots (as in the mitre), is slightly oval, to emphasise the three-quarter view of the figure. It is also partially hidden by the hood of the Augustine habit, attesting to the still pressing need to tackle the problems of space and the representation of reality.

[Giovanni Giura]

¹ For Sansepolcro’s polyptych, see the very rich volume of studies and technical analyses Israëls 2009, to integrate with the review of De Marchi 2010. On Il Sassetta, see also the extensive summary in Fattorini 2019.

² When it was with Wildenstein in New York: L. B. Kanter, com. or. in M. Israëls, cat. 23, in Israëls 2009, vol. II, p. 546.

³ M. Israëls, cat. 23, in Israëls 2009, vol. II, pp. 545-547, with reproductions and the report after diagnostical research.

⁴ Banker 1991, pp. 11-58.

⁵ M. Israëls et al., “The Reconstruction of Sassetta’s Borgo San Sepolcro Altarpiece”, in Israëls 2009, I, p. 192.

⁶ For a detailed summary and relative bibliography, see M. Israëls et al., “The Reconstruction of Sassetta’s Borgo San Sepolcro Altarpiece”, in Israëls 2009, vol. I, pp. 189-190.

⁷ Zeri 1963, p. 44, note 17.

⁸ S. Béguin, in Paris 1977-78; K. Christiansen, in New York 1988-89b.

⁹ Banker 1991, pp. 11-58.

¹⁰ M. Israëls, in Paris 2008, p. 192. Less convincing is the possible link with Agostino di Luca Berti, a Siennese merchant who took on the responsibility of taking to the painter one of the instalments in payment for the altarpiece (Israëls 2009, vol. II, p. 545)

¹¹ De Marchi 2010, pp. 116-118; G. Fattorini, cat. 18, in Bacchi, De Marchi 2016, pp. 103-105.

¹² De Marchi 2010, pp. 116-117.