Saint Cecilia Altarpiece

religious

This altar frontal, from the church of Santa Cecilia, is today generally dated shortly after 1304; it is the work of an anonymous master who may have worked with Giotto at Assisi. However, he was influenced mainly by the Sienese masters of the late 13th century. The arrangement of the altarpiece - the enthroned Saint in the middle and four scenes from her life at each side - follows Sienese examples.

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About the Artist

Master Of Saint Cecilia

Italian painter named after the St Cecilia Altarpiece in the Uffizi, which was originally in the church of Sta Cecilia, destroyed by fire in 1304. Presumably he was a Florentine, but nothing is known about him. Other works have been attributed to him because of their resemblance to the Uffizi picture, the most important being the three concluding scenes of the great fresco cycle of the Life of St Francis in the Upper Church of San Francesco at Assisi. The painter of these scenes resembles Giotto in lucidity of presentation and the solid drawing of his figures, but he is more genial in feeling. His figures are more vivacious, his colour warmer and sweeter. The completion of the great cycle in the Upper Church would have been entrusted only to an established master and some critics have attempted to identify the painter of these scenes and the St Cecilia Altarpiece with the famous but tantalizingly elusive Buffalmacco.

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