Page 16 - Jacobello del Fiore - His Oeuvre and a Sumptuous Crucifixion

went on to attribute other works, inlcuding Fig. 8 - JACOBELLO DEL FIORE: The Madonna of Humility,
the Virgin of Humility in the Museo Pro- Lecce, Provincial Museum
vinciale, Lecce, a painting formerly ascribed
to Jacobello - ( Fig. 8), as well as a drawing imbarazzi attributivi, non costituisca il
with a Hunting Scene in the Szépmüvészeti catalogo del padre di Jacobello, Francesco
Múzeum, Budapest.10 It did not escape him, del Fiore; che dovette, secondo logica e
as he concluded the article, that such costume, essere il suo maestro’ (‘whether
attributions constituted ‘la premessa diretta this group of works […] stretching in time
per certe cifre del primo Jacobello del Fiore’ from 1385, the date of triptych no.14 in the
(‘the direct premise for certain stylistic Accademia, to about 1410, and which is so
features of the early Jacobello del Fiore’). close to the manner of Jacobello dal Fiore as
to cause serious attributional nuisance,
A connection with Jacobello’s early phase should not be given to Jacobello’s father,
was noted by subsequent scholars, and it was Francesco del Fiore, who – if logic and
Mauro Lucco, the author of an earlier essay custom apply – ought to have been his
on this subject,11 who offered a new reading teacher’).12
of the Crucifixion now with the Matthiesen
Gallery. He restated its Venetian origins This hypothesis, also formulated inde-
and Paduan accents, reading the ‘netta pendently by Ileana Chiappini di Sorio,13
separazione dal mondo dello spettatore’
(‘clear separation from the world of the
viewer’) in the cutaway depiction of the
rocky foreground as a conscious revival of
Classical images, as if to ‘autoproporsi erede
di esse’ (‘declare himself their heir’). Having
confirmed the painting’s inclusion in the
corpus of the Master of the Giovanelli
Madonna, to which he added several items,
Lucco wondered ‘se questo gruppo di opere
[…], esteso su un arco cronologico che va
dal trittico n. 14 dell’Accademia, verso il
1385, per concludersi verso il 1410, e che è
tanto strettamente affine ai modi di
Jacobello del Fiore da creare a volte seri

17