"Ego Nardus magistri Sabini de Teramo": sull'identità del 'Maestro di Beffi' e sulla formazione sulmonese di Nicola da Guardiagrele

• Autores: Cristiana Pasqualetti
• Localización: Prospettiva: rivista di storia dell'arte antica e moderna, ISSN 0394-0802, Nº. 139-140, 2010, págs. 4-34
• Idioma: italiano
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • The ‘Master of Beffi’ takes his name from the beautiful triptych found in the church of Santa Maria del Ponte a Tione, not fat from Beffi (L’Aquila), and now at the National Museum of Abruzzo. In 1948, Ferdinando Bologna recognized that the triptych’s creator was also the artist of the presbyterial frescoes in the Church of San Silvestro, dated to the first decade of the fifteenth century. This first group of paintings also includes the work entitled “of the Last Seven Words” from the church of Santa Maria Paganica. The scholar has then included other works such as some illuminated initials of the Orsini Missal of Chieti, the diptych of “Saint Onofrio and Magdalene”, a “Domino Virginis” with four Franciscan saints, and two cusps of an altarpiece. The oldest pieces in the corpus display the mold of Bologna and the Adriatic, instead of Tuscany, which correlate with the Master’s training. The main stages coincide with the locations in which the documented painter Leonardo, son of the Master Sabino from Teramo, Sulmona inhabited since at least 1385. Before 1394, Leonardo acquired citizenship in Sulmona, and by 1435, he was joined by two other local artists for the creation of three painted wood sculptures.

    Sources note that in 1417 “magister Leonardus de Teramo pictor” worked in Guardiagrele. The strong points of contact with the pictorial production of ‘Master of Beffi’, that characterize not only the enamels, but also the plastic parts of Nicola of Guardiagrele’s first works, and the existence of at least one painting signed by the Abruzzi goldsmith, make the hypotesis that Nicola’s training took place in the workshop established by Leonardo da Teramo in Sulmona, a renowned center in goldsmith art, plausible.

    The antependium with the ‘Dormitio Virginis’ together with the ‘Magdalene in Ecstasy’ represent one of the ‘Master of Beffi’s’ oldest pieces. It is likely that the work was destined for a Franciscan church in Teramo where the altar frontals correspond to the local patrons’ tastes. The presence of St. Ives of Brittany, a man of law and patron of the poor, also suggest that the donor is to be identified with Berardo of Tommaso from Melatino, a family who had a residence right next to the Franciscan church of Sant’ Antonio in Teramo. The special emphasis given to the saint can be explained by the important public offices that Berardo held not only in Teramo, but also in bologna (1372) and Florence (1374) where he held the position of podestà.