An Investigation of the Punched Decoraton of Mediaeval Italian and Non-Italian Panel

Paintings
Author(s): Mojmír Frinta
Source: The Art Bulletin, Vol. 47, No. 2 (Jun., 1965), pp. 261-265
Published by: College Art Association
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 NOTES 261

It is hoped that the above discussionwill provoke in probably cast in metal from an intaglio matrix and
some measurea continuingdebateon the BresciaCasket possibly finished with the file. Thus their character-
and that it may even be viewed as a small contribution istics and minute imperfections can be recognized in
to one of the many problems that surround this richly macrophotographsif we possess a specimen of an im-
controversialpiece of early Christianart. pression which was struck gently enough not to crack
the gesso and to obscure the exact profile.
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE Punches with complex profiles appear to be an Ital-
ian innovation, and their appearance,though sporadic
and limited, in non-Italian paintings testifies to the
AN INVESTIGATION OF THE PUNCHED radiation of Italian technical procedures beyond the
DECORATON OF MEDIAEVAL ITALIAN Alps. This phase of Italian influence has been far less
AND NON-ITALIAN PANEL PAINTINGS frequently observed than the forces of stylistic inspira-
tion emanating from Italy. By comparing numerous
MOJMIR FRINTA silhouettes of impressions I have found that certain
Inquiries into little-studied technical aspects of punch marks can be associatedwith prominent painters
painting may yield significantart historicalobservations. of the Trecento.2 The usabilityof the method is borne
For a number of years my attention has been drawn out by the existence of identical impressionson obvi-
to the various elements composing the ornamentation ously related works: Lippo Memmi (Fig. 22) used
of mediaeval panel paintings, which may be treated the punches of his brother-in-lawSimone Martini (Fig.
from both a technical and a stylisticviewpoint.' Gradu- 23) in his paintings; an identical large rosette ex-
ally, I have focused my attention on the patterns ists on a retable by Giovanni da Milano (Fig. 3)
punched into the gold ground along the edges of and on that attributed to Giottino in the Uffizi (Fig.
paintings and in halos; I had in mind to explore the 4); and Puccio di Simone's painting in the Accademia
significance of such punchwork for the assignment of in Florence (Fig. 5) has a quatrefoil with serrated
panels to distinct workshops.The punched pattern be- edges identical with that on the Coronation polyptych
comes a tool of connoisseurshipwhen we deal with by Bernardo Daddi in the same museum (Fig. 6).
impressionsmore complex than a simple circle or dot, It appearsthat certain shapes of punches were pop-
which are not specific enough to be mutually distin- ular at certain periodsand in certain places. The early
guishable. I believe that the positiveidentificationof an instances consist of tiny stars and rosettes circling the
identical tool in two or more panels would establish halos, and were used as early as the thirteenth century
their relation to a single studio. For it may be imagined by painters in Tuscany (Siena, Pisa) such as Guido
that a master had in his studio a limited number of da Siena (Fig. 25), Meliore Toscano, the Master of
punches of his preferred shapes. The assumptionof a St. Francis and the Master of Sta. Cecilia (Fig. 20).
workshop relationship on this basis should be limited Sienese masters of the following generation added
to approximately contemporaneous works. But even more intricate and elaborate shapes of varying sizes
in the case of subsequentpictures these suggested ties (Figs. 2I, 31), but painters in Bologna, Venice and
can be most interesting. Most probably,the master and the Marches remained faithful throughout the four-
his assistants alike used the same punches, but the teenth century to inconspicuous tiny stars and dot-
equipment of a workshop may occasionally have been stars aligned simply in rows. Such punches adorn the
acquired by an unrelated person after the master's paintings of Paolo Veneziano (Fig. 34), Jacopino da
death, and not always by his closest follower. However, Bologna, the Maestro de' Crocefissi, and Giovanni
I have found that quite often a specific punch was Baronzio da Rimini.
used by stylisticallyrelated painters. No actual punch- The fashion of punched decoration (Fig. I) seems
ing tools seem to have survived from the Middle Ages, to have superseded that of engraved patterns (Fig.
but their shapes can be reconstructedby making a cast 20) in Sienese painting. Beautiful floral patterns of
of their impressionsin the gesso. The punches were classical inspirationare almost a hallmark of paintings
tion states that the relics of the Maccabees were transported on an exhaustivedocumentationin monographform. The com-
from Antioch to Constantinople under Justinian and then pletion of the project of recording all available punch marks
to Rome under Pelagius I (556-56I) where they now reside in European and American collections will be made possible
at San Pietro in Vincoli. Cf. Cardinal Rampolla, op.cit., pp. through grants from the American Philosophical Society and
458ff. On another occasion, Ambrose speaks of the celebration the ResearchFoundationof the State Universityof New York,
of the feast of the Maccabees at Milan. Cited in M. Maas, and I wish at this time to express my sincere thanks to both
op.cit., p. 153. institutionsfor their supportof my research.I would like also
I. One very distinct technique is the decoration of the to thank officials in many museumsof Europe and America
background with patterns in relief. For a special aspect of for their friendly cooperation.To be complete, the list would
this technique, namely a molded brocade pattern applied to be very long but I can not resist naming at least a few of
the surfaces of 5th century statues, see M. Frinta, "The Use them: Dr. Selim Augusti in Naples, Enzo Carli in Siena, Ce-
of Wax for Applique Relief Brocade on Wooden Statuary," sare Gnudi in Bologna, Ugo Procacci in Florence, Giovanni
Studies in Conservation, viII, I963, pp. 136-149. Santi in Perugia, Claus Virch in New York, and William
2. I photographed the details in many European museums Wixom in Cleveland. I am especially grateful to Dr. William
last summer on a grant from the American Philosophical So- Young of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and to Mojmir
ciety and have some eight hundred life-size details at present. Hamsik of the National Gallery in Prague for having photo-
I have decided to publish this preliminary note while working graphed the details in the collections of these two museums.

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 2 3 4

5 6 7 -- 8 _

9 I0 II 71 I2

13 14 I5 i6

i. Martini, Annunciation (angel's halo). Florence, Uffizi. 2. Lippo polyptych (halo). Siena, Pinacoteca, No. 60. i2. Martini, Madonna
Memmi, Madonna (border). Siena, Pinacoteca, No. 595. 3. Giovanni (halo). Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz Museum, No. 880. 13. Pietro
da Milano, polyptych (halo). Florence, Uffizi. 4. Giottino, Lamenta- Lorenzetti, part of altarpiece from the Carmine church (halo). Siena,
tion (halo). Florence, Uffizi. 5. Puccio di Simone, Madonna (halo Pinacoteca, No. 62. 14. Bohemian diptych (halo of Christ). Karls-
of St. Lawrence). Florence, Accademia, No. 3569. 6. Daddi, Corona- ruhe, Kunsthalle. I5. Sano di Pietro, Four Saints (border and halo).
tion (halo). Florence, Accademia, No. 3449. 7. Daddi, Coronation Siena, Pinacoteca, No. 267. I6. Sienese, fragment of an angel (halo).
(halo). Florence, Accademia, No. 3449. 8. Daddi, panels with Apos- Glens Falls, N.Y., Hyde Collection.
tles (border). Florence, Uffizi. 9. Portrait of Jean le Bon, French,
ca. 1350 (border). Paris, Louvre. io. Ambrogio Lorenzetti, triptych
from San Procolo (border). Florence, Uffizi. I 1. Ambrogio Lorenzetti,

I7. Madonna, half of diptych, 18. Man of Sorrows, half of diptych, Bo- 19. Angel, fragment of an Annunciation, Sienese,
Bohemian, ca. 1360. hemian, ca. 1360. Karlsruhe, Kunsthalle ca. I440. Glens Falls, N.Y., Hyde Collection
Karlsruhe, Kunsthalle

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20 21 22 23

24 25 26 27

28 29 30

20. Master of St. Cecilia, altarpiece (halo of St. Cecilia). Florence, Uffizi. 21. Duccio, Rucellai
Madonna (angel's halo). Florence, Uffizi. 22. Martini, Madonna (halo). Rome, Palazzo
Barberini. 23. Lippo Memmi, Madonna (halo). Cleveland Museum of Art. 24. Pacino di
Bonaguida, polyptych (halo). Florence, Accademia, Nos. 8698-8700. 25. Guido da Siena,
Madonna (halo). Florence, Accademia, No. 435. 26. Death of the Virgin, Bohemian, ca. 1360
(halo). Boston, Museum of Fine Arts. 27. Rome Madonna, Bohemian, ca. 1360 (halo).
Prague, National Gallery. 28. Crucifixion, from the Emmaus Monastery in Prague, before I370
(halo of the Virgin). Prague, National Gallery. 29. Meo da Siena, Madonna and Saints from
San Domenico in Perugia (halo). Perugia, Museo Nazionale, No. 13. 30. Aracoeli Madonna,
Bohemian, before 1400 (halo. of a saint on the frame). Prague, National Gallery. 31. Barna
3
da Siena, Marriage of St. Catherine (halo). Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, No. 15.I145.

32. Madonna from Veveri Castle, Bohemian, ca. 1360 33. Death of the Virgin, from Koistky Castle, Bohemian,
Prague, National Gallery ca. 1360. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, No. 50.2716

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34 35 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~36
34
35 37

38

39

40 41

34. Paolo Veneziano, Coronation altarpiece (halo of the Virgin). Morgan Library. 38. Master of Tr~bofi, Resurrection, before s 380
Venice, Accademia,NO. 21. 35. Presentationin the Temple, school (Christ's garment). Prague, National Gallery. 39. Glatz Madonna,
of Cologne, second quarter of the xiv cent. (halo). Cologne, Wallraf- Bohemian, ca. 1360 (halo, of the Christ Child). Berlin-Dahlem, Gem-
Richartz Muscumi, No. 5. 36. Altarpiece from Tirol Castle, ca. aldegalerie, No. i624. 40. KaufmnannCrucifixion., Bohemian, ca. 1360
1370 (border). lnnsbruck, Ferdinandeum. 37 Adoration of the (halo). Berlin-Dahlem, Gemiildegalerie, No. i833. 41. Adoration of
Magi, Bohemian,ca. 36o (halo of the Virgin). New York, Pierpont the Magi and Death of the Virgin, Bohemian, ca. 136o. New York,
Pierpont Morgan Library.

42. Madonna of Archbishop Arnoit of 43. Kaufmzann Crucifixion, Bohiem-ian,

Pardubice from the monastery of Glatz, ca. 1360. Berlin-Dahlem-,
Bohemian, ca. '1360. Berlin-Dahlemn, Gemkildegalerie, No. 1833
Gemkldegalerie, No. 1624

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262 THE ART BULLETIN

by Duccio di Buoninsegna and his followers (Segna past greatness of Sienese painting. The meticulousness
da Bonaventura).s However, two sizes of a rosette of Giovanni di Paolo's fine punches, chiefly the minute
punch are used alongside the sumptuousengraved pat- Gothic arch and the leaf, seems to evoke wistfully the
tern in Duccio's Rucellai Madonna in the Uffizi (Fig. goldsmithlike quality of those of Barna and Martini,
21). The primacy of Siena in complex punched deco- while Sano di Pietro's tiny ivy leaf harks back to one
ration seems clear; the contemporary Florentines of Meo da Siena's punches.
(Cimabue, Giotto) did not use punches with com- It is to be hoped that the study of the punches in
plex profiles. Italian paintings will contribute to our knowledge of
Most interesting and intricate patterns appear in painters' personal and workshop associations.4 The
the first part of the fourteenth century in Siena. Simone observation that an identical tool of a rare leaflike
Martini and the Lorenzetti brothers represent the shape was used on three fifteenth century paintings
culmination of this concept. To produce rich designs, may serve as an illustration of our method: one by
they combined individual profiles, large and small, Sano di Pietro in the Pinacoteca in Siena (Fig. I5);
such as penta- and hexa-rosettes, leaves, and little the second attributedto the Osservanza Master in the
Gothic arches in symmetrical or centralized arrange- Museum of Religious Art, Asciano, and the third
ments. A number of naturalistic floral silhouettes, in called "Giovanni di Paolo" in the Hyde Collection in
addition to the more geometric ones, can be recog- Glens Falls, N.Y. (Figs. I6, I9).
nized as peculiarto Martini (Fig. 12) and the Loren- As opposed to the widespread use of punchwork in
zetti (Figs. 10, I , 13). fourteenth century Italian painting, the exceptional
Fourteenth century Florentine paintershad less use occurrence of this kind of ornament in non-Italian
for this decorative embellishment of the panels than painting points to a wider perspective for our investi-
did the Sienese. They used a rather limited choice of gation; by connecting distinct similarities to punches
shapesand arranged them in more conventional simple used by various Italian centers and masters, we may
rows along the edges of the panels and around the attempt to trace the starting point and the direction
halos. Taddeo Gaddi, the Clone brothers, and Spinello of the influences. As a result, in some cases new kinds
Aretino occasionallyused a Gothic arch pattern. Ber- of relationshipmay become apparent.
nardo Daddi is, however, a significant exception: the The most close-knit group of these non-Italian
shapes of his fine, serrated quatrefoilsand fleurs-de-lis panels are Bohemian works of the second part of the
(Figs. 6, 8), and indeed the whole mode of arranging fourteenth century, in which a few punch profiles
the decoration, resemble closely those of Martini and were consistently used. They are of the type tradi-
Memmi. This similarity coincides with the stylistic tional in the earlier Tuscan painting, which persisted
affinity of Daddi with Sienese painting. We thus see in Venice and Bologna throughout the fourteenth cen-
that Daddi was strongly influenced in several ways tury.5 Tiny four-pronged profiles, resembling "re-
by the Sieneseschool. He loved fine and delicate forms: served" crosses, are punched in the halo of the Ma-
impressionsof a unique shape of punch can be seen donna from Veveri Castle (Fig. 32). Identical im-
on two of his pictures, one in the Accademia in Flor- pressions in the halo of the Strahov Madonna
ence and the other in the Lehman Collection in New strengthen its attributionto the same atelier.6 A direct
York. It is a tiny, fanciful representationof a mon- knowledge of Italian prototypescan be postulatedsince
strous mediaeval two-legged creature (Fig. 7). analogous punch marks exist in a panel by a follower
New representationalideas of the progressive Flor- of Meo da Siena.7 Moreover, luxuriant incised foliage
entine school of the fifteenth century made the use of in the fashion of Duccio covers the entire back-
the gold background obsolete and absurd. Along with ground in the three Madonnas from Veveii, Stra-
it vanishedpunched pattern ornament. hov, and Zbraslav, all datable in the 1350's. The
On the contrary, the conservative character of subtle modeling of form and the facial types also
fifteenth century Sienese painting is reflected by the point to the knowledge of Italian (and possiblyByzan-
continuing use of punchwork well after the middle of tine) works of the highest quality. The presumed
the century. The retrospectivepunched ornament of models are to be looked for in the production of the
painted panels by Sassetta, Sano di Pietro, and espe- previous generation, and the stylistic lag is character-
cially by Giovanni di Paolo mirrors a nostalgia for the istic of the appropriationand assimilationof more ad-

3. The foliage and palmettes can be compared to the deco- 5. The Italian influence on Bohemian painting around the
ration of earlier mediaeval manuscripts depending in their middle of the I4th century has been recognized through stylis-
ornamentation on late antique and Byzantine traditions, re- tic studies. The survey of punch forms suggests ties with Italy
freshed by the tender, naturalistic forms of Gothic flora. in technical procedures as well. An analysis of the painting
4. In many cases the presence of an identical punch im- structure of panels by the Master of Vyiss Brod has supplied
pression supports the attribution of a particular work to a evidence of the Southern-rather than Northern European-
painter whose authorship of a second panel, provided with orientation of Bohemian artists in the area of painting tech-
the same punches, is more or less established. In other cases, nique, e.g., the brownish-green flesh underpainting. See Moj-
the same punches on two panels may suggest new connections, mir Hamsik, "Malirska technika Vysebrodskeho cyklu," Umeni,
while in still other cases their occurrence may appear puzzling I962, pp. 388-400.
in view of the presently believed (or unsuspected) relation- 6. Antonin Matejcek and Jaroslav Pesina, Czech Gothic
ship of the painters involved. New ideas of mutual ties and Painting 1350-I450) Prague, 1950, p. 47.
associations may be conceived in this way. 7. Perugia, Museo Nazionale d'Umbria, Nos. 76, 8i.

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 NOTES 263

vanced influences from outside. The motif of punched earlier instances of starlike punches exist in a few
crosses (contrary to "reserved" crosses; Fig. 30) ap- paintings of the school of Cologne (Fig. 35).14 It is
pears on the Zbraslav Madonna and two Bohemian difficult to ascertain whether this means an inter-
panels in the Morgan Library in New York (Fig. 37). dependence or merely a parallel. Another instance of
Other Bohemian painters knew Italian punchwork complex punches in north German painting, namely
as well, as is shown by small hexa-stars in panels by in the work of Master Bertram of Minden in Ham-
the Master of Vysi Brod (ca. I350), the Master of burg, is obviouslyrelated to Prague, although the exact
Trebon (Fig. 38), and on the painted frame of the circumstancesare not clear as yet. His style was derived
Aracoeli Madonna (last quarter of the fourteenth from the Prague school, and more specifically from
century).8 Hexa-stars were used, indeed, by early the style of Master Theodoric. In his Harvesterhuder
Tuscan painters and more contemporaneouslyby the retable and in his large Grabower retable of I379,
painters of Venice (Fig. 34), Bologna, and Rimini.9 Master Bertram used a penta-dot circle and later,
It may be noted that they appear also in panels by in I394, he used a small cross-shaped punch in his
Pacino da Buonaguida (Fig. 24) whose possible in- Passion retable from the church of Saint John in
fluence on Bohemian art has been suggested.l0 Penta- Hamburg-very much like the Bohemian masters.15
stars were also used in paintings by the Masters of Furthermore, there is a small triptych of the Holy
Vyssi Brod and of Trebon in the Madonnas of Glatz Face in the Thyssen Collection in Lugano-Castagnola,
and of Rome (Figs. 39, 27), and in the Kaufmann attributed to Bertram, which displayssmall penta-dots
Crucifixion (Figs. 40, 43).11 An additional link, sub- (Fig. 52).16
stantiated also in style, between a retable from Tirol Yet in general, Central European painters used
Castle (Fig. 36) and the Prague school is provided by only round convex punches and small pointed punches.
the familiar penta- and hexa-stars.12 They composed floral patterns by iterative punching,
The repertory of Bohemian painters included vari- and this became the typical technique of the entire
ations of rosettes, such as penta-lobed rosettes in the area (Figs. 27, 30, 35). Seemingly more laborious, it
small Rome Madonna, and hexa-lobed rosettes in the actually requiresless skill than the incised pattern. Oc-
Death of the Virgin in the Museum of Fine Arts, Bos- casionally, straight dotted lines were done by means
ton (Fig. 26) and in the Emmaus Crucifixion (Fig. of small tracing wheels with prongs (Fig. 38). Many
28). Impressionsof seven-pronged rosettes are found Central European panels of the late fourteenth and
in the Boston panel and in the votive panel of Arch- early fifteenth centuriesare providedwith a dot-punched
bishop Ocko of Vlasim (Prague), six-pronged rosettes Gothic arcadealong their borders.The very same motif
in the panels by the Master of Vyssi Brod, and five- was obtained earlier in Italian painting by means of a
pronged ones in the Morgan panels (Fig. 37) and in sequence of Gothic arch punches. It is possible that
a panel of the Madonna between Sts. Bartholomew the dotted arcade was a makeshift improvisation in
and Margaret.l3 Their counterparts can be found in view of the lack of actual punches. There seems to
early (Guido da Siena, Fig. 25) and more contempo- be only one instance of the use of Gothic arch punch
rary Italian paintings, among others in those by Tom- in Bohemian art, in a diptych with a Madonna and
maso da Modena (panel in Bologna) who may have a Man of Sorrows from the I360's.17 The punch was
been active in Bohemia upon the invitationof Emperor used inside the halo, unlike the more orthodox Italian
Charles IV. use around the halo or in the border of the painting
The use of complex punched profiles outside Bo- (Figs. 14, 17). Another Gothic arch punch was used
hemia is extremely rare. Contemporary and perhaps analogously in a dismantled altarpiece of St. Clare,
8. Matejcek, op.cit., figs. I8, 103, I2I, 122. and a small Crucifixion triptych in Hamburg, Kunsthalle, No.
9. Panels by Meliore Toscano (Uffizi), the Master of St. 325 (after the middle of the i4th century).
Francis (Perugia, Nos. 21-24, and Lehman Collection, New 15. The first two altarpieces are in the Kunsthalle in Ham-
York), the Master of Sta. Cecilia (Uffizi), school of Cavallini burg, the third is in the Westfilische Landesgalerie in Han-
(Berenson Collection, Settignano), Paolo Veneziano (Venice, nover.
Accademia, No. 21), Baronzio da Rimini (Vatican, No. 178), 16. The Bohemian character of the two angels is even
Rimini school (Milan, Brera, No. 980o Boston, Museum of stronger than in some of the figures in an Apocalypse altarpiece
Fine Arts, No. 28.887). in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London which is also
o0. Florence, Accademia, Nos. 8698-8700. Josef Cibulka, attributed to Bertram. There are faint Italianate echoes in the
"Pacino da Bonaguida a mistr Theodorik," Umeni, xII, I939- style of the figures but Italian influence, although character-
I940, pp. 3f. istic of Bohemian and Austrian painting, is absent from
I . Matejcek, op.cit., figs. 25, 89, 28, 48, 33, 34. Bertram's works in Hamburg. A large votive panel of
12. The altarpiece, ca. 1370, is now in the Ferdinandeum Johannes Austrunk, ca. I390, from the Carthusian monastery
in Innsbruck. Vinzenz Oberhammer, Der Altar von Schloss Ti- in Schnalstal (Tirol), now in the museum in Bolzano (Ober-
rol, Innsbruck-Vienna, 1948. I know only one other Austrian hammer, cp.cit., p. 89), represents another puzzling link in
example of the use of the hexa-stars, the Crucifixion altar- the expansion of the Theodoric-inspired style. Could it be
piece from St. Lambrecht (Graz, Landesmuseum, third quar- that not all works attributed to Bertram are by him or not
ter of the x4th century). Alfred Stange, Deutsche Malerei in their entirety (e.g., the medallions in the London altar-
der Gotik, I, fig. 194. piece) and that he himself closely followed the style of this
13. Matejcek, op.cit., figs. 38, 74, 79, i8, 52, 53, 43. unknown Bohemian master?
14. Annunciation and Presentation panels in the Wallraf- 17. Karlsruhe, Kunsthalle, formerly in the collection of
Richartz Museum, Cologne, WRM 4, 5 (ca. 1320-1340), a W. Ernst in Vienna. Matejcek, op.cit., figs. 46, 47.
panel from a retable of the late x4th century, ibid., WRM 333,

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264 THE ART BULLETIN

from Nuremberg.18 A whole repertory of Italian Ambrogio Lorenzetti's polyptych of St. Bartholomew
types of punches, such as Gothic arches, trefoils, leaves, in the Pinacoteca in Siena as well as those in works
stars, and rosettes, appears on a large Madonna trip- by Lippo Memmi, Niccolo di Buonaccorso, Niccolo
tych at the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore.19It has di ser Sozzo Tegliacci, Maestro d'Ovile and in numer-
been ascribed to Catalonia, ca. 1375. ous other panels by Sienese artists.The small quatrefoil
Toward the end of the fourteenth century, Bohe- with serrated edges can well be compared to that of
mian painters abandoned the more sophisticatedtech- Martini's Annunciation in the museum in Antwerp.
nique of complex punches and reverted to the use The same shape occurs in seven panels by Bernardo
of simple punches. We do not know the reasons; in Daddi,21 not surprising, for we have already noted
any case, this is a symptom of the discontinuityof a his relation to Sienese painting.
workshop tradition. They elaborated in the "pointil- The largest of the three quatrefoil punches in the
list" technique a new and distinct hallmark-entire Carrand Diptych appears to be identical with the one
figures punched by dots into the gold background.We used on the reverse of the Sachs Annunciation (Fig.
have a number of examples of pairs of angels hover- 46)-an observationimportant for the association of
ing on either side of a Madonna's head in the Gnaden- the two works. In the same way the smallest of the
madonnen. quatrefoils is analogous with the smaller quatrefoil in
The fashion of punched decoration, the subject of the border and the halo of the angel in the Annuncia-
our investigation, did not become popular with the tion. Significantly enough, the same type of tiny
paintersof Northern Europe either.20There are, how- quatrefoil-crossoccurs in the portrait of Jean le Bon
ever, three significant exceptions. The first in time is (Fig. 9). The eight-petaled flower punch, also with
the portrait of the French king Jean le Bon in the serrated edges (Fig. 45), again has its closest kin in
Louvre. The gold background, though damaged, Siena, for example in works by Segna di Bonaventura
shows at its border the Italian type of Gothic arcade (Chicago Art Institute), Simone Martini (Uffizi), and
whose impressionsare related to those in Tuscan paint- a follower of Ambrogio Lorenzetti (Siena). Slightly
ing before the middle of the fourteenth century (Fig. larger are four identical impressions, three of them
9). The inspirationis not from north Italian schools in panels by Lippo Memmi (Berlin, Siena, Metro-
nor is there the belated adoption of outmoded Tuscan politan Museum) while the fourth is in a work at-
ornament, as was the case in Bohemia and Germany. tributed, significantlyenough, to a follower of Simone
The painter of Jean le Bon was much more aware of Martini (Siena). And again, we find a close parallel
current Tuscan painting. The formal closeness of his in pictures by Daddi (Vatican) and a "workshop of
punch to Tuscan models suggests that he may have B. Daddi" (Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge).
sojournedin Italy or at least obtainedan Italian punch- The rarely occurring fleur-de-lis, which is punched
ing tool (via the Italian painters in Avignon?). on the back of the Sachs Annunciation (Fig. 46),
Even more interestingis a little diptych (small Car- has its counterpartagain chiefly in Siena. It was used
rand Diptych) with an Epiphany and a Crucifixionin in an altarpiece of I333 by Meo da Siena (Frank-
the Bargello Museum in Florence (Figs. 49, 50). This fort) and by Ambrogio Lorenzetti (Siena). A smaller
diptych has been correctly associated stylistically with fleur-de-lis is punched in Martini's large St. Louis of
an Annunciation panel (Fig. 51) in the Cleveland Toulouse (Capodimonte, Naples). Martini's punch
Museum of Art (ex-coll. Sachs). The formal and was used by a follower in a painting of the same sub-
technical finesse of these truly beautiful pictures is ject (Siena). True to our establishedrelationship,we
matched by the pristine quality of the punched deco- find a fleur-de-lis in three instances in Daddi's paint-
ration, which consists of six crisp punches in the Sachs ings (Berlin-Dahlem and Metropolitan Museum) and
Annunciation and of five in the Carrand Diptych. also by Taddeo Gaddi (Berlin) and Jacopino da
The first glance at these exquisite impressionsreturns Bologna (Bologna).
us to the Sienese prototypes of the first half of the Finally we come to three problematicpanels, repre-
fourteenth century. The Gothic arcade is properly on senting the Coronation of the Virgin, Joseph ac-
the inner edge of the decorativeborder (Figs. 44, 45) knowledging Mary as the Mother of God, and the
and is very similar in shape and size to the punch two St. Johns. The first is in Frankfort, Stadelsches
marks in Simone Martini's Annunciation and Pietro Kunstinstitut and is called "mitteldeutsch um I350."
Lorenzetti's stories of St. Umilta in the Uffizi, in The second, in the Gemlildegalerie, Berlin-Dahlem
8. Nuremberg, Germ. Nat. Museum. Stange, op.cit., figs. punched with goldsmithlike precision, include fleurs-de-lis,
209-2 2. A hexa-circle punch, unique in Northern painting, penta-dot rosettes, arches, and, most significantly, two punches
was used in one fragment. in the form of the letters "C" and "L," which may be the
9. The International Style (exhibition catalogue), Balti- artist's initials or some motto. Another Western European
more, 1962, No. 7. center where the use of complex punches extended into the
20. In addition to several paintings attributed to the school I5th century is the school of Valencia. (See Gothic arches,
of Avignon, a few more panels may be mentioned. Impres- tetrafoils, and hexa-circles on parts of two altarpieces at the
sions of eight-pointed stars decorate two small panels in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Acc. Nos. 76.I0
Louvre, an Entombment and a Pietd tondo. Highly important and 39.54.)
evidence of the survival in the North of the technique into z2. Uffizi and Accademia in Florence, Vatican, Siena, and
the I th century is provided by an unpublished small Bur- the Berenson Collection, Settignano.
gundian tondo with a Madonna and angels. The motifs,

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 44 45

46 - 47 -
44. Small Carrand Diptych, French (border of Epiphany panel).
Florence, Bargello. 45. Sachs Annunciation, French (border).
Cleveland, Museum of Art, No. 54.393. 46. Sachs Annunciation,
French (border of the reverse). Cleveland, Museum of Art, No.
54.393. 47. Coronation of the Virgin, German (border). Frank-
fort, Stadlisches Kunstinstitut, St. 6443.

48. Joseph Acknowledges Mary as the Mother of God,

German. Berlin-Dahlem, Gemaldegalerie, No. 1216

49. Epiphany, Small Carrand Diptych, 50. Crucifixion, Small Carrand Diptych, 51. Sachs Annunciation,French. Cleveland,
French. Florence, Bargello French. Florence, Bargello Museum of Art, No. 54.393

52. Master Bertram (?), Holy Face Triptych,

Lugano-Castagnola, Thyssen Collection

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 NOTES 265

(Fig. 48), is called "niederrheinischum 1350" al- eight drop-shaped punches. Definitely composite in
though both obviously are by the same painter and form are the star-rosetteson the early fourteenth cen-
most likely were part of one ensemble.22What inter- tury panels from the altarpiece in Klosterneuburg; it
ests us most is the similaritybetween the punch design is possible that the use of composite punched forms
in the border of these two (Fig. 47) and of that in is an early practicesince I have found compositehexa-
the Carrand Diptych (Fig. 44) and the Sachs An- rosettes in the Virgin's halo in a retable by Guido da
nunciation (Figs. 45, 46), which are assigned to the Siena in the Pinacoteca in Siena.
school of Paris. The decorative scheme is the same in In Italian illumination the same shapes are used
all instances, the hexa-stars in the Sachs Annunciation as in panel painting, for example the Gothic arch and
are similar in shape to those in the Berlin panel; so are the rosette composed of circles.25Outside of Italy, we
also the Gothic arches of distinctly sharp, wiry con- meet punched decor again in Bohemian manuscripts.
tours. The Gothic arch, the hexa-star and the four- The illuminator of the Sedlec Antiphonary of 1414,
lobed rosette in the Berlin and Frankfort pictures can, for example, shows his acquaintance with Italian art
of course, be traced to Italian prototypes. in this respect.26
We may ask ourselvesif this similaritywarrants any The use of complex punches in painting beyond the
conclusion as to the relation of the French and Ger- Alps is sporadic and isolated, and it seems to have
man pictures.The physiognomiesin the German panels taken roots, for less than two generations, only in the
are consistent throughout in their foxlike expressions school of Prague. In all cases the ultimate Italian in-
but their structure recalls the faces in the French spiration is undoubted; this shows the great prestige
panels. The head of the Virgin in Berlin is a simplified of Italian art even down to such technical details as
and vulgarized version of the Virgin's head in the the shape of the punches. Some of the profiles used
Annunciation. The dependence can be only one way: in non-Italian painting may possibly be of a second-
the German pictures represent a coarse and heavy- hand derivation, but the punch-profilesof some early
handed imitation of the refined, courtly style of the Bohemian panels such as the Veveri Madonna and the
little French panels. They follow rather than precede Kosatky Dormition as well as the exquisite quality of
the Parisian pictures, and both these groups may be the punches in the Bargello and Cleveland panels seem
tentatively dated in the 1370's. Consequently it seems to have requireda direct acquaintancewith the Italian
to be a plausiblepropositionto see them as originating tools themselves, with all the implications as to the
somewhere in the area borderingon the French sphere, extent of artistic contact that follow from this ob-
in a center in which a close connection with the French servation.
style could exist. Such were, for example, Luxembourg,
Lorraine and Alsace, where the penetration of the STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT ALBANY
French style in architectureand sculpturein the four-
teenth century can readily be recognized.
So far I have discussed the use of complex punch SEURAT AND PIERO DELLA
decoration in painted panels. Similar or identical FRANCESCA1
punches were occasionally used on the gilded parts of
ALBERT BOIME
wooden statuary and in the illumination of manu-
scripts.23The gold leaf had to be padded, of course, The question of a possible relation between the
to make punching on parchment possible. In manu- work of Georges Seurat and that of Piero della Fran-
scripts, the earliest instance known to me is in the cesca is one that arises periodically,2but is never satis-
Psalter of Queen Ingeborg (ca. I200).24 The eight- factorily answered. The frequent observationby critics
pointed rosette seems to be, however, composed of and historians that Piero and Seurat manifest consid-

22. Stange, op.cit., figs. 113-115. He maintained that the patternsof similar punches.
artist was at a time active in Hessen and in Thuringia. I 24. Musee Conde, Chantilly. Gothic Painting, Skira, 1954,
have always been struck by the stereotypes of attribution p. 17.
when dealing with difficult-to-localizeGerman works. Al- 25. Leaf of a choir book illuminated by Lorenzo Monaco
ternatives other than "school of Cologne" or "Upper Rhen- or Matteo Torelli, and a leaf from an antiphonary by the
ish" are almost never considered.There is a reason, however, Master of the Beffi Triptych, late i4th century; both are in
for this cautious attitude, for, in view of our present state of the Cleveland Museum of Art.
knowledge, it would be futile (or too imaginative) to even 26. M. Frinta, "The Master of the Gerona Martyrology
attempt to assign the various uncertainworks to other Rhen- and BohemianIllumination,"ART BULLETIN, XLVI, 1964, figs.
ish centersin which flourishing painters'workshopsare docu- 24, 29. The custom apparently survived until I500 as shown
mented or presupposed,such as Bonn, Mainz, and Strasbourg. in a late example from a Silesian-Bohemian workshop: penta-
The last especiallyis badly neglectedbecauseof the destruction and hexa-rosettes adorn the golden ground of the scenes in the
of the city's records in the big fire. prayer book of Duke Georg of Miinsterberg-Ols in Vienna,
23. E.g., a Gothic arch punch on the collar of an Italian Nat. Bibl., MS 1960.
bishop, x4th century, at the Cloisters,New York. It would be
interestingto enlarge the scope of the study by an inquiry as to I. The substance of this article was delivered in a lecture
whethersimilar punchescan be recognizedin mediaevalleather at the Frick Symposium of 1963.
work and bookbinding. Elements of decorative design often 2. A recent allusion to this relationship was made by Bene-
have an enduring quality: the rims of a group of the i6th dict Nicolson. See his article, "Reflections on Seurat," Bur-
century German embossed brass plates are adorned with band lington Magazine, civ, 1962, p. 214.

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