The Louvre museum has just included in its collections two panels by Matteo Giovannetti, one of the main painters of the Avignon School of the 14th century. This is one of the most important acquisitions of the year 2021 for the institution.
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Tuesday December 21, Louvre Museum announced the acquisition for his department of the Paintings of two panels by the primitive painter Matteo Giovannetti (c. 1322-1368), entitled Saint Catherine of Alexandria and Saint Anthony Abbot. Carried out around 1345, these two paintings on wood with a gold background were purchased by mutual agreement and will allow the public to “Better understand how the mid-14th century marks a period of renewal for painting”, according to a press release from the institution. Matteo Giovannetti was one of the most important painters in the service of the Popes in Avignon, after Simone Martini (1284-1344).
A precious triptych
Measuring approximately 64 cm high and just under 20 cm wide, the two panels were initially part of a precious triptych, commissioned by a wealthy Venetian sponsor and produced in Avignon, of which five elements have been preserved. In 1996, the Louvre had already been able to acquire two other elements, the angel and the Virgin of the Annunciation. According to the famous art historian Roberto Longhi, it is ” most beautiful triptych […] painted for Venice in the first half of the 14th century “. Matteo Giovannetti in fact lets his style fully express itself, combining sophistication and naturalism, and testifies to a new approach to portraiture whose Portrait of King John the Good (1350-1375), also kept in the Louvre, is another illustrious example. The museum also specifies in its press release that the two panels are of considerable importance insofar as they “ count […] among the oldest remains of paintings executed on French soil in the 14th century “. Around ten paintings of primitives from Italian, French, Spanish and German schools have already been acquired over the past seven years by the Louvre, which has implemented a very dynamic acquisition policy in this area.
Matteo Giovannetti, Saint Anthony the Abbot and Saint Catherine of Alexandria © Musée du Louvre, dist. RMN-Grand Palais, Hervé Lewandowski
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A junction point
Admirer of Simone Martini, one of the greatest representatives of courtly Gothic, and friend of Petrarch, Matteo Giovannetti joined the papal court of Avignon in 1343 to become one of its most eminent painters. He notably executed the decoration of the chapels of the papal palace as well as the frescoes of the Charterhouse Notre-Dame-du-val-de-Bénédiction in Villeneuve-lès-Avignon. His work constitutes ” a very original junction point between the southern culture, that of the Italy of Giotto and Simone Martini, and the northern culture »And will have a lasting influence on French and Nordic painters at the end of the Middle Ages. Showing a new interest in nature, landscape painting or naturalist portraiture, the art of Simone Martini and Matteo Giovannetti marks an important turning point for Western art and paves the way for the great inventions of the Renaissance.
