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Last updated: 24 February 2022
A shifting team of conservators, curators, art historians and scientists have dedicated time over the past 7 years to a fascinating project designed to shed light on a group of 14th century painted sculpture thought by art historians to be the work of one hand – that of an artist dubbed the ‘Master of St Catherine of Gualino’.
We have analysed the construction and painted surface of a beautiful and delicately carved statue of the Virgin and Child in the Art of Living Gallery at National Museums Scotland, and more recently a statue of St Agnes at the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum in Boston USA and four more pieces in Italy. When written documentary evidence is scant to non-existent, the only way we have to understand this period of artistic sculptural endeavour is through the objects themselves. This can help us understand how the pieces were meant to look, after the passage of time has obscured this, and give us insights into who made them and how. Our results led us to a bigger question: were these sculptures actually made by one hand? Do we have any proof? Was there actually a Master of St Catherine of Gualino at all or is he a 20th century conception?
Project title
Revealing the Layers: the Umbrian Madonna and Child and workshop practices in 14th century Italy
Project active
2015 - 2022
Research theme
Scotland's Material Heritage
Diana de Bellaigue – Artefact Conservator, National Museums Scotland
Lore Troalen – Analytical Scientist, National Museums Scotland
Jessica Chloros – Isabella Stuart Gardiner Museum, Boston USA
Laura Hendrik – University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland
Jerome Castel – Student intern in Collections Science Section, National Museums Scotland
Justine Legat – Student intern
Mark Richter – University of Glasgow
Jennifer Anstey – University of Glasgow intern
Rachel King – British Museum (formerly National Museums Scotland)
Luca Palozzi – Havard Centre for Renaissance Studies (formerly University of Edinburgh)
Xavier Dectot – The Orientalist Museum, Qatar (formerly Keeper of Art and Design, National Museums Scotland)
Nat Silver – Isabella Stuart Gardiner Museum, Boston USA
De Bellaigue, Diana, Lore Troalen, Rachel King, Mark Richter, Tobias Schwarz, Malinali Wong, Luca Palozzi, Tom Challands “Revealing the Archetype: The Journey of a Trecento Madonna and Child at the National Museum of Scotland” in ICOM 17th Triennial Conference Preprints: Sculpture, Polychromy, and Architectural Decoration, Paris, International Council of Museums, 2017
Our scientific analysis of this sculpture informed its conservation and display. Research also led us to produce a 3D colour digital model of the Madonna and child as it looked in the mid 1300s.
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