Saint Catherine and Saint Bartholomew

Allegretto Nuzi was the leading painter of the Marche region in central Italy during the mid-fourteenth century, based in the town of Fabriano which would later produce the great Gentile da Fabriano. This panel pairing Saints Catherine and Bartholomew, now in the National Gallery, likely formed part of a larger polyptych altarpiece. Nuzi's work bridges the Giottesque Florentine tradition with the more decorative, courtly sensibility that would flower into the International Gothic style in the Marches.

Egg tempera on gold-ground panel with elaborate tooled haloes and ornamental punch-work borders. Nuzi's figures display his characteristic blend of Florentine structural clarity with a refined, decorative surface treatment and rich chromatic palette distinctive of the Marchigian school.