The Procession to Calvary

between 1437 and 1444

Sassetta Italian, ca. 1400-1450

On View

European: Medieval and Renaissance, Level 2, West Wing

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About the Artwork

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Markings

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Provenance

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Published References

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Catalogue Raisonné

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Credit Line for Reproduction

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About the Artwork

Title The Procession to Calvary

Artwork Date between 1437 and 1444

Artist Sassetta

Life Dates ca. 1400-1450

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. Italian

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. ----------

Medium Tempera, silver and gold leaf on poplar panel

Dimensions Image: 17 1/4 × 23 5/16 inches (43.8 × 59.2 cm) Unframed: 19 3/16 × 24 15/16 × 3/8 inches (48.7 × 63.3 × 0.9 cm) Framed: 27 5/16 × 32 5/8 inches (69.4 × 82.9 cm)

Classification Paintings

Department European Painting

Credit City of Detroit Purchase

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 24.94

Markings

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Provenance

part of the front predella of the high altarpiece of San Francesco, Sansepolcro (formerly Borgo San Sepolcro).
possibly London, sale (Phillips), 18 July 1835, no. 8 (as by Giotto);
possibly purchased by Lord Northwick;
probably Great Britain, Coll. Sir John Rushout, Baron Northwick;
London (?), sale, Coll. Baron Northwick, 9 Aug. 1859, lot. 901 (as by Giotto); sold to
Kent, Wye, Olantigh Towers, J.S.W.S. Erle Drax (1859);
By inheritance, W.E.S. Erle Drax (until ca. 1910/20);
London & New York, R. Langton Douglas (dealer);
New York, Carl W. Hamilton;
New York, Joseph Duveen (dealer-1924), from whom purchased by the DIA with funds from the City of Detroit.

For more information on provenance, please visit:

Provenance page

Exhibition History

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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

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Published References

Valentiner, W.R. "Sienese Paintings of the XIV to XV Centuries." Bulletin of the DIA 6, no. 4 (1925): 36-38 (ill.).

Van Marle, R. The Development of the Italian Schools of Paintings, Vol. IX. The Hague, 1928, p. 369. [as by pupil of Sassetta]

Heil, W. Catalogue of Paintings in the Permanent Collection of The Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1930, cat. 200 (ill.).

Berenson, B. Italian pictures of the Renaissance; a list of the principal artists and their works, with an index of places. Oxford, 1932, p. 512. [as "Way to Golgotha"]

Berenson, B. Pitture italiane del rinascimento. Milan, 1936, p. 440.

Pope-Hennessy, J. "A Passion Predella by Sassetta.” Burlington Magazine 73 (August 1938): 49-50, pl. IIA.

Pope-Hennessy, J. “Letter to the Editor.” Burlington Magazine 72 (Feb. 1938): p. 95 (response to R. Langton Douglas's review of his Giovanni di Paolo monograph; admits dating Sassetta panel too early).

Pope-Hennessy, J. Sassetta. London, 1939, pp. 114-117, 137.

Duveen Pictures in Public Collections in America. New York, 1941, pl. 36.

WPA Michigan. Michigan: A Guide to the Wolverine State. New York, 1941, p. 256.

Richardson, E.P., ed. Detroit Institute of Arts Catalogue of Paintings. 2nd ed. Detroit, 1944, pp. 118-19, no. 200.

Richardson, E.P., ed. Masterpieces of Painting and Sculpture from the Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1949, p. 45 (repr. only).

Brandi, C. Quattrocentisti senesi. Milan, 1949, pp. 59-65 (general discussion of Borgo San Sepolcro altarpiece), p. 192 note 44, p. 253 note to pl. 75; pl. 73 (dates picture to 1449-50).

Masterpieces of Art: in memory of W. R. Valentiner. Exh. cat., North Carolina Museum of Art. Raleigh, North Carolina, 1959, supplement 44, p. 278, no. 44 (repr.).

Laclotte, M. L'information d'histoire de l'art, vol. 5. 1960, p. 52 ff.

Paintings in the Detroit Institute of Arts: a Checklist of the Paintings Acquired before June. Detroit, 1965, p. 97.

Richardson, E.P., ed. Treasures from the DIA. Detroit, 1960, p. 63 (see also 3rd ed., 1966, p. 69, repr. only).

Vingt ans d'acquisitions au Musée du Louvre, 1947-1967. Exh. cat., Orangerie des Tuileries. Paris, 1967, pp. 133-34 (all three DIA Sassetta panels cited under cat. 396).

Berenson, B. Italian pictures of the Renaissance: a list of the principal artists and their works with an index of places. Central Italian and North Italian schools 1. London, 1968, p. 385 (dates predella to ca. 1435-36).

Fredericksen, B. and Zeri, F. Census of pre-19th century Italian paintings in North American Collections. Cambridge, MA, 1972, p. 183.

Behrmann, S. N. Duveen. Boston, 1972, p. 223 (picture listed).

European Paintings before 1500, vol. 1. Cleveland, 1974, p. 124.

Retables italiens du XIIIe au XVe siècle. Paris, 1978, p. 33 (all three DIA Sassetta panels cited, and repr. in reconstruction of Borgo San Sepolcro altarpiece).

Sutton, D. "Robert Langton Douglas, Part III." Apollo 109 (June 1979): 443-475, no. 208.

Sutton, D. "Robert Langton Douglas, Part III." Apollo 110 (July 1979): 222-225, no. 20 (repr.).

Garstang, Donald. Gothic to Renaissance: European Painting 1300-1600. 1988, pp. 44-52, p. 49 (repr.).

Van Os, Henk. Sienese Altarpieces 1215–1460 2. Groningen, 1990, pp. 92–93 (ill.).

Banker, James. "The Program for the Sassetta Altarpiece in the Church of S. Francesco in Borgo S. Sepolcro." I Tatti Studies (1991): 31f, figs. 16-18.

Teuffel, C. G. von. "Niccolo di Segna, Sassetta, Piero della Francesca and Perugino: Cult and Continuity at Sansepolcro." Städel Jahrbuch 17 (1999): 163-208, esp. p. 176, fig. 25 (cited).

Gordon, Dillian. The Fifteenth Century Italian Paintings, vol. I. London, 2003, pp. 350, 352-3.

Secrest, Meryle. Duveen: a life in art. New York, 2004, p. 489.

Israëls, M., ed. Sassetta: the Borgo San Sepolcro Altarpiece, 2 vols, Villa I Tatti series no. 25, Florence & Leiden, 2009, vol. 1, especially pp. 337-341 ("Technical Evidence for the Construction of the Predella of Sassetta's Borgo San Sepolcro Altarpiece in the Panels of the Passion of Christ in the Detroit Institute of Arts" by S. Urry); vol. 2, pp. 422-7 (Technical catalogue, "The Procession to Calvary" by S. Urry).

De Marchi, Andrea. "Il polittico di Sassetta per San Francesco a Sansepolcro perlustrato." Prospettiva 139-140 (Luglio-Ottobre 2010): 115-130.

Kennedy, Trinita, Donal Cooper, Holly Flora, Amy Neff and Janet Robson. Sanctity Pictured: the Art of the Dominican and Franciscan Orders in Renaissance Italy. Exh. cat., the Frist Center for the Visual Arts. Nashville, 2014, p. 168 (ill.).

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Catalogue Raisoneé

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Credit Line for Reproduction

Sassetta, The Procession to Calvary, between 1437 and 1444, tempera, silver and gold leaf on poplar panel. Detroit Institute of Arts, City of Detroit Purchase, 24.94.