Giotto
St Stephen, c. 1330-1335, tempera on panel
This work, rated as the most prestigious in the collection, was acquired by Horne in London in 1904. The attribution to Giotto, proposed by the same English collector, is universally accepted by modern scholarship.
The panel, which represents Saint Stephen in half-figure format, with the dalmatic vestment and the stones on his head—the symbol of his martyrdom—was originally part of an altar polyptych, probably executed by the master for the Florentine basilica of Santa Croce. The Saint is stylistically close to the figures painted in the Bardi Chapel in Santa Croce, for the similarity of the facial features, the narrow mouth, the regular nose, the elongated eyes, and for the solid spatial and volumetric construction of the figure. Datable to Giotto’s final artistic phase, between 1330 and 1335, the work confirms the great artistic revolution achieved by the master, and stands as a milestone marking the birth of modern painting.
