These four large panels with full-length images of Saints Bartholomew, Agnes, Elizabeth of Hungary, and Nicholas of Bari were likely originally the lateral panels of a polyptych, whose central panel would have featured an enthroned Madonna and Child, as was customarily found on Florentine altarpieces of the mid-fourteenth century. The central panel has not been identified, nor is it known when the panels were separated. The identities of the saints, however, are clearly discernible, thanks to the inscriptions in their halos and their traditional attributes: Saint Agnes with a lamb; Saint Bartholomew with a book and a knife, the instrument of his martyrdom; Saint Nicholas of Bari in the robes of a bishop; and Saint Elizabeth of Hungary with the red and white roses that represent her most celebrated miracle. The identity of the painter, on the other hand, can only be surmised. When Percy S. Straus acquired the works in 1925, they were ascribed to the brush of Andrea di Bartolo,¹ but following Richard Offner’s findings, they were attributed to Andrea di Bonaiuto or one of his close followers in the 1945 catalogue of the Straus Collection. This attribution has remained uncontested.²

Andrea di Bonaiuto (also called Andrea da Firenze) is best known for his remarkable frescoes carried out between 1366 and 1367 in the former Chapter House (Spanish Chapel) of Santa Maria Novella, Florence. According to Joachim Poeschke, these frescoes qualify Andrea di Bonaiuto as a master at the height of his powers, displaying great innovation in the organization of an extremely complex large-scale cycle.³ His figural style, as laid out by Carolyn C. Wilson and supported by Poeschke, derives from diverse sources, including the works of the Florentine painter Buonamico Buffalmacco (active 1315–36), the frescoes of Giotto in the lower church of Assisi (1306–11), and the Sienese masters Pietro Lorenzetti (c. 1280–1348) and Ambrogio Lorenzetti (c. 1290–1348).⁴ The present works are believed to have been created at the same time as the Chapter House frescoes, based on certain similarities. For instance, the intense features of Saint Bartholomew are largely those of the enthroned emperor seated in front of the Florentine cathedral depicted on the east wall of the fresco cycle. Both have the same flowing beard parted at the center, and their features are made distinct by highlights on the forehead above the eyebrows and along the ridge of their long noses. The delicate patterning still visible on of some of the robes of figures in the frescoes correspond to those found on the Straus panels; however, their poor condition makes a close reading of such details as the sgraffito patterns—which must have been truly splendid in the original state—almost impossible.

Ideally, it would be possible to compare the Straus panels with other works on panel by this master, but so far only a small number, including the Madonna and Child and two Angels of the polyptych in Santa Maria del Carmine, have been attributed to him (fig. 4.1). As Wilson points out, the similarities reside not only in the facial features but also in the long-fingered, expressive hands.⁵ The fascinating panel of the Madonna and Child with Ten Saints, preserved at the National Gallery, London, and dated slightly later than the Straus panels, also offers points of comparison, especially in the depiction of the male saints. This panel has been closely linked with the site of the artist’s celebrated Chapter House fresco at the Church of Santa Maria Novella; at the east end of the church, a chapel was dedicated to each of the ten saints, in the sequence seen on the panel.⁶

—Helga Kessler Aurisch