From Provence to Calabria : Filippo Sangineto and Simone Martini's St Ladislas

Simone Martini's panel painting of St Ladislas of Hungary, founder of the Árpád dynasty and a prototypical crusading knight, attests to the transnational character of Filippo Sangineto's patronage in Santa Maria della Consolazione, Altomonte (Calabria). The attribution to Sangineto, count of Altomonte and seneschal of Provence, has long been debated, but he is agreed to have been a formidable patron with an ambitious plan for Altomonte. Like many Italian royals, aristocrats, cardinals, and merchants, Filippo commissioned artworks to Sienese artists in Avignon. This study's approach also sheds light on the iconography as the choice of Ladislas can be connected to the Crusade of Smyrna (1343-1345). The article proposes a reconstruction of Santa Maria della Consolazione, with two small, matching polyptychs set against the screen, one by Bernardo Daddi (two wings survive in Altomonte) and the other by Simone, composed of the painting of Ladislas and the Phillips Collection's Christ on the Cross.