Florentine 14th century—Postcards and research and background materials—journal article on Cenni di Francesco

The Marvin Eisenberg Collection is a research photographic archive of primarily Italian paintings of the 12th through 15th centuries. This collection contains photographs, postcards, museum catalogs, art journal articles, correspondence, and research notes. The photographs were assembled for art history lecture presentations and research for journal and book publications about Italy’s late Gothic and early Renaissance painting. This collection was donated to complement the Contini-Volterra Photographic Archive of Italian Art, a collection that Eisenberg helped research under the direction of his mentor Evelyn Sandberg-Vavala from the 1950s and 1960s.

The collection arranges items chronologically and regionally, beginning with Florentine art of the 12th and 13th centuries, including works by Casentino, Daddi, Gaddi, and Giotto. The Florentine Schools of Gaddi and Gerini, as well as paintings by Spinello, represent works of the Florentine Trecento. The art of Lorenzo Monaco and his school of the Quattrocento is presented along with the Orcagna and Cione groups. The Sienese art of the Trecento and Quattrocento highlights artists including Andrea and Taddeo Bartolo, Duccio di Buoninsegna, and Ambriogio, Pietro, and Ugolino Lorenzetti. The Florentine Quattrocento is divided into early, mid and later periods, featuring works by Andrea del Castagno, Piero della Francesca, Paolo Uccello, Sandro Botticelli, and later Florentine artists Fillipino Lippi, Sandro Botticelli, Caravaggio and Leonardo da Vinci. Artworks of the Northern Italian, Umbrian, and Venetian regions provide comparisons with the earlier presented works of Florence and Siena. The final boxes include a sampling of 12^th through 15th century painting and stained glass from the French, Spanish, Flemish, Dutch, and German regions. Lastly, the collection presents examples of a small gathering of miscellaneous works of sculpture and architecture from the 12th century through the modern period.

Perhaps the most significant part of the collection is the detailed photographs of the Florentine altarpiece by Lorenzo Monaco, featuring the paintings Annunciation (1409) and Coronation of the Virgin (1407). Monaco’s crucifixes and illuminated manuscripts also highlight the mastery of this late Gothic artist. Lauren B. Kanter points out in a 1993 review for The Burlington Magazine (Sept. 1993) that Eisenberg gathered research for his book Lorenzo Monaco (1989) with the stated purpose to reveal “the essential character of the art of Lorenzo Monaco.” This book features images from this extensive photographic collection.

Additionally, this collection depicts various artists’ representations of the Madonna and Child, Christ’s passion and death, and scenes from the lives of the saints. Numerous close-up photographs reveal details from portions of the painting to provide opportunities for close scrutiny and comparison of composition and stylistic elements of art. This collection as a whole reflects Eisenberg’s reputation as a valued expert on Medieval and Renaissance art.