Upper Part of a Tabernacle for the Holy Sacrament

Description

This relief represents the upper of two surviving panels from the altar of the Holy Sacrament in the Roman basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore (the second panel remains in the church). Dismantled in 1573, the altar was one of a number of improvements in the church instituted by Cardinal Guillaume d’Estouteville, archpriest of Santa Maria Maggiore during much of the 15th century. As his name implies, Isaia came from a family of stone carvers in Pisa and was active in Rome from 1428. He produced a number of tombs and altars there, although the majority no longer survive. Between 1455 and 1458, he collaborated on one of the grandest sculptural projects of the century, the Arch of Alfonso I of Aragon in Naples.

Provenance

Part of the Altar of the Holy Sacrament commissioned by Cardinal Guillaume d’Estouteville for the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome [Middeldorf 1944]; dismantled by 1573 [see Caglioti 1998]. Possibly Émile Molinier, Paris (died 1906) [according to Middeldorf 1944 and 1980, though the basis for this statement is unclear]. Alessandro Imbert, Rome, by 1920 [according to note added to the incoming receipt of Jan. 28, 1938 in registrar's office]; sold to Potter Palmer, II and Pauline Kohlsaat Palmer, Chicago, 1920 [see receipt cited above]; given by them to the Art Institute, 1938.