POSTCARD: Gentile da Fabriano

A vast exhibition of international stature commemorates Fabriano and his greatest interpreter Gentile di Niccolò, also known as Fabriano. The exhibition will illustrate the works of one of the leading lights of fifteenth-century art who has been universally hailed as one of the greatest exponents of the international gothic movement. The exhibition features 120 works including priceless paintings, drawings, miniatures and sculptures. Of these, 32 are masterpieces executed by Gentile di Niccolò a.k.a. Fabriano, on show alongside the works of the greatest fifteenth-century masters (Masolino, Masaccio, Beato Angelico, Pisanello, Jacobello del Fiore) and the artists influenced by Gentile operating in Marche and Umbria (the Salibeni brothers, Ottaviano Nelli, Arcangelo di Cola and Antonio da Fabriano). On the occasion of this important event, San Marino remembers Gentile da Fabriano with a postcard with a priority value of €0.62 portraying the oil on canvas, Madonna with Child between St. Nicholas and St. Catherine. The wood painting known by the name of Berlin Altar-Piece constitutes one of the cornerstones of a reconstruction of Gentile’s pictorial work. Executed in the church of San Niccolò at Fabriano between 1395 and 1400, it is considered to be the painter’s first significant work and features stylistic characters that are predominantly linked to the late-Gothic culture of Lombardy. The painting, which still bears the hallmarks of the fourteenth-century, features naturalistic attention to the plants and grassy mantle and miniaturist details such as the tiny fragment of a wheel, an instrument of martyrdom, beneath the foot of St. Catherine. The unknown merchant who commissioned the work is portrayed in the foreground, whilst the ring he is wearing bears the emblem of his store. The work is to be found in the Staatliche Museen, Gemäldegalerie, inv. 1130 (cm 131 x 113 ). The reverse side of the postcard carries a stamp depicting a detail from the postcard.

Printed in offset by ITVF