Master's Painting Purchased

At an auction sale held in London last week, the Fogg Museum acquired parts of a large altarpiece by Spinello Aretino, the central panel of which is now in the Fogg Museum. This picture was described by Vasari as being painted for the convent of Monte Oliveto, near Siena, in 1385. The great altarpiece has long since been dismembered and scattered. Certain parts are in Siena, some are in Budapest, and the central panel, representing the Madonna and Child and Angels, went first to a collection in Florence, later to London, and has now been in the Fogg Museum for eleven years. The missing parts just acquired by this museum were in a collection in Cologne, and from there went to a collection in Oxford, England.