Giovanni da Rimini's Disputed Diptych Reunited at Palazzo Barberini

A recent acquisition by the National Gallery, funded by American collector Ronald S. Lauder, has brought together two panels attributed to Giovanni da Rimini for a temporary exhibition at Palazzo Barberini in Rome. The panels, one depicting stories of saints and the other stories of Christ, were long believed to be parts of a diptych. However, X-rays have revealed that their supports are not compatible, challenging this assumption. The panels were documented together at Palazzo Barberini since the late 17th century. In 1835, one panel was taken to England, while the other was acquired by the Italian state in 1897. Giovanni da Rimini, the first exponent of the 14th-century Rimini School, was influenced by Giotto and used his language to renew the Adriatic Byzantine tradition, establishing a school that dominated commissions from the Marche to Veneto for fifty years. The exhibition allows the public to see the two panels together again and reopens the question of their original relationship.