The Miracle of the Bull on Mount Gargano

The legend of the Bull of Gargano relates that in the year 492, a bull strayed from its herd near the town of Siponto, which lay at the foot of Mount Gargano. The bull found its way into a cave near the summit of the mountain, into which a herdsman fired an arrow. The arrow miraculously rebounded, killing the herdsman. His companions sought the council of their local bishop, who recommended three days of prayer and fasting to discern the meaning behind the phenomenon. On the third day, St. Michael appeared to the bishop and declared that the cave was under his protection, and that a church should be built there.

The present work is one of three small panels that Gaudenz Freuler has grouped together and assigned to the workshop of Bartolo di Fredi Cini, one of the leading masters of late trecento Siena, whose lively, colourful narratives found a strong audience in the region. The three were originally predellas for an unknown altarpiece; the other two panels depict The Charity of Saint Anthony Abbott (National Museum, Kiev) and The Charity of St. Nicholas (sold Sotheby's, New York, 25 January 2007, lot 33), and the latter directly references the artist’s frescoes of the same subject in the church of San Lucchese, Poggibonsi. Freuler, to whom we are grateful, considers the group to date to the 1370s or early 1380s.