A beautiful Arundel Society reproduction of St Lucy sentenced to death by the Roman Praetor, from the St Lucy cycle in the Oratorio di San Giorgio beside the Santo in Padua. The Arundel Society’s label attributes it to Jacopo d’Avanzo, but modern opinion prefers Altichiero. 545 x 445mm. Housed in a modern frame under Artglass UV 99.
 
A bright, very good example.
 
The Arundel Society (1848-1897) was founded with the goal of preserving European art from decay and neglect by producing reproductions of it. They began by working with frescoes, reproducing them in wood or steel engravings in black and white.  As the society grew, they decided to create reproductions in colour through chromolithography. A copyist would make a watercolour copy of the original paitning, and then oil paints were applied to the stones for the final printing, giving the finished product a feeling of the originals, and making them far superior to both contemporary and modern attempts at reproduction. Writing of the society in 1910, R.M. Burch described it as, “the most important non-commercial application of chromolithography”. Members of the Society paid an annual subscription, and in turn received each print they produced - four a year on average. They quickly rose in value after the dissolution of the Society, with prices ranging from 30s for the smaller simpler pieces, up to 300s for more monumental items.