The Damnation of the Soul of the Miser of Citerna

For much of the 19th century this panel travelled under the names of more famous painters. Cardinal Joseph Fesch, Napoleon's uncle and one of the great collectors of the age, owned it before 1815, and a label on it called it Masaccio. The inventory made after his death in Rome described it as in the style of Fra Angelico, and in 1853, in London, it was sold as a Fra Angelico from the collection of Charles-Lucien Bonaparte, Napoleon's nephew. Late in the century Adolphe Clément-Bayard, the French builder of cars and airships, bought it in Italy, and the Louvre acquired it from his descendant in 1988. The story is another miracle of Ranieri Rasini, the holy friar of Borgo Sansepolcro. He stands at the left and shows the friars, gathered at prayer in their choir, what he can see through the open door. Demons are carrying off the soul of a miser from Citerna, a hill town nearby.