Un calice inedito firmato da Goro di ser Neroccio per la chiesa di San Francesco a Borgo San Sepolcro

Presented in this article is a calyx dated 1415 and signed by the goldsmith Goro di ser Neroccio, born in Siena on March 26, 1386; for this raison it can be ascribed to the early phase of the artist's career. The piece, currently in a private collection, previously resided in the Debruge-Duménil collection and to date the only known picture of it was the one published by Maddalena Trionfi Honorati in 1967. We give first a quick documentary résumé on Goro and then detailed description of the piece. Because of the iconography of the piece, that displays on the knot enamelled images of sain Francis of Assisi, saint Anthony of Padua, saint Elisabeth of Hungary, saint Louis of Toulouse, the blessed Ranieri Rasini and saint Margaret of Cortona, we can hypothesize that it was originally meant for a Franciscan setting and more specifically, as the presence of the blessed Ranieri suggests, we can infer that it was made for the church of San Francesco in Sansepolcro. In 1437,for the same church, the Sienese painter Giovanni di Stefano (known as 'il Sassetta') was commissioned to paint an elaborate altarpiece, completed only in 1444, which showed another image of Ranieri. The calyx is examined within the context of the coeval artistic production, with specific reference both to the field of goldsmith's art and of painting: this comparison highlights the close resemblance existing between the enamelled images and the work of Benedetto di Bindo, who was painting close to the same period.