Appendix: Some Major Venetian Altarpieces (1450–1530)

Humfrey, Peter

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Appendix: Some Major Venetian Altarpieces (1450–1530)

Peter Humfrey

The Altarpiece in Renaissance Venice

~The following entries are intended to provide additional factual and bibliographical information on the 100 works listed in Table 2 (pp. 8–9). The round figure of 100 has been chosen to stress the highly selective nature of the list which includes, in addition to major masterpieces of the period, a number of characteristic...

Author

Peter Humfrey

PublisherYale University Press

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-20386

Chapter subject tags:Altarpieces, Renaissance--ItalyPainting, Renaissance--Italy--VeniceAltarpieces, Renaissance--Italy--VenicePainting, Renaissance--ItalyVenice (Italy)--History

Appendix: Some Major Venetian Altarpieces (1450–1530)

The following entries are intended to provide additional factual and bibliographical information on the 100 works listed in Table 2. The round figure of 100 has been chosen to stress the highly selective nature of the list which includes, in addition to major masterpieces of the period, a number of characteristic works by relatively minor artists, such as the painters Lattanzio da Rimini and Bissolo, and the sculptor Bartolomeo Bergamasco. In keeping with the chronological focus of the book, the framing decades of the 1450s and the 1520s are more thinly represented than is the period corresponding to the career of Giovanni Bellini. Equally selective is the nature of the material discussed within each entry. No attempt has been made to provide a full history of each work or to provide a complete bibliography, in the manner proper to a catalogue raisonné. Rather, reference has been made to the most recent or convenient sources where such information may be found. Reference is also made to passages in the text where the work is discussed, and where further bibliographical information may be found in the corresponding end-notes.

1 ANTONIO AND BARTOLOMEO VIVARINI

Virgin and Child with Sts Bruno, Jerome, John the Baptist and Nicholas (lower tier); Sts Peter, Gregory; Man of Sorrows; Benedict, Paul (upper tier) (Certosa polyptych; Pl. 144)

Bologna, Pinacoteca Nazionale

1450

On panel: 400 × 278 cm (whole, including frame)

Inscribed: ANNO DOMINI MCCCCL HOC OPUS INCEPTUM FUIT ET PERFECTUM AB ANTONIO ET BARTOLOMEO DE MURANO NICOLAO V PONT. MAX. AB. MONUMENTUM. R(EVERENDI) P(ATRIS) D(OMINI) N(ICOLAI) CAR(DINALIS) OLI(M) S(ANCTAE) +(CRUCIS)

Originally above the high altar of S. Gerolamo alla Certosa, Bologna, an important early centre for the diffusion of the cult of St Jerome. The church, which was built in 1334–5, still survives, but its interior was redecorated and much altered during the course of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (De Töth [1922]), and its original appearance is difficult to reconstruct. According to the inscription, the altarpiece was commissioned by Pope Nicholas V in memory of, or as a ‘monument to’, Niccolò Albergati, cardinal of S. Croce in Rome, and former prior of the Certosa. The pope, who named himself after his former master, was a major benefactor of the Certosa, and in a bull of 1454 granted it further important privileges (De Töth [1922], p. 27). Although there is little critical unanimity on the identity of the saint on the far left in the lower register, he is certainly Bruno, as pointed out by Hall (1968), p. 22; he appears similarly as a cleanshaven bishop wearing a Carthusian habit in a painting by Guercino also from the church, and now also in the Pinacoteca Nazionale. This figure has sometimes, but inconclusively, been seen as a portrait, either of Albergati (Weiss [1955], p. 146; Hall [1968], p. 22), or of Lorenzo Giustinian (Toscano, [1987], p. 512). Text, Chaps. 4 and 5.

Add. bibl: Testi (1915), II, pp. 380–6; Pallucchini (1962), pp. 108–9; Fechner (1969), p. 77.

2 ANTONIO AND BARTOLOMEO VIVARINI, AND ANONYMOUS SCULPTOR

Annunciation with Sts Augustine and Filippo Benizzi (Pl. 11)

Gazzada (Varese), Fondazione Cagnola

1452

Wooden relief and painted panels: 175 × 165 cm (whole, including frame)

Inscribed: MCCCCLII Antonius et Bartolomeus fratres de Murano pinxerunt

According to Ciardi (1965), p. 42, the work was discovered by Count Cagnola at the beginning of the present century in an oratory in the province of Brescia. But this was not necessarily its original destination, and as pointed out by Lucco (1990), pp. 398–9, the absence of the word ‘Venetiis’ in the inscription implies that it was made for a church in Venice rather than for export. The presence of St Filippo Benizzi further implies a church belonging to the Servite order; and S. Maria dei Servi in Venice did indeed have a chapel dedicated to the Virgin Annunciate, situated to the left of the chancel, and in the custody of the noble Emo family (ASVat, Congregazione del Concilio, Visitationes Apostolicae, 74, f. 68v; Vicentini [1920], pp. 70–3). The conclusion that the triptych was commissioned for this chapel should be accepted with some caution, however, since the word ‘Venetiis’ is not quite invariably inscribed on Vivarini altarpieces destined for export.

Add. bibl.: Testi (1915), II, pp. 387–8; Fechner (1969), pp. 78–9.

3 JACOPO BELLINI, WITH GENTILE AND GIOVANNI BELLINI

Gattamelata altarpiece

1459/60

Inscribed: JACOBI BELLINI VENETI PATRIS AC GENTILIS ET JOANNIS NATORUM OPUS

Recorded in the Gattamelata chapel in the right aisle of the Santo, Padua, by Michiel (c. 1520–43), ed. 1884, p. 15, and by Polidoro (1590), p. 25r, who transcribed the signature together with the impossible date of MCCCCIX. Critics agree that that this must be a misreading for either MCCCCLIX or MCCCCCLX; and indeed, a date of 1459/60 fits well with the historical evidence relating to the construction and decoration of the chapel. A recently discovered panel representing Sts Anthony Abbot and Bernardino (110 × 57 cm) (Pl. 170) was independently recognised by Eisler (1985), Boskovits (1986) and Christiansen (1987) as the left wing of the altarpiece, which was removed from its altar in 1651, and had since disappeared. All three authors also identified three predella panels by Jacopo—the Adoration of the Magi (285 × 57 cm; Ferrara, Pinacoteca Nazionale), the Crucifixion (286 × 57 cm; Venice, Museo Correr) and the Descent into Limbo (285 × 58 cm; Padua, Museo Civico)—as belonging to the altarpiece, and identified the hand of the young Giovanni as a collaborator in the first two. Eisler and Christiansen (but not Boskovits) also identified the hand of Gentile in the left panel. Degenhart and Schmitt (1990), II/5, pp. 171–3, while accepting the Sts Anthony Abbot and Bernardino as the left wing of the Gattamelata altarpiece of 1459/60, date the three predella panels to a decade earlier, and they suggest (pp. 152–3) that these may have belonged rather to Jacopo’s altarpiece for the Scuola di S. Giovanni Evangelista (see Chap. 3, n. 70, ref. e). Their reasoning is based on three considerations: (i) the style and motifs of the predella panels have closest parallels in Jacopo’s drawings datable to c.1450; (ii) there is no trace in them of the style of Giovanni, who according to the authors would have been a mature master of nearly thirty years old by 1460, and already more under the influence of Mantegna than of Jacopo; (iii) the central Crucifixion is not wider than the other two panels, whereas if the central panel of the main register represented a scene of the Lamentation, it would have needed to be much wider than its neighbours. But all these arguments may be countered as follows: (i) Jacopo’s painted panels are often demonstrably more archaic in style than his drawings; (ii) the traditionally accepted date for the birth of Giovanni Bellini is not binding; and he may still have been rather young in 1459/60, painting in a style hardly distinguishable from that of his father (see Lucco [1990a], pp. 410–13); (iii) the Ferrara, Venice and Padua panels clearly do belong to the same predella of a Renaissance-style altarpiece; and it is inherently more likely that this altarpiece was painted for Padua towards the end of the sixth decade, following in the footsteps of Donatello, Pizzolo and Mantegna, than some years earlier for a confraternity albergo in Venice. Further, the central panel of the main register could have represented a relatively narrow Engelpietà rather than a fully populated Lamentation. Text, Chap. 5.

Add. bibl: Humfrey (1988b); Eisler (1989), pp. 60–2; De Nicolò Salmazo (1990), pp. 526–30; Humfrey (forthcoming, a).

4 JACOPO BELLINI, WITH GIOVANNI BELLINI AND ASSISTANTS

Four triptychs (Carità triptychs)

a Virgin and Child with Sts Jerome and (?) Louis; Man of Sorrows with flying angels (lunette) (Pl. 86)

b Nativity with Sts Francis and Victor; Throne of Grace with Sts Augustine and Dominic (lunette) (Pl. 87)

c St Sebastian with Sts John the Baptist and Anthony Abbot; God the Father with Angel and Virgin Annunciate (lunette) (Pl. 88)

d St Lawrence with Sts John the Baptist and Anthony of Padua; Virgin and Child with flying Angels (lunette) (Pl. 89)

Venice, Accademia

1460–4

Panels of main tier: c.103/127 × 45/48 cm each; lunettes: 59/60 × 166/170 cm each

Originally on the four altars, respectively dedicated to St Ursula, the Nativity, St Sebastian and St Lawrence, situated under the barco (choir-screen) of S. Maria della Carità (Fogolari [1924]) (Pl. 95). For documents relating to the juspatronatus of the altars by the Zorzi, Da Molin, Vitturi and Dolfin families, and a fixing of the dates of the commissions to 1460–4, see Gallo (1949). When the triptychs were removed from the church at the beginning of the last century, the various panels were incorrectly reassembled; for this, and for the complicated history of their attribution, see Moschini Marconi (1955), pp. 77–86. Until recently, the triptychs were normally attributed to the workshop of Giovanni Bellini; but the view first put forward by Robertson (1960), pp. 49–50, that the overall responsibility for their design lay rather with Jacopo, has been steadily winning favour. See Keydel (1969), p. 69 (who pointed out that Ulisse Aleotti, who wrote a sonnet in praise of Jacopo Bellini, served as Guardian Grande of the adjoining Scuola della Carità during the period of the commission of the triptychs); Meyer zur Capellen (1985), pp. 144–5; Boskovits (1986); Eisler (1989), pp. 62, 518–19; Lucco (1990a), pp. 415–17. Degenhart and Schmitt (1990), II/5, pp. 176–8, however, while acknowledging the many connections between the design and the works of Jacopo, still consider that it was Giovanni who was in charge of the commission. Text, Chap. 5.

Add. bibl: Robertson (1968), pp. 39–43; Humfrey (1990a), pp. 192–4.

5 GIOVANNI BELLINI

Transfiguration (Pl. 173)

Venice, Museo Correr

c.1464

Panel: 134 × 68 cm

The panel has been cut at the top, and originally it terminated in a cusped arch, probably with a God the Father in Glory represented in the apex. It presumably constituted the central element of a triptych or pentaptych, perhaps resembling in its general arrangement and framing that painted by Antonio Vivarini and Giovanni d’Alemagna in 1447 for S. Francesco Grande, Padua (Pl. 145). No accompanying panels are known, but possible candidates are a pair representing (?) St Augustine and Anthony Abbot (Paris, Louvre; 128 × 42 cm each), first attributed to Bellini by Boskovits (1986). Exceptionally among altar panels by Bellini, these also terminate in cusped arches. The possible objection that the two saints, are represented on a larger scale than the figures of the Transfiguration, and are placed on a tiled pavement rather than in a landscape, is not decisive, since the same discrepancies occur in the Vivarini pentaptych.

The provenance of the work is unknown. Mariacher (1961) suggested that it was identical with a Transfiguration by Bellini, which according to Zanetti (1733), p. 186, originally served as the cover of the silver altarpiece above the high altar of S. Salvatore, and was later replaced by the canvas by Titian still in situ. But apart from the fact that the Correr picture, even with its companion panels, would have been much smaller than Titian’s canvas (245 × 295 cm), it is difficult to visualise how a cover could have taken the form of a Gothic polyptych. A much more likely candidate for the S. Salvatore Transfiguration is the signed fragment now in the Accademia (Moschini Marconi [1955], p. 75)—especially since Zanetti is unlikely to have recognised the unsigned and strongly Mantegnesque Correr picture as by Bellini.

On the basis of the foreground inscription quoting Job 19:21 (‘MISEREMINI. MEI. SALTEM. VOS. AMICI. MEI’; ‘Have pity upon me, O ye my friends’), Goffen (1989), p. 296, nn. 29, 31, tentatively suggested that the panel originated from the oratory of S. Giobbe, close to the church of the same name. It is true that the quotation is otherwise difficult to account for; but the dedication of the oratory would have been to Job, whereas the Transfiguration was almost certainly painted for an altar dedicated to the Saviour or to the Transfigured Christ. Such a dedication would closely reflect a cult that was promoted with particular zeal in the years following the promulgation of the Transfiguration as a universal feast of the church by Calixtus III in 1457 (Pfaff [1970], pp. 13–37).

According to the recent reassessment by Lucco (1990a), pp. 410ff, of Bellini’s birthdate and early career, the work is datable to c.1464, rather than to the mid or later 1450s as has traditionally been supposed. Text, Chap. 5.

Add. bibl.: Robertson (1968), pp. 30–1.

6 ANTONIO VIVARINI AND ANONYMOUS SCULPTOR

St Anthony Abbot (wooden statue) with Sts Sebastian, Christopher, Terence and Vitus (lower tier); Sts Jerome, Peter; Man of Sorrows; Paul, (?) Louis of Toulouse (upper tier) (Pesaro polyptych) (Pl. 115)

Rome, Pinacoteca Vaticana

1464

105 × 30 cm (panels of lower tier); 80 × 50 cm (Man of Sorrows); 53 × 30 cm (saints of upper tier)

Inscribed: 1464 ANTHONIUS. DE MURA(N)O. PI(N)XIT.

Originally on the main altar of the oratory of the confraternity of S. Antonio Abbate in Pesaro, it was replaced in 1582 by Veronese’s Virgin and Child in Glory with Sts Anthony Abbot, Jerome, Peter and Paul (Dijon, Musée des Beaux-Arts), and was seen by Becci (1783), pp. 70–3, in the confraternity’s meeting-room. For the identification of Sts Terence and Vitus, see Kaftal (1978), cols. 957, 1980. Text, Chap. 5.

Add. bibl.: Testi (1915), II, pp. 394–7; Pallucchini (1962), p. 112; Fechner (1969), p. 78; Valazzi (1989), pp. 331–4, 355, nn. 167–8.

7 BARTOLOMEO VIVARINI

Virgin and Child with Sts Andrew, John the Baptist, Dominic and Peter

(Morosini polyptych) (Pl. 159)

Venice, Accademia

1464

Five panels: 131 × 49 cm (centre); 107 × 33 (each of sides)

Inscribed: OPUS, BA(R)TOLOMEI V(IV)ARINI, DE MURANO, MCCCCLXIIII

From the altar of the chapter-house of S. Andrea della Certosa, under the patronage of the noble Morosini family. The original frame, including a carved crucifix and the half-length figures of prophets, is recorded in an eighteenth-century engraving by G. M. Sasso (Pl. 158).

Bibl.: Testi (1915), II, pp. 456–8; Moschini Marconi (1955), p. 159; Pallucchini (1962), p. 118.

8 BARTOLOMEO VIVARINI

Virgin and Child with Sts Augustine, (?) Alexis, Louis of Toulouse and Nicholas; Sts Dominic, Peter Martyr, Catherine, Lucy (in the sky)

(Naples altarpiece) (Pl. 177)

1465

Naples, Galleria Nazionale di Capodimonte

Panel: 121 × 121 cm

Inscribed: OPUS, BARTOLOMEI VIVARINI DE MURANO, 1465.

According to Arv (1905), p. 205, the work came to Naples at the beginning of the nineteenth century from a church in Bari. The presence of the two Dominican saints in the sky suggests that the church may have been S. Domenico (later called S. Leonardo), the principal Dominican church in the city (for which see Milano [1982], pp. 199–200). The pilgrim saint is unlikely to be Roch, and is probably Alexis, who enjoyed a popular cult in southern Italy; for a comparable image, see Kaftal (1973), col. 26. Text, Chap. 5.

Add. bibl.: Testi (1915), II, p. 458; Pallucchini (1962), p. 119; Fechner (1969), pp. 79–80.

9 GIOVANNI BELLINI

St Vincent Ferrer with Sts Christopher and Sebastian (lower tier); Angel, Man of Sorrows, Virgin Annunciate (upper tier); Three Scenes from the Life of St Vincent Ferrer (predella) (St Vincent Ferrer polyptych) (Pl. 15)

Venice, SS. Giovanni e Paolo

c.1465–8

Panels: 167 × 67 each (lower tier); 72 × 67 each (upper tier); 36 × 60 each (predella)

In its original position above the second altar on the right in the church. A series of documentary references published by Fogolari (1932), pp. 388–9, and transcribed in greater detail by Aurenhammer (1985), pp. 278–86, shows that the altar was in the custody of the Scuola di S. Vincenzo Ferrer; and Fogolari suggested that a payment of 6 January 1464 for the construction of a new altar provides a terminus ante quem for the installation of the altarpiece. As pointed out independently by Aurenhammer, by Goffen (1985), pp. 278–9, and by Gentili and Torella (1985), pp. 13–14, the terminus post quem does not necessarily hold, since the Scuola was already established in the church by 1450, and apparently had an altar by 1454. But Goffen’s attempt to redate the work on stylistic grounds to c.1455 is not convincing, especially in the light of recent research into Bellini’s early career and the postponement of his proposed birthdate to c.1435 or later. See Boskovits (1986), pp. 386–93; Lucco (1990a), pp. 410ff. Indeed, this research tends to reinforce both the traditional dating to c.1465–8, and the attribution to Bellini already given by Sansovino (1581), ed. 1663, p. 65. In the past a number of scholars, most notably Robertson (1968), pp. 43ff, have had reservations about accepting Bellini’s authorship, regarding the handling as unacceptably coarse for a mature master with such masterpieces as the Agony in the Garden (London, National Gallery) already for behind him. But if the Agony is dated instead to c.1464–5, contemporary with the polyptych, the differences in handling may be accounted for by the differences of scale between the two works.

The attribution of the predella, which is clearly not an autograph work by Bellini, has also been a matter of considerable critical debate. In the recent past it has normally been attributed to the Paduan miniaturist Lauro Padovano for the following reasons: (i) it seems to be by the same hand as three predella panels in the Wittelsbach collection; (ii) the Wittelsbach predella seems to have once formed part of Bellini’s now-lost St John the Evangelist altarpiece of c.1468–71 for the De Marin chapel in the Carita (see p. 184, and n. 49); (iii) Michiel ascribed the predella of this work to Lauro Padovano. But not all of these arguments have been accepted: Gentili and Torella, for instance (1985), p. 21, do not agree that the St Vincent Ferrer predella and the Wittelsbach predella are by the same hand; and now Bauer-Eberhardt (1989) has denied the connection between the Wittelsbach predella and the St John the Evangelist altarpiece, and has attributed the former to Giovanni’s cousin Leonardo Bellini instead. The difficult question of whether the St Vincent Ferrer predella may also be by Leonardo awaits proper investigation.

In Humfrey (1988a), p. 408, n. 45, a document of 1531 referring to a decision to ‘ornar l’Altar’ was connected with another, undated document recording the decision to enclose the altarpiece within a marble frame matching that of Titian’s St Peter Martyr opposite (Pl. 8). But as shown by Aurenhammer (1985), pp. 278–86, the second document is more likely to date from as late as c.1777, when an original God the Father panel at the apex is known to have been replaced by the present shell ornament (Chap. 5, n. 43); and it is probable, therefore, that all the present stonework (Pl. 174) belongs to the same late eighteenth-century campaign. Aurenhammer also convincingly showed that a number of minor alterations to the altar undertaken in 1523–4 are unlikely to have involved any significant changes in the appearance of the altarpiece. Text, Chap. 5.

10 ANTONIO RIZZO

Three altarpieces:

a Virgin and Child with Sts Mark and Bernardino (St Clement altarpiece) (Pl. 105)

b St James (Pl. 106)

c St Paul (Pl. 107)

Venice, San Marco

1465–9

Marble: respectively 70.5 × 54 cm (Virgin and Child relief, without frame); 106.5 cm high (St James; 111.5 cm high (St Paul)

Inscribed (at base of Virgin and Child relief); DUCE. SERENISSIMO. D(MIN)O. CHRIST/OFORO MAURO. M.CCCCLXV

Similar inscriptions, but without dates, appear at the bases of the St James and St Paul altarpieces, recording that they were donated by Doge Cristoforo Moro. A payment to Rizzo in 1469 by Moro (Keydel [1969], p. 82) probably refers to the completion of the set. In 1810, after the fall of the Venetian Republic, the altarpiece originally in the chapel of S. Niccolò in the Doge’s Palace, representing St Nicholas with Sts James and Andrew and Doge Andrea Gritti as Donor (1523), was transferred to the chapel of S. Clemente and combined with Rizzo’s Virgin and Child altarpiece. For the problem of the authorship of the Doge Gritti relief, see Schulz (1991), pp. 190–1. The other two Rizzo altarpieces remain above their original altars, incorporating frontals in marble relief also by Rizzo, respectively in the south and north transepts, close to the crossing (Pl. 21). Text, Chap. 8.

Add. bibl.: McAndrew (1980), p. 63; Schulz (1983a), pp. 18–25, 166–71.

11 MARCO ZOPPO

S. Giustina polyptych

1468

The work with its date is briefly mentioned (but not described) by Sansovino (1581), ed. 1663, p. 42, above the high altar of the nuns’ church of S. Giustina. Following a suggestion by Borenius (1921), Armstrong (1966), ed. 1976, pp. 83ff, reconstructed Zoppo’s altarpiece as a polyptych, with the following panels comprising its upper tier: St Augustine (London, National Gallery; Pl. 161); St Paul (Oxford, Ashmolean Museum); Man of Sorrows (formerly Vieweg collection); St Peter (Washington, National Gallery of Art); St Jerome (Baltimore, Walters Art Gallery). The author’s chief reason for associating the panels with the S. Giustina altarpiece is that their style is consistent with the date of 1468 given by Sansovino. Although perhaps unnecessarily cautious about associating the panels with the altarpiece, Zeri (1976), pp. 211–12, while accepting that the central panel was probably a Man of Sorrows, convincingly rejected the ex-Vieweg panel as part of the ensemble, on the grounds that the direction of the painted light did not correspond. Zeri also pointed out that the panels of the saints originally had cusped arches, and hence that the frame must have been in the Gothic style. This would have been in keeping with the architectural style of the church, which was rebuilt after the arrival there in 1448 of a congregation of Augustinian nuns (Franzoi and Di Stefano [1976], p. 450). The presence of this order lends support to the normal but tentative identification of the Saint panel in London as Augustine. Armstrong interpreted a subsequent remark by Sansovino to mean that the high altar of S. Giustina was under the patronage of the Dolce family, and that Zoppo’s altarpiece was flanked by statues by Antonio Lombardo and Paolo ‘Milanese’ (Stella); but the inference by Schulz (1985) that the Dolce altar with its statues constituted a quite separate altar is proved correct by a reference to it in the pastoral visitation of Patriarch Priuli of 1594 (ACP, Visite alle monache 1592–5, f. 473r). See also Chap. 3, n. 43, ref. f). Text, Chap. 5.

12 GIOVANNI BELLINI

Virgin and Child with Sts Augustine, Ambrose, Jerome, Gregory, Thomas Aquinas, Catherine of Siena, Ursula, Lucy, (?) Catherine of Alexandria, (?) Mary Magdalen (St Catherine of Siena altarpiece)

Formerly Venice, SS. Giovanni e Paolo; destroyed 1867

c.1470

Inscribed: IOHANNES BEL/LINUS P.

Destroyed by fire in 1867 when temporarily removed to the Cappella del Rosario. The original stone frame remains in place above the first altar in the right in the church (Pls. 176, 31), and Bellini’s composition is known both through an engraving made for Francesco Zannotto’s Pinacoteca veneta of 1858 (Pl. 175), and an anonymous nineteenth-century watercolour. Since the copies agree with one another in their proportions (except that the arched top is shown as rather too flat in the watercolour), it is possible to make a photographic reconstruction of the relationship between the carved and painted elements (Pl. 176). It may be noted that the picture field as recorded was proportionately too short for the opening in the frame, and that previous reconstruction attempts by Robertson (1968), Plate XXXIXb and by Goffen (1989), p. 120, have placed the painting at slightly different heights in relation to the frame; as in the case of the S. Giobbe altarpiece, however (App. 27), Robertson was almost certainly incorrect in allowing for the full missing height at the top rather than at the bottom.

The commission is undocumented, and the donor was first identified on circumstantial evidence as the Scuola di S. Caterina da Siena independently by Aurenhammer (1985), pp. 271–5 (with a detailed consideration of the noble Bragadin family as a possible alternative candidate) and Goffen (1985), pp. 279, 183. See also Humfrey (1988a), pp. 406–7. The date has been much discussed, especially with the purpose of determining the work’s chronological relationship with Antonello’s S. Cassiano altarpiece of 1475–6: for a survey of earlier views, see Robertson (1968), pp. 59ff. Although Robertson himself remained undecided, the current consensus of opinion is that Bellini’s altarpiece is slightly earlier than Antonello’s: see Keydel (1969), pp. 113–33; Huse (1972), pp. 19–20; Wilde (1974), pp. 17–19 (reversing his earlier opinion in favour of Antonello); Goffen (1989), pp. 120–2.

Although not all the saints’ attributes are visible, the four Male saints accompanying Thomas Aquinas are clearly the four Fathers of the Church. The female saints are more difficult to identify, but the virgin martyr behind Catherine must be Lucy rather than Mary Magdalen (as she is sometimes called). The Magdalen, a favourite of Catherine’s, must therefore be the figure with long tresses at the extreme right; and the head just visible between Lucy and the Magdalen may well be Catherine’s namesake, Catherine of Alexandria. Text, Chap. 5.

13 MARCO ZOPPO

Virgin and Child with Sts John the Baptist, Francis, Paul and Jerome; Man of Sorrows with angels (Pesaro altarpiece)

Berlin, Staatliche Museen (main panel; Pl. 114); Pesaro, Museo Civico (pinnacle)

1471

Panel: 262 × 254 cm (main panel): 120 × 95 cm (pinnacle)

Inscribed: MARCO ZOPPO DA BOLO/GNIA PINSIT MCCCCLXXI/I(N) VINEXIA

The reconstruction of the work in Pl. 178 is elaborated from that by Armstrong (1966), ed. 1976, pp. 370ff, and Fig. B, p. 469. As proposed by Armstrong, the predella comprised the following three panels: St John the Baptist in the Wilderness (Venice, Cini collection); The Stigmatisation of St Francis (Baltimore, Walters Art Gallery); and St Jerome in the Wilderness (Bologna, Pinacoteca Nazionale). A fourth, St Peter, panel has not been identified. It is likely that Zoppo’s Head of St John the Baptist (Pesaro, Museo Civico) also formed part of the ensemble, perhaps occupying the centre of the predella. The pilasters of the frame may also have contained panels with saints, as in Zoppo’s Collegio di Spagna polyptych (Pl. 162) and Bellini’s Coronation (Pl. 179); if so, these would have been lost when the work was removed from the church of S. Giovanni Battista and the panels dispersed, some time around 1800. Or it may be that the original frame was dismembered as early as the 1530s or 1540s, since around that time the early Renaissance building (1466–9) was demolished, and the altarpiece was transferred to a new church of the same name, built by Bartolomeo Genga after 1543. Text, Chap. 5.

14 ANTONIO ROSSELLINO

St John the Baptist with Sts Francis and Anthony of Padua (main tier); Angels bearing torches (upper tier) (Martini altarpiece) (Pls. 96, 261)

Venice, S. Giobbe

c.1471–6

Marble: 142.5 cm high (main tier); 78/81 cm high (saints); 176 cm high (superstructure)

In its original position in the Martini chapel (second on the left) in S. Giobbe; the blackened Madonna painting in the upper tier and the cornucopia at the apex are later additions. As shown by Apfelstadt (1987), pp. 242ff, the donor was one Giovanni di Pietro Martini, a Venetian citizen (and not, as was previously supposed, related to the Lucchese family of the same name), who had close business interests in Florence, and who was married to a Florentine. In his will of 1475 Martini asked for his chapel to be completed as soon as possible, in accordance with the wishes of his wife; this provides an approximate date for the altarpiece. The glazed terracotta vault of the chapel is obviously derived from that of the Cardinal of Portugal in S. Miniato in Florence, and Apfelstadt plausibly suggests (p. 284) that the choice of the Martini fell on Antonio Rossellino because of his previous involvement with the S. Miniato commission. The choice of the Baptist as titular of the chapel, and hence also as the central figure of the altarpiece, was doubly appropriate as the donor’s name saint and as the patron saint of Florence. Text, Chaps. 3 and 8.

15 BARTOLOMEO VIVARINI

Triptych: Meeting at the Golden Gate; Virgin of Mercy; Birth of the Virgin (Pl. 91)

Venice, S. Maria Formosa

1473

Three panels: 146 × 71 cm (centre); 104 × 50 cm (sides)

Inscribed: BARTHOLOMEUS VIVARINUS DE/MURIANO PINXIT MCCCCLXXIII

According to a document published by Ludwig (1905), pp. 15–16, the work was commissioned by the parish priest Andrea da Sole for the high altar of the old church, using funds made available by five of his parishioners. The kneeling donors in the foreground of the central panel may accordingly be identified as Andrea with a group of these benefactors. Curiously, considering that S. Maria Formosa was dedicated to the Purification, the combination of subjects for the three panels seems to have been chosen rather to allude to the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception; for the use of all three iconographies by adherents of the doctrine, see Levi d’Ancona (1957), pp. 33–4, 41–3. Original paint edges corresponding to the cusped arches of the original Gothic frame are clearly visible in the upper parts of the panels.

Add. bibl.: Pallucchini (1962), p. 121.

16 BARTOLOMEO VIVARINI

St Augustine Enthroned; St Dominic; St Lawrence (fragments of a polyptych) (Pl. 78)

Venice, SS. Giovanni e Paolo

1473

Three panels: 191 × 69 cm (Augustine); 159 × 56 cm (Dominic); 158 × 55 cm (Lawrence)

Inscribed: BARTHOLOMEUS VIVARINUS DE/MURIANO PINXIT MCCCCLXXIII

Originally parts of a three-tiered Gothic polyptych in ten compartments painted for the altar of St Augustine, placed in the first bay on the left of the nave. From the detailed description by Boschini (1664), p. 216 (with which that by Ridolfi [1648], ed. 1914, p. 38, is in full agreement), the polyptych appears to have been unusually tall and narrow in its proportions. The central Augustine was accompanied by the figures of Mark and John the Baptist; above them the surviving Dominic and Lawrence flanked a Virgin and Child; and the upper zone comprised four tondi with four more saints, presumably in half-length. Zeri and Gardner (1973), p. 93, have tentatively identified a now-fragmentary Saint in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, as the missing St Mark, originally represented in full-length. The donor has not hitherto been identified; but it is reasonable to infer from a document discussed by Mueller (1971), pp. 211–13, that the altarpiece was commissioned by the Dominican clergy, using funds provided by the Procurators of San Marco in their capacity as trustees of the estate of one Marco Dolfin. Text, Chap. 3.

Add. bibl: Pallucchini (1962), p. 121.

17 GIOVANNI BELLINI

Coronation of the Virgin with Sts Paul, Peter, Jerome and Francis (main field) (Pl. 179); Lamentation over Dead Christ (pinnacle) Pesaro, Museo Civico (main field, including frame); Rome, Pinacoteca Vaticana (pinnacle)

c.1473–6

Panels: 262 × 240 (main field); 107 × 84 cm (pinnacle)

Also incorporated into the frame of the main field are seven predella panels, and eight panels on the flanking pilasters representing saints. The pilaster saints may be identified as: (left) St Catherine, St Lawrence, St Anthony of Padua, St John the Baptist; (right) Blessed Michelina, St Bernardino, St Louis of Toulouse, St John the Evangelist. The predella panels represent: St George and the Dragon, The Conversion of Saul, The Crucifixion of St Peter, The Nativity, St Jerome in the Desert, The Stigmatisation of St Francis, St Terentius. The panels, including the pinnacle from the Vatican were restored in Pesaro in 1987–8, and exhibited together in 1988–9. Accounts of the restoration and of the technical examination undertaken at that time were published in the exhibition catalogue by Cordaro (1988) and by Bertorello and Martellotti (1988). The altarpiece formed the subject of a detailed study by Wilson (1977); see also Chiappini di Sorio (1986). Although the commission is not documented, and the work had already been moved from its original position by the 1620s, it was certainly painted for the high altar of S. Francesco in Pesaro (Wilson, 1989). The presence of the pinnacle is not recorded until 1777 (Wilson, 1989); and some critics, including Chiappini di Sorio (pp. 19–23), have expressed doubts about whether it originally formed part of the ensemble; but the recent technical examination (Bertorello and Martellotti [1988]) tends to support the circumstantial and visual evidence that it did. The date has been much discussed, with some critics, including Meiss (1964), pp. 41–2, and originally Longhi, placing it in the late 1460s, before Zoppo’s Pesaro altarpiece of 1471 (App. 13); and others, including Robertson (1968), pp. 66–8, dating it to the later 1470s, following the visit to Venice of Antonello. Recently, both Battisti (1988) and Castelli (1988) have dated it as late as the early 1480s. But the revised view of Longhi (1946), p. 16, followed by Huse (1972), pp. 23ff, Wilson (1977) and Chiappini di Sorio (1986), that the work was at least begun by about 1473 accords better both with the technical evidence provided by Cordaro (1988), and with the recent and convincing account of Bellini’s early chronology traced by Lucco (1990a), pp. 410ff. It may be noted, however, that so large and complex a work may have taken several years to complete; and Conti (1987); pp. 292–4, may also be correct in supposing that the execution straddled the period of Antonello’s visit, and that the pinnacle may date from as late as c.1478–9. Certainly the document published by Valazzi (see Chap. 5, n. 65) implies that the work was still in progress in 1476. Text, Chaps. 3 and 5.

18 BARTOLOMEO VIVARINI

St Mark enthroned with Sts John the Baptist, Jerome, Augustine and an unidentified apostle (St Mark altarpiece) (Pl. 35)

Venice, Frari 1474

Three panels: 165 × 68 cm (centre); 165 × 57 cm (each of sides)

Inscribed: OPUS. FACTUM. PER BARTHOLOMEUM./VIVARINUM. DE. MURIANO. 1474

In its original position, in its original frame in the chapel built in 1420 by Giovanni Corner in accordance with the will of his father Federigo, and dedicated to St Mark (Sartori [1949], p. 67). The stained-glass windows of the chapel were presumably also designed by Bartolomeo. Text, Chap. 5.

19 BARTOLOMEO VIVARINI

Virgin and Child with Sts Jerome, Agnes, Lucy, Catherine, (?) Barbara and Bruno (Pl. 190)

Veli Lošinj (Lussingrande) (Croatia), parish church

1475

Panel: 190 × 155 cm

Inscribed: OPUS. FACTUM. VENETIIS. PER. BARTHOLOMEUM. VIVARINUM. DE. MURIANO. 1475

Identified by Sambin (1964), pp. 41–2, with Bartolomeo’s altarpiece recorded in an eighteenth-century description of the church of the Certosa of Vigodarzere, outside Padua. As in the Vivarini polyptych for the Certosa of Bologna (App. 1), the Carthusian saint must be Bruno. Text, Chap. 6.

Add. bibl.: Pallucchini (1962), p. 122.

20 ANTONELLO DA MESSINA

Virgin and Child with Sts George, Cecilia, Nicholas, Lucy, Ursula, Dominic, Helena end Sebastian (S. Cassiano altarpiece)

Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum (central fragment) (Pl. 185)

1475–6

Panel: 115 × 136 cm

The work is documented by a letter dated 16 March 1476, written by its donor Pietro Bon to Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan (reprinted in Antonello da Messina [1981], p. 236). Bon writes that Antonello had begun the previous August, and that when it was complete, the picture would be ‘one of the most excellent works in painting within and beyond Italy’ (‘sera de le più eczellenti opere de penelo che habia Ittalia e fuor d’Ittalia’). The fame of the work is attested by Sanudo (c.1493), ed. 1980, p. 52, who included it in a select group of only four Venetian altarpieces he thought worthy of mention. According to the letter it was painted for the ‘altar di Nostra Donna’; and Bon, too, had written that it was commissioned in honour of the Virgin (‘Achadendomi a honor de la gloriosa nostra dona farssi una palla. . .’). The altar of the Virgin in S. Cassiano, which is distinguished in a document of 1526 from that of the Visitation (or of Mary and Elizabeth) (Puppi [1987], p. 243), is presumably identical with that listed in the Apostolic Visitation of 1581 with a dedication to the Immaculate Conception (see Tramontin [1967], p. 503). There remains, however, some doubt on this matter, since according to Sansovino (1581, ed. 1663, p. 205), Palma Vecchio painted a scene from the life of the Virgin for the chapel of the ‘Messinese’; and since Palma’s picture is usually and reasonably identified with the Visitation now in Vienna (see Rylands [1988], pp. 220–1), Sansovino seems to be implying that the chapel of the ‘Messinese’ was identical with the altar of the Visitation. See also Gallicciolli (1795), vi, pp. 245–7.

As Puppi (1987), pp. 243–4, points out, the prominently placed Nicholas is included as name saint of the donor’s father, and the Cecilia next to him as co-titular of the church. But the author is surely incorrect to identify the nude as Cassian rather than the universally popular Sebastian. Cassian was usually portrayed as a bishop, as in Tintoretto’s later painting above the high altar of the church; and despite the presence of Cecilia, it was not necessary for the titular of a church to appear above a side-altar.

The altarpiece was removed from S. Cassiano at the time of the rebuilding of the church at the beginning of the seventeenth century, and was cut into five marketable fragments. The three central pieces were reunited in 1929; the other two, known from a number of seventeenth-century copies, remain lost. On the basis of the copies, Wilde (1929) was able to reconstruct the figure group (Pl. 186). From this reconstruction it is also possible to calculate that the width of the painting originally measured about 227 cm wide; the height was perhaps some 300 cm. Text, Chap. 6.

Add. bibl: Robertson (1977).

21 BARTOLOMEO VIVARINI

Virgin and Child with Sts James, Louis of Toulouse, Nicholas and (?) Mark (main field); Man of Sorrows with Sts (?) Augustine and Francis (Bari altarpiece) (Pl. 113)

Bari, S. Nicola

1476

Panels: 131 × 121 cm (main field); 49 × 138 cm (lunette)

Inscribed: FACTUM VENETIIS PER BARTHOLOMEUM/VIVA RINUM DE MURIANO PINXIT. 1476

In its original frame, in the tall Romanesque apsidal chapel to the right (facing) of the high altar. According to an inscription added to the base of the frame in 1737, the work was commissioned by Alvise Caucho of Venice, a canon of S. Nicola, and was restored at the expense of the canon Giuseppe Dottula. By this date patronage rights to the chapel had passed to the Dottula family, and the altar was dedicated to St Martin (Belli D’Elia [1985], p. 152). Although the young bishop saint to the Virgin’s right is sometimes called Martin, his corded belt clearly identifies him as the donor’s name saint, Louis; and nor can any of the other saints be identified as Martin. Either, therefore, the altarpiece originally belonged to another altar, and was subsequently acquired by the Dottula family for their own chapel; or else—and perhaps more probably—the original dedication of the chapel was to Louis, but was changed to Martin when it was acquired by the Dottula. Text, Chap. 6.

22 ALVISE VIVARINI

Virgin and Child with Sts Francis, Peter, Paul and John the Baptist (Montefiorentino polyptych) (Pl. 205)

Urbino, Galleria Nazionale delle Marche

1476

Five panels: 106 × 46 cm (Virgin and Child); 101 × 31 cm (sides)

Inscribed on the frame: 1476 LUDOVICUS VIVARINUS MURANIENSIS P.

From the Franciscan convent at Montefiorentino, Pian di Meleto, near Urbino. The original Gothic frame evidently once had flanking piers.

Bibl.: Steer (1982), pp. 6–12.

23 GIOVANNI BELLINI

Resurrection of Christ (Pl. 57)

Berlin, Staatliche Museen

c.1476–9

Panel: 148 × 128 cm

From the Zorzi chapel, to the right (facing) of the high altar of S. Michele in Isola. The generally accepted dating to c.1476–9 is based on the circumstantial evidence of the documents published by Ludwig and Bode (1903). According to these, the patrician Marco Zorzi asked the prior of S. Michele in 1475 for permission to build a chapel dedicated to the Virgin, in which he would place a family tomb; at this time he also endowed a daily mass there for the souls of himself, his ancestors and descendants (‘quotidie in ea in perpetuum celebretur una missa pro remissione suorum deliciorum et remedio animae sue et suorum progenitorum ac heredum et successorum suorum’). In 1479 the will of his mother calls the chapel ‘of the Resurrection’, and implies that the tomb—and hence the construction of the chapel—is complete. Ludwig and Bode, followed by Robertson (1968), p. 74, interpret this to mean that the altarpiece must also have been installed by 1479. This does not necessarily follow from the wording of the document; nevertheless, a dating to these years in consistent with the stylistic evidence. Text, Chaps. 2 and 6.

24 BARTOLOMEO VIVARINI

St Ambrose with Sts Louis IX of France, Peter, Paul and Sebastian (St Ambrose altarpiece) (Pl. 98)

Venice, Accademia

1477

Five panels: 125 × 47 cm (Ambrose); 108 × 36 (sides)

Inscribed: BARTHOLOMEUS. VIVARINUS DE MURIANO PINXIT. 1477 (in the Peter panel); S AMBR VIVIANI CAST SANT . . . VIC S PETRUS MUNTI SCRI E CONF . . . (in the Ambrose panel); IACOBUS DE FAENCIE IN CISIT (in the Paul panel)

The original frame by Jacopo da Faenza (who also carved that of Bellini’s Frari triptych [App. 38]) is lost. According to Paoletti and Ludwig (1899), pp. 447ff, the work was originally in the premises of the Scuola dei Tagliapietra at S. Aponal. The diminutive kneeling donors must therefore represent the officers of the Scuola, also commemorated in the central inscription. At least two of the saints (Ambrose and Peter) correspond to the name saints of the officers (Ambrogio Viviani, the gastaldo, and Pietro Muntin, the scrivan); as patron saint of Milan, Ambrose may also owe his central position to a predominance of stonemasons of Lombard origin within the Scuola.

Add. bibl.: Testi (1914), II, p. 470; Moschini Marconi (1955), pp. 159–60.

25 ALVISE VIVARINI

Assumption of the Virgin (Martinengo Assumption) (Pl. 212)

Milan, Brera

c.1478–9

Panel: 225 × 114 cm

From the high altar of the church of the Incoronata, Martinengo (Brescia). For the attribution, provenance and dating, see C. Alpini and M. Lucco in Pinacoteca di Brera (1990), pp. 275–9. Text, Chap. 6.

26 ANTONELLO AND JACOBELLO DA MESSINA

St Christopher and St Sebastian (placed to either side of a wooden statue of St Roch) (S. Giuliano triptych)

Dresden, Gemäldegalerie (Sebastian)

1478–9

Panel (transferred to canvas): 171 × 85 cm (Sebastian)

The triptych was recorded in the parish church of S. Giuliano by Sansovino (1581), ed. 1663, p. 126, as follows: ‘Antonello da Messina che fu il primo inventore della Pittura á olio, fece il San Christoforo, & Pino da Messina il Sebastiano, che sono da il lati del San Rocco fatto di relievo’ (‘Antonello da Messina, the inventor of oil painting, did the St Christopher, and Pino da Messina the St Sebastian, to either side of a sculptured St Roch’). It is generally accepted that since the Sebastian (Pl. 188), identifiable with the panel in Dresden, is clearly by Antonello himself, ‘Pino’ (Jacopino, or Jacobello, Antonello’s son) must have executed the now-lost Christopher. See Antonello da Messina (1981), pp. 182–4, with further references. Puppi (1987), pp. 257–9, suggested that the Roch recorded by Sansovino had been carved to replace a third panel by Antonello, which had been irreparably damaged during the rebuilding of the church in the mid-sixteenth century; but there is no real evidence for such a hypothesis. Text, Chap. 6.

27 GIOVANNI BELLINI

Virgin and Child with Sts Francis, John the Baptist, Job, Dominic, Sebastian and Louis of Toulouse (S. Giobbe altarpiece) (Pl. 45)

Venice, Accademia

c.1478–80

Panel: 469 × 261 cm

Inscribed: IOANNES/BELLINUS (on the cartellino); AVE VIRGINEI FLOS INTEMERAE PUDORIS (‘Hail undefiled flower of virgin modesty’) (in the apse)

From the second altar on the right in S. Giobbe, where the original stone frame and altar survive. At the time of its removal from the church in 1815 the panel measured 530 cm high; and the missing 61 cm was probably cut not from the top, as is usually supposed, but from the bottom (Sponza [1987]). According to Vasari (1568), ed. 1878–85, ii, p. 155, the altar was dedicated to the prophet Job, who was venerated in Venice as a saint; hence the identification by Goffen (1986b), pp. 64–5, of the donor as the prominent local confraternity of the Scuola di S. Giobbe, while not conclusive, is nevertheless highly plausible. The escutcheons carved on the bases of the frame have hitherto eluded identification; but, as Goffen suggests, they may refer to a particularly munificent contributor towards the cost of the commission. The date of the work has been much discussed, and suggestions range from c.1474 (Huse [1972], pp. 22–3) to c.1480–5 (Robertson [1968], pp. 83–5), or even later. Perhaps the most plausible dating on stylistic grounds would be c.1478–80 (for which see most recently Lucco [1990a], pp. 449–50). This would be consistent with the suggestion by Goffen (1986), p. 65, that the commission was associated with the plague of 1478; see also Humfrey (1988a), pp. 411–12. Text, Chaps. 1 and 6.

Add. bibl.: Hubala (1969); Goffen (1989), pp. 143ff.

28 ALVISE VIVARINI

Virgin and Child with Sts Louis of Toulouse, Anthony of Padua, Anna, Joachim, Francis, Bernardino (Treviso altarpiece) (Pl. 194)

Venice, Accademia

1480

Panel: 173 × 196 cm

Inscribed: ALVIXE VIVAR/IN. P. MCCCCLXXX

From the Franciscan Conventual church of S. Francesco, Treviso, fourth altar on the left, dedicated to St Bernardino. According to an inscription, the tomb of Francesco Lancenigo in front of the altar was placed there by his grandsons Francesco and Domenico, both doctors, in 1478 (Benvenuti [1930], p. 32; and a year later, in 1479, Francesco was given rights to the altar by the chapter (Sartori [1986], p. 1615, no. 61). For further information on the Lancenigo, see Gentili (1986), pp. 62, 64, n. 23, who also confirms and develops the suggestion by Steer (1982), pp. 152–3, that the presence of Joachim and Anna reflects the developing cult of the Immaculate Conception (see also App. 82). Text, Chap. 6.

29 ALVISE VIVARINI

Assumption of the Virgin (Pl. 214)

Noale (Padua), parish church

c.1480

Panel: 248 × 112 cm

Recorded by Federici (1803), 1, p. 223 (as Cima) above the altar of S. Maria dei Battuti at Noale, at the centre of a pentaptych. According to documents quoted by Lucco (1979), the missing four panels depicted the Angel Gabriel and the Virgin Annunciate above, and Sts Jerome and Sebastian below. Lucco’s dating to c.1480, close to the Berlin Pentecost (Pl. 213), is more convincing than that by Steer (1982), pp. 144–6, to the late 1490s. Text, Chap. 6.

30 GIOVANNI BELLINI

Transfiguration (Pl. 65)

Naples, Museo di Capodimonte

c.1480

Panel: 115 × 150 cm

Inscribed: IOANNES BELLI

Recognised by Arslan (1956), pp. 27–8, as identical with a Transfiguration by Bellini once in the chapel of the Saviour (second left) in Vicenza Cathedral, and removed in 1613. Arslan also points out that the chapel was begun by the archdeacon Alberto Fioccardo, and was completed according to his testamentary instructions of July 1467. The will dated July 1484 of his brother, the notary Giovanni Battista Fioccardo, makes it clear that the chapel and its furnishings had been completed (Mantese [1964], p. 906); and this date may accordingly be taken as a terminus ante quem for the altarpiece. Robertson (1968), p. 91, dated it to c.1485; but for stylistic reasons as well, the slightly earlier date proposed by Lucco (1990a), p. 451, is to be preferred. The dating by Huse (1972), p. 23, to the early 1470s seems too early. Text, Chap. 6.

31 LAZZARO BASTIANI

Adoration of the Shepherds, with Sts Eustace, James, Mark and Nicholas (Pl. 62)

Venice, Accademia

c.1480

Panel: 160 × 191 cm

Commissioned according to the will dated 1478 of the Venetian patrician Eustachio di Bernardo Balbi, published by Gallo (1926), pp. 81–2. In his will Balbi instructed his three brothers as executors to erect an altar in S. Elena as a counterpart to that of Pietro Loredan, and to provide it with a beautiful altarpiece representing the Nativity; his tomb was to be placed in front of the altar. The tomb inscription with the date 1480 was recorded by Cicogna (1824–61), III, p. 389, no. 13; for a reconstruction of the arrangement of the chapels and altars in S. Elena, see Gallo (1926). Three of the four saints were evidently chosen as the name saints respectively of the donor himself, of his brother and executor Jacopo, and of his son Niccolò (see the family tree in ASV, Barbaro Genealogie, p. 115). The death of the donor provides a terminus post quem of 1480 for the work; and as noted by Moschini Marconi (1955), pp. 55–6, the stylistic evidence suggests that it was painted not long afterwards.

32 LAZZARO BASTIANI

St Anthony of Padua with Sts Bonaventure and the Blessed Luca Belludi (Pl. 58)

Venice, Accademia

c.1480

Panel: 234 × 140 cm

Inscribed: LAZARUS, BASTIANUS/P.

From the altar of St Anthony (first on the right of the main entrance) in the Frari, and presumably commissioned by the patron of the altar, the Scuola di S. Antonio da Padova.

Bibl.: Moschini Marconi (1955), pp. 54–5; Humfrey (1988a), p. 408.

33 PIETRO LOMBARDO

Sts Andrew and Philip (lower tier); Four angels (upper tier); God the Father (apex) (SS. Giovanni e Paolo polyptych) (Pl. 257)

Venice, SS. Giovanni e Paolo

c.1480–5

Marble: 137/9 cm high (male saints, including bases); 48 × 62 cm (angel reliefs)

The central figure of St Mary Magdalen, by Bartolomeo Bergamasco, originally formed part of the Verde della Scala altarpiece (App. 97), and was incorporated into the present work in 1810. According to sources quoted by Schulz (1977b) the central niche was previously occupied by the statue of a standing Madonna, which was customarily clothed in real draperies; this was almost certainly a fourteenth-century image, still much revered in the later fifteenth century, but regarded as artistically worthless by the beginning of the nineteenth. As shown by Schulz, the donor may be identified as one Filippa di Giovanni Benedetti who, in a will of 1480 ordered an altarpiece to be commissioned for her recently acquired chapel, situated immediately to the right (in cornu epistolae) of the chancel of SS. Giovanni e Paolo, and dedicated to the Virgin. The two saints were clearly chosen as the name saints of the donor and of her brother Andrea Benedetti, both of whom are buried in front of the altar. More controversially, Schulz also suggests that the angel reliefs and statue of St Andrew were executed according to designs by Verrocchio. For the status of the Benedetti family as Venetian citizens (cittadini originari), see Da Mosto (1937), 1, p. 74. Text, Chap. 8.

34 PIETRO LOMBARDO

Nativity (Pl. 267)

Venice, Seminario Patriarcale

c.1480

Marble: 108 × 88 cm (relief); 134 cm wide (base of frame)

From S. Andrea della Certosa; nothing is known of the commission. The iconography, with an adoring Madonna and an oversized Child sucking his fingers, suggests that the sculpture was inspired by Florentine models, such as, for example, a relief by Antonio Rossellino of c.1477 (Florence, Bargello). For a dating on stylistic grounds to c.1480 (by analogy with the Three Maries relief in the lunette of the Doge Pietro Mocenigo tomb [Pl. 182]), see Sheard (1984), p. 169 n. 9. Text, Chap. 8.

35 BARTOLOMEO VIVARINI

Virgin and Child with Sts Andrew, Nicholas, Paul and Peter; Man of Sorrows (pinnacle) (Ca’ Bernardo triptych) (Pl. 206)

Venice, Frari

1482

Four panels: 175 × 75 cm (Virgin and Child); 171 × 68 cm (each of sides); 104 × 75 cm (pinnacle)

Inscribed: BARTHOLOMEUS VIVARINUS/DE MURIANO PINXIT. 1482

In its original frame in its original chapel, third to the right of the chancel. Small painted tondi on the base of the frame contain half-length representations of Sts Francis and Sebastian, and the arms of the noble Bernardo family; the pinnacle is flanked by kneeling angels carved in wood. The chapel, which the Apostolic Visitation of 1581 records with a dedication to the Visitation (Ritzler [1969], p. 169), was conceded to the Bernardo family in 1482 (Sartori [1949], pp. 115–16); family tombs survive on the walls. Sartori suggests that the author of the frame was the same Jacopo da Faenza who signed that of Bellini’s triptych also in the Frari (App. 38); indeed, Jacopo had previously collaborated with Bartolomeo in the St Ambrose polyptych of 1477 (App. 24).

Add. bibl.: Pallucchini (1962), p. 126.

36 ALVISE VIVARINI

Virgin and Child with Sts George, Peter, Catherine of Alexandria, Lucy, John the Evangelist and Sebastian (Belluno altarpiece) (Pl. 36)

Formerly Berlin, Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum (destroyed 1945)

c.1485–6

Panel: 385 × 231 cm

Inscribed: ALVIXE. VIVARIN

From the high altar of S. Maria dei Battuti, Belluno, and presumably commissioned by the local Scuola dei Battuti. According to Lanzi (1795–6), ed. 1968, p. 13, the painter was paid 100 ducats plus expenses, but no documents are now known. Dated by Steer (1982), pp. 48–9, 135, to c.1490; dated slightly earlier, to c.1485–6, by Lucco (1987), pp. 164–5 (and idem [1990b], pp. 583–4), on external as well as internal stylistic evidence. Text, Chap. 6.

37 CIMA DA CONEGLIANO AND ANONYMOUS SCULPTOR

St Bartholomew (wooden statue) with Sts Sebastian, Peter, John the Baptist and Roch (main tier); Sts Jerome, Catherine, Lucy and Francis (upper tier); Virgin and Child (pinnacle) (Pl. 117)

Olera (Bergamo), parish church

c.1486–8

Nine panels: 136 × 46 (main tier); 56 × 46 (upper tier); 86 × 65 (pinnacle)

The original frame, which incorporates figurative elements, is possibly by the carver of the central sculpture. For the dating, see Humfrey (1983), pp. 23–4, 133.

38 GIOVANNI BELLINI

Virgin and Child with Nicholas, Peter, Mark and Benedict (Frari triptych) (Pl. 207)

Venice, Frari

1488

Three panels: 184 × 79 cm; 115 × 46 cm (each of sides)

Inscribed: IOANNES BELLINUS/F/1488 (on the base of the throne); IANUA CERTA POLI DUC MENTEM DIRIGE VITAM QUAE PERAGAM COMMISSA TUAE SINT OMNIA CURAE (‘Sure gate of heaven, lead my mind, direct my life, may all that I do be committed to thy care’) (in the vault)

The name of the carver of the frame, Jacopo da Faenza, with the date 1488, is inscribed on the back: see Paoletti (1902), p. 125. Commissioned by the noble Pesaro family of S. Benedetto, which held juspatronatus of the sacristy chapel. The invocation of the Virgin in the vault inscription is interpreted by Goffen (1985), pp. 57–61, as evidence that the work alludes to the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception; this interpretation may be accepted, however, only with considerable reservation. Text, Chap. 6.

Add. bibl: Robertson (1968), pp. 87–9; Keydel (1969), pp. 163–76; Goffen (1989), pp. 160–2.

39 (?) GIOVANNI BUORA

Virgin and Child with Sts James Major and James Minor, and Jacopo Surian and his Wife as Donors (Surian altarpiece) (Pl. 270)

c.1488–93

Bronze relief: c.142 × 120 cm

Inscribed (on the base of the Virgin’s throne): ARISTO/TILES; GALI/ENUS; IACO/BUS/SURI/ANUS; RURA.DOMUS/NUMMI.FE/LIX.HINC/GLORIA/FLUX/IT (‘Land, house and money: from these flowed a blessed reputation’)

The relief, now placed high on the wall in the right nave of the church, originally adorned the now-demolished Surian altar, situated next to the donor’s tomb monument (in situ) to the left of the main entrance of S. Stefano (Apollonio [1911], p. 22). Padre Nicolai, Memorie MS sopra la chiesa e monastero di S. Stefano in Venezia (Venice, Biblioteca Correr, Ms Cicogna 1877, unpaginated), transcribes a request of 1742 by the Surian heirs to demolish the altar which had long fallen into disuse; the altarpiece was presumably moved to its present position soon afterwards. Although the base with its supporting brackets and the curved pediment must date from this time, the fluted half-columns and the entablature seem to be original. The Surian tomb is datable on circumstantial evidence to c.1488–93, and has been plausibly attributed to Pietro Lombardo’s assistant Giovanni Buora (Munman [1976]); and it seems reasonable to suppose not only that the altarpiece dates from the same years, but that it, too, is by Buora. Certainly the fluted columns of the frame, unparalleled in Venetian altarpieces at this early date, recur in the tomb; and the two works are also closely comparable in figure style. In the past the relief has been attributed more generically to the school of Pietro Lombardo. Text, Chap. 8.

40 PIETRO LOMBARDO

St John the Baptist with Sts Bartholomew and Mark (Colleoni altarpiece) (Pl. 265)

Bergamo, S. Maria Maggiore, Colleoni chapel

Completed 1490

Marble statues: 120/123 cm high

According to documents published by Meli (1965), the three statues were sent from Venice to Bergamo in November 1490. The funerary chapel of the condottiere Bartolomeo Colleoni was begun soon after his death in 1475 by Amadeo, and a document of 1477 suggests that the same sculptor was originally supposed to execute the altarpiece; but after he entered the service of the Duke of Milan, the committee of Venetian patricians who were acting as Colleoni’s executors evidently commissioned the work from Pietro Lombardo. In November 1490 the executors entered into a dispute with the officers of the Pio Luogo della Pietà in Bergamo, the local body responsible for the upkeep of the Colleoni chapel, regarding the costs of transporting the completed statues. Pietro is recorded in Bergamo on 14 May 1491, and Meli suggests that he had gone to install the statues in time for the feast of St John the Baptist—the titular saint of the chapel—on 24 June. The other two saints were evidently chosen respectively as the name saint of Colleoni and as the patron of the Venetian Republic. The altarpiece was dismantled in the seventeenth century, and its original architectural framework is lost. Text, Chap. 8.

41 VITTORE CARPACCIO

The Glorification of St Ursula (Pl. 51)

Venice, Accademia

1491

Canvas: 481 × 336 cm

Inscribed: OP. VICTORIS/CARPATIO/MCCCCLXXXXI

From the Scuola di S. Orsola at SS. Giovanni e Paolo, together with Carpaccio’s other eight canvases with scenes from the life of the saint. The authenticity of the date has often been questioned, and some critics have supposed that the work was radically altered in the first decade of the sixteenth century; but a recent technical examination has not confirmed this supposition. For further discussion of the problem, see Humfrey (1991a), p. 28. Text, Chaps. 1 and 6.

42 CIMA DA CONEGLIANO

Virgin and Child with Sts John the Baptist, Nicholas, Catherine, Apollonia, Francis and Peter (Conegliano altarpiece) (Pl. 198)

Conegliano, Duomo

1492–3

Panel, transferred to canvas: 345 × 202 cm

In place above the high altar of the former church of S. Maria dei Battuti. The commission by the Scuola dei Battuti is documented by a preliminary decision (January 1492), a contract with the painter (four days later), an evaluation of the completed work (May 1493), and a series of payments (Humfrey [1983], pp. 94–6, 197–9). From the documents it emerges (among other things) that the work was painted in Venice, and that the painter agreed to accept an unusually low fee (amounting to 65 ducats) out of loyalty to his native city. Text, Chap. 6.

43 CIMA DA CONEGLIANO

Baptism of Christ (Pl. 81)

Venice, S. Giovanni in Bragora

1492–4

Panel: 350 × 210 cm

Documented by a series of payments amounting to 80 ducats, entered into the account-books of the parish archive (Humfrey [1983], pp. 199–201; cf also pp. 157–8). The contract has not survived, but a record of payment quotes the date of 8 December 1492; from other references it is clear that the painting had been installed above the high altar by the end of 1494. The account-books also record payments for the frame, made between December 1492 and October 1493, to the carver Sebastiano da Milano, resident in S. Luca. It was incorrectly assumed in Humfrey (1980) that this Sebastiano was identical with Sebastiano Mariani, the carver of the now-demolished choir-screen at S. Giovanni in Bragora, and known for a number of other works (Schulz [1983c]; but the latter came from Lugano, not Milan. Early in 1495 the completed frame was partially gilded; it was surrounded with a frieze by the decorative painter Tommaso di Zorzi; and the painting was provided with a curtain. Text, Chap. 6.

44 CIMA DA CONEGLIANO

St John the Baptist with Sts Peter, Mark, Jerome and Paul (St John the Baptist altarpiece) (Pl. 131)

Venice, Madonna dell’Orto

c.1493–5

Panel: 305 × 205 cm

The escutcheon carved at the centre of the stone frame (Pl. 200) is that of the citizen Saraceno dal Zio family; the donor is therefore identifiable as either Leonardo Saraceno, or his nephew Pietro, business partners in the spice trade (Humfrey [1979]; idem [1983], pp. 160–1). For the dating, see Humfrey (1983), pp. 30–1. Text, Chap. 6.

45 ALVISE VIVARINI

Virgin and Child with Sts John the Baptist, Jerome, Augustine and Sebastian (S. Cristoforo altarpiece) (Pl. 197)

Berlin, Staatliche Museen

c.1494–5

Panel: 259 × 181 cm

From S. Cristoforo della Pace. It is not clear from the sources where it was situated in the now-demolished church, and the donor has not been identified. Lucco (1990a), p. 468, has argued for a dating to c.1494–5, slightly earlier than that proposed by Steer (1982), pp. 136–7. Text, Chap. 6.

46 CIMA DA CONEGLIANO

Virgin and Child with Sts Peter, Romuald, Benedict and Paul (Boldù altarpiece) (Pl. 202)

Berlin, Staatliche Museen

c.1495–7

Panel: 206 × 135 cm

Inscribed: Joannis baptiste Conegli/anesis opus

From the Boldù chapel, S. Michele in Isola. Presumably commissioned either by Pietro Boldù, abbot of S. Maria delle Carceri near Este, who was buried in front of the altar in 1495, or by his nephew and heir Domenico Boldù. For the dating, see Humfrey (1983), pp. 32–3. Text, Chap. 6.

47 CIMA DA CONEGLIANO

Virgin and Child with Sts Jerome and Louis of Toulouse (Madonna of the Orange-Tree) (Pl. 75)

Venice, Accademia

c.1496–8

Panel: 212 × 139 cm

Inscribed: IOA. BAPT. CONEGL.

From S. Chiara, Murano, apsidal chapel in cornu epistolae. For the dating, see Humfrey (1983), pp. 34–6. Text, Chap. 6.

48 CIMA DA CONEGLIANO

Virgin and Child with Sts Michael and Andrew (Parma altarpiece) (Pl. 202)

Parma, Galleria Nazionale

Panel: 194 × 134 cm

From the former church of SS. Annunziata, Parma (demolished 1546). For the dating, see Humfrey (1982); idem (1983), p. 36. Text, Chap. 6.

49 GIOVANNI AGOSTINO DA LODI

Virgin and Child with Sts John the Baptist, (?) Nicholas, Augustine and George (Barcaiuoli altarpiece) (Pl. 249)

Murano, S. Pietro Martire

c.1497–8

Panel: c.266 × 180 cm

From the altar of the Scuola dei Barcaiuoli (ferrymen) in the church of S. Cristoforo della Pace, founded with the permission of the local congregation of Augustinian Hermits in 1492 (Simonetto [1988], p. 73). For the dating to c.1497–8, shortly after Alvise Vivarini’s altarpiece for the same church (App. 45; Pl. 197) and Cima’s Madonna of the Orange-Tree (App. 47; Pl. 75), see Lucco (1990a), p. 472. The identity of the bishop saints is uncertain, but the one on the left, who wears the habit of the Augustinian Hermits, is likely to be Augustine, especially since he appears in the same guise in Alvise’s altarpiece. The one on the right may be Nicholas of Bari despite the absence of his customary attribute of the golden balls. Besides being a favourite of the order as a namesake of Nicholas of Tolentino, he was a patron of mariners, and hence also of ferrymen. The relief of St Christopher at the base of the Virgin’s throne similarly refers both to the dedication of the church and to the profession of the donors. Text, Chap. 7.

Add. bibl.: Steer (1982), pp. 197–8; Moro (1989), p. 29.

50 ALVISE VIVARINI

Resurrection of Christ (Pl. 218)

Venice, S. Giovanni in Bragora

1497–8

Panel: 145 × 75 cm

Three predella panels represent St Mark; Christ with a Chalice; St John the Evangelist. Documented by a series of payments amounting to 40 ducats from the parish priest dated 1497–8 (Paoletti and Ludwig [1899], p. 272; see also Humfrey [1980], pp. 360–3). The account-books also record payments to Alessandro da Caravaggio for the now-lost wooden frame. Steer (1982), pp. 159–60, suggested that the panel was originally rectangular; but proof that the opening of its frame was always arched is provided by a contemporary document, which shows that Alessandro was required to make the frame of Cima’s companion-piece (the Constantine and Helena, Pl. 219) ‘like that of the altar of the Sacrament in every particular, in both carpentry and decorative detail’ (‘ala sjmiletudine intuto et per tuto . . . e quele del chorpo del nostro Signor si per lo ljgname como per lo intaglio’) (Humfrey [1980], p. 361; idem [1983], p. 201). Text, Chap. 6.

51 LATTANZIO DA RIMINI

St Martin and the beggar (main field); Sts Paul and Peter and Sts James and John the Evangelist (main tier, sides); Sts Francis and Michael and Sts John the Baptist and (?) Bernard (upper tier) (St Martin polyptych) (Pl. 116)

Church of S. Martino, near Piazza Brembana (Bergamo)

1499–1501; frame not original

Five panels: 300 × 118 cm (centre); 184 × 75 cm each (main tier, sides); 74 × 75 cm each (upper tier)

The documents, published by Paoletti (1893), pp. 113–14 (see also Ludwig [1905], pp. 31–2), may be summarised as follows. In June 1499 a group of men from the Brembo valley living in Venice, some of them representatives of various Bergamask confraternities, met to form a syndicate for the purpose of commissioning an altarpiece from their home parish of S. Martino. Soon afterwards the group met again, together with a cleric from S. Martino, to commission a polyptych from the woodcarver Alessandro da Caravaggio. Its design was to be in accordance with a drawing approved by the syndicate, and the carver, working at his own expense, was to receive 46 ducats. In July of the following year, Lattanzio da Rimini was employed to paint the panels. Among the stipulations of his contract, he was required to make his figures as beautiful and praiseworthy as those of Cima’s Baptism in S. Giovanni in Bragora (App. 43) (‘in ogni bonta beleza . . . taliter che siano laudate de tanta bonta . . . [?] zoe de beleza de quele che sono sopra la pala grande de san Zuan Bragola’). For this he was to receive 80 ducats, on the condition that his work was satisfactory. Lattanzio and Alessandro were made jointly responsible for conveying the completed work safely from Venice to its distant mountain destination. The frame no longer survives.

52 CIMA DA CONEGLIANO

Virgin and Child with Sts (?) Catherine, George, Nicholas, Anthony Abbot, Sebastian and (?) Lucy (Dragan altarpiece) (Pl. 66)

Venice, Accademia

c.1499–1501

Panel: 412 × 210 cm

From the altar of the naval captain Giorgio Dragan, to the right of the choir area in S. Maria della Carita. The original stone frame was attributed by Sansovino (1581), ed. 1666, p. 267, to Cristoforo Solari (‘il Gobbo’) of Milan; it must, therefore, have dated from 1493–5, when Cristoforo is known to have been in Venice (Schulz [1989]). For stylistic reasons, Cima’s painting is datable to slightly later: see Humfrey (1983), pp. 40, 147–50. Text, Chaps. 2 and 6.

53 GIORGIONE

Virgin and Child with Sts George and Francis (Castelfranco altarpiece) (Pl. 225)

Castelfranco, Duomo

c.1500

Panel: 200 × 152 cm

First recorded in the Costanzo chapel, the first on the right in the Duomo in 1584: see Anderson (1973); Pedrocco in Giorgione: La Pala di Castelfranco (1978). Its present chapel dates from as recently as 1935. For the dating to c.1500 rather than the more traditional 1504, see Anderson (1973); Lucco (1988), p. 208, with references. Text, Chap. 7.

Add. bibl: Pignatti (1969), ed. 1971, pp. 54–7, 96–7.

54 BOCCACCIO BOCCACCINO

Virgin and Child with Sts Peter, Michael, John the Baptist and John the Evangelist (S. Giuliano altarpiece) (Pl. 250)

Venice, S. Giuliano

c.1500–1

Panel: 265 × 160 cm

Inscribed: B.B.

The painting no longer hangs above its intended altar, and its original placing and donor have not hitherto been identified. But from the list of altar dedications recorded in the Apostolic Visitation of 1581, it is possible to deduce that it belonged to the altar founded by the parish priest Giovanni Grimani (ACP, Visita apostolica 1581, ff. 102r-107r: ‘Altare Sanctae Mariae q. Reverendi d. plebani Joanis Grimani habet pallam decentem’). The two St Johns are therefore present as name saints of the donor. According to the list of the parish priests published by Corner (1749), iv—v, p. 340, Giovanni Grimani held office from 1483 until his death on 26 January 1502; and in his will, drawn up 20 days earlier, he provides funds for masses to be celebrated at his altar, which he says has already been equipped with an altarpiece (copy in ACP, S. Giuliano, Commissarie B. 1, ff. 2–2v, 6 January more veneto: ‘Item lasso una mansionaria perpetual meza al mio altare e pala che ho fatto fare depenzer al ditto altar nella giexia di san Zulian’). This reference provides a new terminus ante quem for the execution of the altarpiece, and refutes the traditionally accepted dating to c.1509–10. In a recent public lecture A. Ballarin independently argued, on purely stylistic evidence, for a redating of the work to c.1500–02: see Tanzi (1990), p. 24. Text, Chap. 7.

Add. bibl: Puerari (1957), pp. 102–5, 228

55 GIOVANNI BELLINI

Baptism of Christ (Pl. 236)

Vicenza, S. Corona

c.1500–02

Panel: 410 × 265 cm

Inscribed: IOANNES/BELLINUS

In situ in its original frame in the left nave (Pl. 233). The altar, dedicated to the Baptist, was founded in 1500 by Battista Graziani, Count Palatine, in fulfilment of a vow made on the banks of the Jordan during a pilgrimage to the Holy Land (Bortolan [1889], pp. 263–9; Ciofetta [1991], p. 77). In his will of 1522, the donor asked to buried in front of the altar, dressed in the habit of a pilgrim, together with his wife and two children, who had predeceased him. The stonework of the frame, which was originally extensively polychromed as well as gilded, was installed in 1502 ‘per adornar la pala’; and it is generally accepted that Bellini’s painting must also have been completed and installed by this date. The frame is usually attributed to the local stonemason Rocco da Vicenza (Arslan [1956], pp. 56–7; Cevese [1987], pp. 78–9); but for an alternative attribution to Bernardino da Como and Tommaso da Milano (respectively uncle and father of Rocco), see Ciofetta, p. 80, with references. The figure of the Resurrected Christ on the apex provides a thematically appropriate complement both to Bellini’s painting, and to the family sepulchre in front of the altar. The donor’s name has traditionally been given as Garzadori; but as explained by Ciofetta (p. 81), this surname, referring to his family’s association with the wool trade, was never used by him and was applied to the altar only in the seventeenth century. Text, Chap. 7.

Add. bibl: Goffen (1989), pp. 163–71

56 ALVISE VIVARINI AND MARCO BASAITI

St Ambrose Enthroned with Sts Sebastian, Gervase, Protasius, John the Baptist, Gregory, Francis, Augustine and Jerome (St Ambrose altarpiece) (Pl. 55)

Venice, Frari

c.1500–10

Panel: c.500 × 246 cm

In situ in the former chapel of the Scuola dei Milanesi (third left from the chancel). Presumably commissioned by the Scuola around 1494 (Fogolari [1931], no. 11). A now fragmentary inscription on the cartellino, transcribed by Moschini in 1815, records that the work was completed by Basaiti after Alvise’s death, which took place between 1503 and 1505. An inscription commemorating the dedication of the altar in 1503 on the stone base of the original wooden frame implies that the frame had been installed by this date. For a discussion of the respective contributions of Alvise and Basaiti, see Steer (1982), pp. 84–7, 163–4. In contrast to the opinion of Pallucchini (1962), pp. 69–70, the author minimises the role of Alvise, seeing him as responsible only for the figures of Ambrose, the two in armour on either side of him and the group on the right, and attributing the rest of the painting to Basaiti.

Previous confusion regarding the identity of some of the saints has been clarified by Robertson (1991), pp. 81–2, who points out that the two soldier saints on the left must be the twin martyrs of Milan, Gervase and Protasius, whose cult was closely associated with that of Ambrose; and that the two armed men on either side of Ambrose are not saints but bodyguards, bearing the insignia of his authority as Roman governor of Milan. Text, Chaps. 3 and 7.

57 PIETRO LOMBARDO AND SHOP

Lamentation over the Dead Christ with Sts Nicholas, (?) Andrew, Helena, James (Gussoni altarpiece) (Pl. 269)

Venice, S. Lio

(?) c.1501

Marble: c.128 cm (width of relief)

In its original position in the Gussoni chapel, to the right (in cornu epistolae) of the high altar of S. Lio. To judge from a reference in the apostolic visitation of 1581, the chapel was dedicated to the Holy Sacrament: ‘Capella Corporis Christi decens, habet altare cum Icona ex marmore, locum est in quo servatur Sanctum Sacramentum’ (ACP, Visita apostolica 1581, ff. 290–5). In accordance with this dedication is the subject, and the Name of Jesus monogram in the lunette. Sansovino (1581), ed. 1663, p. 41, describes the chapel as a ‘memoria’ of the Senator Jacopo Gussoni. The construction of the chapel is usually dated to the decade before his death in 1501 (McAndrew [1980], p. 39; Lieberman [1982] no. 48); but the altarpiece may have been commissioned by his sons and heirs Giovanni and Vincenzo. As emphasised by Paoletti (1893), p. 194, the quality of the carving is rather poor; and the figure of Christ is apparently based on that of Tullio’s boy in his Miracle of the Repentant Youth of c.1500–02 in the Cappella del Santo in Padua. Text, Chap. 8.

58 TULLIO LOMBARDO

Coronation of the Virgin (Pl. 271)

Venice, S. Giovanni Crisostomo

1501–2

Marble: c.270 × 200 cm

Signed: TVLLII LOMBARDI OPVS

In situ in the main left-hand chapel of the church, dedicated to the Apostles (Tramontin [1967], p. 510). Following the serious damage by fire of the previous church in 1475, work on the present structure was begun according to a design by Codussi in 1497, and the chapel of the Apostles was built in 1499–1501. The altarpiece was probably begun soon after 7 December 1500, when a stonemason was paid for supplying the two slabs of marble from which it was carved; and it was probably complete by 1502, when the previous altarpiece was ceded to the nuns of S. Maria Maggiore (documents in Paoletti [1893], pp. 110–11; Odenthal [1985], pp. 153–5, 162–5). The commission was supervised by the officers of the Scuola Grande della Misericordia, acting as trustees of the silk merchant Jacopo Bernabò, who had died in 1438 and who was buried in another chapel endowed by him in S. Stefano (Apollonio [1911], pp. 11–12). Text, Chap. 8.

Add. bibl.: Pope-Hennessy (1958) ed. 1985, p. 341; Sheard (1971), pp. 155–60; Wilk (1978), pp. 85–126.

59 CIMA DA CONEGLIANO

Incredulity of Thomas (Pl. 239)

London, National Gallery

1504

Panel, transferred to a synthetic support: 294 × 200 cm

Inscribed: Joanes Baptiste Coneglane(n)sis/opus 1504

From S. Francesco, Portogruaro, altar of the Scuola di S. Tommaso dei Battuti. Documented by a preliminary decision of May 1497, by a series of payments made to Cima by the Scuola between 1502 and 1509, and by records of litigation regarding the artist’s fee, which finally amounted to 135 ducats (Humfrey [1983], pp. 110–111; 202–4). The documents also record payments to various other craftsmen involved in the manufacture and installation of the altarpiece. Text, Chaps. 4 and 7.

60 CIMA DA CONEGLIANO

Incredulity of Thomas, with St Magnus of Oderzo (Pl. 240)

Venice, Accademia

c.1504–5

Panel: 215 × 151 cm

From the premises of the Scuola dei Mureri (builders) at S. Samuele; Thomas and Magnus were its patron saints. For the dating, based on circumstantial as well as stylistic evidence, see Humfrey (1983), pp. 151–2, with references. Text, Chap. 7.

61 ANTONIO LOMBARDO AND OTHERS

Virgin and Child with Sts Peter and John the Baptist; God the Father (relief on vault of baldachin) (Zen altarpiece) (Pls. 109, 274)

Venice, San Marco, Zen chapel

1504–18

Bronze: c.155 cm high (Virgin); c.209 cm high (standing saints)

Inscribed: PETRI. IOANNIS. CAMPINATI. MDXV

The funerary chapel of Cardinal Giovanni Battista Zen is situated in the bay at the south-west corner of the narthex of San Marco. The sculptural decoration in bronze comprises, in addition to the three statues of the altarpiece, a pedimented baldachin, an altar frontal representing the Resurrection, and the cardinal’s free-standing tomb monument. The extensive documentation of the work, first published in the nineteenth century, has been revised, expanded and reassessed by Jestaz (1986); and his reconstruction of the history of the chapel may be summarised as follows. In a will of April 1501, and in a number of subsequent codicils, Cardinal Zen expressed his wish to be buried in the south transept of San Marco; and he provided the huge sum of 5,000 ducats to cover the cost of commissioning a bronze tomb-cum-altarpiece, of a design that he describes in detail (Jestaz, pp. 23–7, 177–8). In January 1504 the Procurators of San Marco De Citra, acting as Zen’s executors, employed the sculptor Antonio Lombardo and the bronze-caster Alessandro Leopardi to undertake the work, according to a very detailed contract (ibid., pp. 30ff; 185–9). Already by this time the present site in the narthex (rather than the south transept) had been chosen, and the Cardinal’s tomb was no longer combined with the altar. In May 1505 Zanin Alberghetti and Piero delle Campane (who was later to place his signature at the base of the Virgin’s throne) were taken on to replace Leopardi, and in May 1506 Paolo Savin replaced Antonio Lombardo, who had left Venice for the court of Ferrara. Progress was interrupted by the war of Cambrai (1509–12); and by January 1512 only the figure of the Baptist had been cast, while the other two statues, the baldachin and the tomb remained in the form of wax models (ibid., pp. 76, 203–4). In the same month, overall charge of the commission was taken by Antonio’s brother Tullio, who introduced a number of important modifications into the design of the baldachin, including the replacement of the surmounting lunette with a triangular pediment, and the transfer of the God the Father relief from the lunette to the ceiling. The baldachin was installed in 1515, and the altar in 1518; the tomb was executed in May of the same year; and the complex was complete in 1521. Text, Chap. 8.

Add. bibl.: Pope-Hennessy (1958), ed. 1985, pp. 344–5.

62 GIOVANNI BELLINI

Virgin and Child with Sts Peter, Catherine, Lucy and Jerome (S. Zaccaria altarpiece) (Pl. 80)

Venice, S. Zaccaria

1505

Canvas, transferred from panel: 402 × 273 cm

Inscribed: IOANNES BELLINUS/MCCCCCV

In place above the second altar on the left. Transferred to canvas when in Paris between 1797 and 1816, and reduced in height by a total of 76 cm (Sponza [1987], p. 172). Boschini (1664), p. 175, and Zanetti (1771), p. 51, call the female martyr to the Virgin’s left Agatha, but she carries the attributes of Lucy. Text, Chap. 7.

Add. bibl.: Robertson (1968), pp. 1–2, 116–17; Huse (1971), pp. 73–8; Goffen (1989), pp. 171–7.

63 LORENZO LOTTO

Virgin and Child with Sts Peter, Christina, Liberale and Jerome; Dead Christ with Angels (St Christina altarpiece) (Pl. 230)

S. Cristina al Tiverone (Treviso), parish church

c.1505–6

Two panels: 175 × 162 cm (main field); 90 × 180 cm (lunette)

Inscribed: LAUTENTIUS/LOTUS/P.

The minutes of a litigation concerning Lotto’s fee in May 1506 record that although the artist had originally agreed to accept 50 ducats, his claim for a further 40 for the completed work was upheld by an ecclesiastical tribunal (Biscaro [1898]). Payments made to a wood-carver and a gilder for a ‘pallam altari deauratam’ in November 1507 were convincingly connected by Biscaro with Lotto’s original frame. But this was replaced by the present one in 1623, at the time of the reconstruction of the church; a hypothetical reconstruction of the original is provided by Manzato (1981), pp. 121–2. As shown by Liberali (1963), pp. 9–10, the young painter almost certainly won the commission through his close association with the Bishop of Treviso, Bernardo de’ Rossi. Text, Chap. 7.

Add. bibl.: Spiazzi (1980); Matthew (1988a), pp. 398–401, with references.

64 CIMA DA CONEGLIANO

St Peter Martyr with Sts Nicholas and Benedict (St Peter Martyr altarpiece) (Pl. 13)

Milan, Brera

c.1505–6

Panel: 330 × 216 cm

Inscribed: joan(n)is baptiste cima/Coneglensis

From the third altar on the right, dedicated to St Peter Martyr, in the now demolished Dominican nun’s church of Corpus Domini. According to an inscription in front of the altar, it was founded by the Venetian citizen Niccolò Carlone; and the altarpiece was commissioned according to the will made in 1504 by his son Benedetto, a spice-merchant and one time Guardian Grande of the Scuola della Carita. See Humfrey (1983), pp. 41–3, 122–3, with references. There is evidence of an original stone frame, carved in 1505–6. Text, Chap. 7.

65 LORENZO LOTTO

Assumption of the Virgin, with Sts Anthony Abbot and Louis of Toulouse (Pl. 247)

Asolo, Duomo

1506

Panel: 175 × 161 cm

Inscribed: LAURENT. LOTUS IUNIOR. M.D.VI

Almost certainly from the meeting-room of the Scuola di S. Maria dei Battuti, built next to the Duomo. The present frame, incorporating a predella from another altarpiece, dates from the early nineteenth century, when the picture was moved to its present site. The Scuola was responsible for administering the local hospital, and this fact probably accounts both for the dedication of its altar in the Duomo to Anthony Abbot, and for the prominent presence of the saint in Lotto’s altarpiece. See Dillon in Dillon (1980); Matthew (1988a), pp. 318–22, with references. Text, Chap. 7.

66 ALBRECHT DÜRER

Feast of the Rosegarlands (Pl. 103)

Prague, National Gallery

1506

Panel: 162 × 195 cm

Inscribed: Albertus Dürer Germanus; Exegit quinque mestri spatio . . . MDVI

Painted for the altar to the right (in cornu epistolae) of the high altar of S. Bartolomeo di Rialto, dedicated to the Virgin of the Rosary. The progress of the commission is documented by the series of letters sent by Dürer in Venice to Wilibald Pirckheimer in Nuremberg (Rupprich [1956], pp. 39–60). On 6 January 1506 Dürer wrote that he had been commissioned to paint a panel, and that the planks were being prepared; on 7 February he began to sketch in the underdrawing; on 5 September the doge and the patriarch came to admire the completed work. The painter’s fee was 110 Rhenish florins, or about 85 Venetian ducats. He refers to his employers simply as ‘die Tewtzschen’, and in the past there has been much speculation about who these Germans might have been. But from recent research on the origins of the cult of the rosary in Italy (Niero, 1974), it emerges that Dürer must have been referring to the Scuola del Rosario, or confraternity of the German community in Venice, which had been founded at S. Bartolomeo in March 1504. It seems reasonable, therefore, to identify the man with the rosary kneeling directly behind the Emperor as the founder of the confraternity, one ‘leonardo vilt’, probably identifiable with the printer Leonhard Wild, originally of Augsburg (Humfrey [1986b]; Saffrey [1989]). Saffrey also identifies the figure of St Dominic, standing immediately behind the Pope, as a portrait of the distinguished Dominican humanist Johannes Cuno, a native of Nuremberg and friend of Pirckheimer, and who is known to have been in Venice in these very months. For further identifications of the many portrait-like heads with specific persons, see Anzelewsky (1971), pp. 192–6, with references; Saffrey (1989), The only certain one is that of Dürer himself, who stands in the right background, holding the scroll with the inscription. Text, Chaps. 3 and 7.

67 CIMA DA CONEGLIANO

Virgin and Child with Sts John the Baptist, Cosmas, Damian, Apollonia, Catherine and John the Evangelist (Montini altarpiece) (Pl. 223)

Parma, Galleria Nazionale

c.1506–8

Panel: 209 × 125 cm

Inscribed: Joannes Baptista Coni/ . . . nsis opus

From the chapel founded by Canon Bartolomeo Montini in the right transept of Parma Cathedral. For the circumstances of the commission and the dating, see Humfrey (1982); idem (1983), pp. 44–5, 137–8, with references. The fictive apse mosaic is derived from the Deesis on the inside entrance wall of San Marco, with the figure of St Mark in the original transformed into that of the donor’s name saint, Bartholomew.

68 VITTORE CARPACCIO

St Thomas Aquinas enthroned with Sts Mark and Louis of Toulouse (St Thomas Aquinas altarpiece) (Pl. 224)

Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie

1507

Panel: 264 × 171 cm

Inscribed: OP/VICTOR CARPATHIUS/M.D. VII

From the altar of St Thomas Aquinas in the left aisle of the Dominican church of S. Pietro Martire, Murano. The donor was identified by Ludwig and Molmenti (1906) as the Venetian citizen Tommaso Licinio, owner of a glass foundry on the island, who was buried beside the altar in 1523; the small boy represented in the picture is therefore identifiable as Licinio’s son Alvise. See Humfrey (1991a), p. 102, with references. Text, Chap. 7.

69 FRA BARTOLOMEO

God the Father with Sts Mary Magdalen and Catherine of Siena (St Catherine of Siena altarpiece) (Pl. 90)

Lucca, Museo Nazionale di Villa Guinigi

1508–9

Canvas: 365 × 232 cm

According to documents dated 1512 published by Marchese (1854), II, pp. 363–5, and amplified by Borgo (1968), ed. 1976, pp. 323–5, the work was commissioned by Bartolomeo d’Alzano, prior of S. Pietro Martire, Murano, when the artist was in Venice in April 1508. It was agreed that he should be paid between 70 and 100 ducats, according to the opinion of experts, after the work had been completed. The painting was executed in Florence in the second half of 1508 and in early 1509; but in 1511 the friars of Murano still had not taken delivery. After their failure to respond to a final deadline in 1512, the painter donated the picture to the church of S. Romano in Lucca. There is good evidence to suppose that the altarpiece by Bissolo painted for S. Pietro Martire in 1513–15 (App. 83) was commissioned by the friars as a substitute (Humfrey [1990b]); Fra Bartolomeo’s altarpiece must also, therefore, have been originally intended for the first altar on the right of the nave. In addition to the inscription ‘Orate pro pictore’ with the date 1509 placed on the parapet to the right, the work carries three further inscriptions: DIVINUS AMOR EXSTASIM FACIT (on the scroll hald by the angel at the centre, from Pseudo-Dionysius, De divinis nominibus, IV:3); AMORE LANGEO (in gold, to the left of Catherine’s head, from Song of Songs, 2:5, 5:8); and NOSTRA CONVERSATIO IN COELIS EST (in gold, to the right of the Magdalen’s head, from Philippians, 3:20). See Steinberg (1974), with a detailed iconographic interpretation somewhat at variance with the one proposed here, and in Humfrey (1990b). Text, Chap. 7.

Add. bibl: Fischer (1990), pp. 157–67.

70 MARCO BASAITI

Calling of the Sons of Zebedee (Pl. 71)

Venice, Accademia

1510

Panel: 386 × 268 cm

Inscribed: M.D.X. M.BAXITI

From the high altar of the now demolished church of S. Andrea della Certosa. In a recent study Ottieri (1984) has plausibly suggested that the work was commissioned by Patriarch Antonio Surian, who as prior had undertaken the rebuilding of the church. The author also interprets the background as a paysage moralisé, full of symbolic references to the Patriarch’s commitment to the monastic life, despite his assumption of public office. In a reduced variant in Vienna dated 1515 (Pl. 245), in which the figure composition is reversed, the format is shown as arched, and enclosed within a marble classicising tabernacle frame. This frame was accepted by McAndrew (1969) as a faithful rendering of the lost frame of the altarpiece; and the author even used it as evidence for his reconstruction of the appearance of the church interior. Although such confidence in the accuracy of the variant may seem unwarranted, especially in view of the fantastic character of the two male nudes who clasp the columns at either side, technical examination of the Accademia painting undertaken by Luigi Sante Savio in 1990 has revealed that a strip c.15 cm high (corresponding, in other words, to the lower part of the foreground fisher boy, which is missing in the variant) is a later addition, and also that the level of the capitals of the original frame corresponded to the present upper edge (in other words, a semi-circular area above is now missing). Furthermore, the design of the frame in the variant, with the tall bases of its columns and the triangular pediment, is very close to the surviving frame of Basaiti’s Agony, also of 1510, in S. Giobbe (Pl. 244). It seems reasonable, therefore, to conclude that the original height of the painting measured some 5½ m, and that at least an approximate idea of the appearance of its frame is provided by the Vienna variant. Text, Chaps. 2 and 7.

71 MARCO BASAITI

Agony in the Garden, with Sts Louis of Toulouse, Francis, Dominic and Mark (Pl. 242)

Venice, Accademia

1510

Panel: 371 × 224 cm

Inscribed: 1510/MARCUS BASITUS

From the first altar on the right in S. Giobbe, where the original frame survives, bearing the arms of the noble Foscari family (Pl. 244). Cicogna (1824–61), VI, p. 562, identified the donor as Francesco di Filippo Foscari, a descendant of Doge Foscari, on the grounds that the four saints represented correspond to the name saints of himself and of his three sons. The inscribed date is sometimes read as 1516, but Rosand (1982), pp. 253–4, n. 128, convincingly argued in favour of reading it as 1510. The panel was cut round all four edges at the time of its removal from its frame in 1815, and as much as 20–30 cm may be missing from the upper edge. Text, Chap. 7.

72 VITTORE CARPACCIO

Presentation of Christ in the Temple (Pl. 241)

Venice, Accademia

1510

Panel: 421 × 236 cm

Inscribed: VICTOR CARPATHIUS/M.D.X

From the third altar on the right in S. Giobbe, where the original frame survives, bearing the arms of the noble Sanudo family (Pl. 243). Ludwig and Molmenti (1906), pp. 277ff, plausibly identified the donor as Pietro di Matteo Sanudo, who had been a co-executor of the will of Doge Cristoforo Moro, and who made a large bequest to the church in 1509 (see also Cicogna [1824–6], VI, p. 563). According to Sponza (1987), p. 168, about 10 cm were cut off the bottom of the panel at the time of its removal from the church in 1815. Text, Chap. 7.

73 GIOVANNI BELLINI AND ASSISTANTS

Assumption of the Virgin (Pl. 59)

Murano, S. Pietro Martire

c.1510

Panel: 350 × 190 cm

From the Augustinian nuns’ church of S. Maria degli Angeli on Murano, second altar on the left, dedicated to the Assumption (Zanetti [1863], pp. 49, 184–6). Contrary to what is commonly stated, there is no evidence that the work ever stood above the high altar. The subject is frequently identified as an Immaculate Conception (cf. Chap. 7, n. 34); but this is contradicted by the dedication of the altar. It is generally accepted that Bellini’s workshop was largely responsible for the execution. Text, Chap 7.

74 GIOVANNI BELLINI

Lamentation over the Dead Christ with Sts Martha and Filippo Benizzi (Pl. 238)

Venice, Accademia

c.1510

Canvas: 444 × 312 cm

From the first altar on the right in S. Maria dei Servi (Vicentini [1920], pp. 92–4). This was later called the altar of ‘Cristo morto’, but the acts of the Apostolic Visitation of 1581 record an earlier dedication to St Martha (ASVat, Congregazione del Concilio, Visitationes Apostolicae, 74, f. 68 r). As pointed out by Vicentini, the work was almost certainly commissioned by the Servite friars, who rebuilt the altar in 1510, on behalf of a group of female Servite tertiaries (‘Pizzochere’). The dedication to Martha argues against the identification by Benci and Stucky (1987) of the standing nun as St Giuliana Falconieri; nor does there seem good reason to follow the authors’ identification of the Servite friar as the Blessed Bonaventure Tornielli da Forli, rather than the more obvious St Filippo Benizzi. The authors are probably right, however, to reaffirm the quality of the work, to date it around 1510, and to reject the generally accepted view that Rocco Marconi played a major role in its execution. Text, Chap. 7.

75 GIOVANNI BUONCONSIGLIO

St Sebastian with Sts Lawrence and Roch (Pl. 99)

Venice, S. Giacomo dell’Orio

c.1510

Panel: 250 × 181 cm

Inscribed: Joanes Boni Chōsili/Dito Mareschalch0/P.

Above the altar formerly in the custody of the Scuola di S. Sebastiano (Niero [1979], p. 90), and almost certainly, therefore, commissioned by this confraternity. For the dating to c.1510, in contrast to a more usual dating to the 1520s, see Sgarbi (1980), p. 53. Text, Chap. 7.

Add. bibl.: Borenius (1912), pp. 172–3.

76 TULLIO LOMBARDO AND LORENZO BREGNO

Altarpiece of the Sacrament (S. Sepolcro altarpiece) (Pl. 276)

Venice, S. Martino

c.1510

Marble: 46/48 cm high (saints); 90 cm high (columns)

The complicated history of the ensemble to which the work belonged is conveniently summarised by Schulz (1991), pp. 196–200. Originally the altarpiece adorned the single altar of S. Sepolcro which, according to Sanudo was completed in March 1511 (Paoletti [1893], p. 231). The door to the tabernacle of the Sacrament at the centre originally consisted of a gilded bronze relief depicting the Descent into Limbo, and a figure of the Resurrected Christ was placed at the apex of the pediment, with the inscription: HIC INTUS EST CORPUS IESU CHRISTI. See the detailed description by Stringa (1604), pp. 131r–v. After the demolition of the church in 1807, the altarpiece was reassembled in its present fragmentary form in S. Martino. Although the inscriptions TULII LOMBARDI OPUS on the bases of the four kneeling angels are not original (Sheard [1971], p. 137), these figures are generally accepted as products of Tullio’s workshop. Schulz (1984b), pp. 166–7, has convincingly attributed the figures of the altarpiece to Lorenzo Bregno; but the author’s recent ([1991], pp. 64–5) more explicit attribution of the altarpiece as a whole to Bregno may prove to be more controversial. The two statues of Sts John the Baptist and Peter were clearly not intended to face outwards, as shown in Pl. 76; and they have now been restored to their correct niches. Text, Chap. 8.

77 SEBASTIANO DEL PIOMBO

St John Chrysostom with Sts Catherine, Mary Magdalen, Lucy, John the Evangelist, John the Baptist and (?) George (S. Giovanni Crisostomo altarpiece) (Pl. 227)

Venice, S. Giovanni Crisostomo

1510–11

Canvas (transferred from panel?): 200 × 165 cm

A certain terminus ante quem for the execution is provided by Sebastiano’s departure for Rome in the spring or early summer of 1511. A possible terminus post quem of May 1510 is provided by a codicil to the will of the nobleman Niccolò Morosini, since the will of his wife Caterina Contarini dated April 1509 had stipulated that her donation of 20 ducats towards the cost of the altarpiece was not to be paid until after her husband’s death (Hirst [1981], p. 25; Bertini [1983]). It should be noted, however, that 20 ducats was a relatively small sum, and that additional, unrecorded contributions may have been made by other parishioners; and in this case, the altarpiece may have been commissioned rather earlier than May 1510. If Catherine is included as Caterina’s name saint, it is possible that the elderly bearded saint to the right of the titular is Nicholas; more plausible, however, is the suggestion by Gentili and Bertini (1985), pp. 20–3, that he represents St John the Evangelist, completing a trio of St Johns. The military saint carries no further attributes, and may represent Theodore rather than George. According to Sansovino (1581), ed. 1663, p. 154, the work was begun by Giorgione and only completed by Sebastiano; for an attempt to revive this view, see Gould (1969). Text, Chap. 7.

Add. bibl.: Lucco (1980), pp. 97–8.

78 TITIAN

St Mark Enthroned with Sts Cosmas, Damian, Roch and Sebastian (St Mark altarpiece) (Pl. 228)

Venice, S. Maria della Salute

c.1511–12

Panel: 230 × 149 cm

From S. Spirito in Isola, apsidal chapel dedicated to St Mark, adjacent to the chancel. There is an apparent contradiction in the accounts of Sansovino (1581), ed. 1663, pp. 229–30, and Stringa (1604), p. 170r, as to whether the chapel of St Mark was situated on the left or the right of the chancel; but on balance it is reasonable to infer that both were referring to the liturgical left (in cornu epistolae). Usually dated close to the frescoes for the Scuola del Santo, Padua, of 1511 (Wethey [1969], p. 143; Hope [1980], pp. 28–30); some critics, however, including Rosand (1982), pp. 69–70, prefer a slightly earlier dating to c.1508–9. For a recent survey of opinions, see A. Augusti in Titian (1990), pp. 151–2. Text, Chap. 7.

79 PALMA VECCHIO

Assumption of the Virgin (Pl. 248)

Venice, Accademia

1512–14

Panel: 191 × 137 cm

From the premises of the Scuola di S. Maria Maggiore, situated next to the Franciscan nunnery of the same name. As shown by Rylands (1988), pp. 159, 199, Palma was paid 50 ducats for the completed work in February 1514; and as shown by Tafuri (1986), p. 50, the marble frame, incorporating reliefs of St Sebastian and St John (?) the Baptist at the sides, had been commissioned from Tullio Lombardo in June 1513 for a fee of 100 ducats (including the cost of materials). Text, Chap. 7.

80 PALMA VECCHIO

Virgin and Child with Sts Helena, Peter, Mark and John the Baptist (Zerman altarpiece) (Pl. 232)

Zerman (Treviso), parish church

c.1512–15

Canvas, transferred from panel: 230 × 150 cm

Presumably painted for its present position above the main altar of the church, dedicated to St Helena. The existing frame dates from the time of the rebuilding of the chancel in the early seventeenth century (Rylands [1988], p. 215). Although Rylands (pp. 58–60) dates the work to c.1518–20, the slightly earlier dating to c.1511–15 argued by G. Dillon in Proposte di restauro (1978), pp. 63–6, seems preferable. Text, Chap. 7.

81 GIOVANNI BELLINI

St Jerome with Sts Christopher and Louis of Toulouse (Diletti altarpiece) (Pl. 4)

Venice, S. Giovanni Crisostomo

1513

Panel: 300 × 185 cm

Inscribed: MDXIII/IDANNES BELLINUS. P.

In situ in the former Diletti chapel in the right nave. The will of the donor Giorgio Diletti was first published in extract by Paoletti (1893), p. 110; this transcription has been revised and supplemented with other documents by Lattanzi (1981) and Odenthal (1985), pp. 158–9. In this will, dated 1494, Diletti asked for a funerary chapel dedicated to Sts Jerome, Christopher and Louis to be built in S. Giovanni Crisostomo; he allocated 200 ducats for an altarpiece; he made provision for liturgical equipment and anniversary masses; and he named the Scuola di San Marco as his executor. The will of his widow Orsa Azzalini, dated 1511, mentions that her husband had died in 1503, and refers to negotiations with the executors (Odenthal [1985], p. 169). In the past there has been some confusion about the identity of Bellini’s saints, but the revised reading of the documents confirms that they correspond to the three co-titulars. Text, Introduction and Chap. 7.

Add. bibl.: Robertson (1968), pp. 128–31; Keydel (1969), pp. 207–18; Huse (1972), pp. 99–102; Goffen (1989), pp. 183–8.

82 CIMA DA CONEGLIANO

Virgin and Child with Sts Mary Magdalen, Anne, Joachim, Catherine (lower tier); Clare, Francis, Jerome, Nazarius (upper tier); Christ blessing with Sts Peter and Andrew (pinnacle) (Capodistria polyptych) (Pl. 118) 1513

Koper (Capodistria), S. Anna (formerly)

Ten panels: 155 × 72 cm (centre); 100 × 36 cm (side panels, lower tier); 47 × 70 cm (pinacle)

Removed from the high altar in 1946; present whereabouts unknown. Documented by two signed agreements dated 18 April 1513; see Humfrey (1983), pp. 91–2, 205–6. As in Alvise Vivarini’s Treviso altarpiece of 1480 (App. 28), the presence of Joachim and Anna may be interpreted as an allusion to the Immaculate Conception. Text, Chaps. 4 and 7.

83 FRANCESCO BISSOLO

Coronation of St Catherine of Siena, with Sts Raphael, Mary Magdalen, Peter, (?) Andrew and Paul (Pl. 254)

Venice, Accademia

1513–15

Canvas: 365 × 235 cm

Inscribed: FRANCISCUS/BISOLLO

From S. Pietro Martire, Murano, first altar on the right. According to the documents published by Ludwig (1905), p. 44, the subject stipulated in Bissolo’s contract with the prior, dated 1513, was slightly different from that of the painting as executed: originally he was to represent the Mystical Marriage of St Catherine of Siena, with the Virgin in the middle, two saints on either side, and God the Father with angels above. A fee of 40 ducats was agreed, and a series of payments made by the sub-prior followed over the next two years. There is good reason to suppose that the work was painted to substitute Fra Bartolomeo’s St Catherine of Siena altarpiece (App. 69), which was never delivered; see Humfrey (1990b). Text, Chap. 7.

84 LORENZO BREGNO

St Leonard with Sts Christopher and Eustace (Cesena altarpiece) (Pl. 137)

Cesena, Duomo

1514–17

Marble: 156 cm high (figures, without bases)

According to the documents published by Grigioni (1910) (and conveniently reproduced by Schulz [1991], pp. 118–19), the work was commissioned in compliance with the will of 1504 of Camillo Verardi, a knight and patrician of Cesena. In his will the donor instructed that a chapel dedicated to St Leonard be built in the cathedral, and that it be adorned with marble statues of Leonard, Christopher and Eustace ‘cum ornamentis eis convenientibus’. After his death in the following year, Verardi’s widow Giulia and her husband Vincenzo Toschi first engaged the Lombard sculptor Tommaso Fiamberti, but then dismissed him when he proved inadequate to the task. Toschi then engaged Lorenzo Bregno, who visited Cesena to sign the contract in 1514: according to this, the figures were each to be carved from a single block of Carrara marble, and were to measure 4½ Venetian feet high. The sculptor was made responsible for transporting the completed figures from his workshop in Venice to the port of Cesenatico and for installing them, but the patron was to bear the cost of transporting them overland from the port to Cesena. The sculptor was to be paid 100 ducats, and was to complete the work within a year; delivery did not, however, take place until 1517. An inscription below the central figure commemorates the donor and his executor, and names the dedication. The photograph in Pl. 137 shows the work as it appeared before the demolition in about 1890 of an architectural framework that probably dated from the eighteenth century.

Add. bibl.: Schulz (1984b); Viroli (1989), pp. 61–4.

85 VITTORE CARPACCIO

Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand Christians on Mount Ararat (Pl. 246)

Venice, Accademia

1515

Canvas: 307 × 205 cm

Inscribed: V/CARPATHIUS/MDXV

From S. Antonio di Castello, third altar on the right. This was founded in 1512 by the prior of the monastery, Francesco Ottobon, following his miraculous vision of the 10,000 martyrs of Mount Ararat processing down the nave of the church. Carpaccio’s painting of this event (Pl. 34) includes a representation of the altarpiece commissioned by Francesco’s nephew Ettore Ottobon; and even though the altar painting represented by Carpaccio is clearly not identical with his own Martyrdom, the frame may be regarded as an accurate record of the frame admired by Sansovino (1581), ed. 1663, pp. 30–1, but demolished with the church in 1807. Text, Chap. 7.

Add. bibl.: Moschini Marconi (1955), pp. 107–8; Aurenhammer (1985), pp. 55–6.

86 TITIAN

Assumption of the Virgin (‘L’Assunta’) (Pl. 288)

Venice, Frari

c.1515–18

Panel: 690 × 360 cm

Inscribed: TICIANUS

In situ above the high altar. The original frame, with its surmounting statues representing the Resurrected Christ with Sts Francis and Anthony of Padua, and a relief on the Sacrament tabernacle below representing the Man of Sorrows, have traditionally been attributed to Lorenzo Bregno. For detailed discussion of this tradition, with a tentative reattribution of the frame and of the Anthony to Giambattista Bregno, see Schulz (1991), pp. 185–8. The base of the right-hand column is inscribed: FRATER GERMANUS HANC ARAM ERIGÍ CURAVIT MDXVI; from this it may be deduced that the painting was at least under way in 1516. An entry in the diary of Marin Sanudo for 20 May 1518 (the feast of St Bernardino) records that the completed altarpiece had been unveiled on the previous day, and confirms Fra Germano da Casale, prior of the convent, as supervisor of the commission. Text, Epilogue.

Add. bibl.: Wethey (1969), pp. 74–6; Titian (1990), pp. 170–4, both with references.

87 VENTURINO FANTONI AND OTHERS

Altarpiece with Sts Roch, John the Baptist, Sebastian, Pantaleon, Francis; Angel Gabriel, God the Father, Virgin Annunciate (S. Rocco altarpiece) (Pl. 10)

Venice, S. Rocco

1517–24

Marble: c.600 × 430 cm; c.150 cm high (St Roch, with base)

The detailed documentation for the work, comprising two deliberazioni, a contract and a number of payments, was published by Paoletti (1893), pp. 123–4. A decision by the Scuola di S. Rocco in June 1493 to commission an altarpiece for the high altar of its church, together with a shrine for its patron saint (‘atento chel chorpo del glorioxo messer san rocho non sta in quele forme se rechiede ne son ornato chome se j altrj chorpj santj, chel se debj spender in far una pala over adonamento per meter djto corpo . . .’), was renewed in June 1516; and a competition was held to find a suitable master (‘avendo in questo ttempo fato far piuj modelj a piuj maistri ttagia pieri’). The successful candidate, Venturino Fantoni, signed the contract on 29 March 1517; he was to be paid 350 ducats for the altarpiece with its seven marble figures, while the Scuola agreed to pay for his materials. The shrine is inscribed with the date 1520; a progress report dated 16 February 1521 (1520 more veneto) indicates that the work still lacked its candlesticks, gilding and the four main marble figures. It was now decided to place ‘uno christo di razi’—presumably a resurrected Christ—at the apex; in the event, however, a half-length God the Father was placed there instead. The ensemble was complete by 1524, when Venturino received his final payment. The documents do not name his collaborators, and Paoletti (p. 281) suggested that he was assisted by his three sculptor sons Giovanni, Bernardino and Jacopo. Schulz (1984a), pp. 258–62, has attributed the principal figures (Roch, Sebastian, the Baptist, Francis) rather to Gianmaria Mosca, and those of inferior quality (Pantalon and the three on the upper cornice) to Bartolomeo Bergamasco (but see Schulz [1991], p. 87 n. 33, for a change of attribution of the Sebastian from Mosca to Bartolomeo). Schulz has also clarified the previously confused identification of the saints. Text, Chaps. 3 and 8.

Add. bibl.: Angelini (1961), pp. 18–19.

88 LORENZO BREGNO

Altarpiece of the Sacrament (Pl. 53)

Venice, San Marco

1518

Marble: 262 × 247 cm

In situ in the central eastern apse of San Marco. According to a contract dated 3 March 1518 (Paoletti [1893], p. 274, n. 6; Schulz [1991], pp. 120–1), Bregno was commissioned by the three Procurators of San Marco De Supra (Lorenzo Loredan, Andrea Gritti and Alvise Pisani) to carve a marble altarpiece seven Venetian feet (243 cm) square, according to a drawing provided by the sculptor. At the centre was to be set a tabernacle of the Sacrament, and at the sides were to be placed statues of St Francis and Anthony of Padua. The Procurators were to provide the materials, and the sculptor was to be paid 100 ducats. Surmounting the work is a segmental lunette not visible in Pl. 88. Bregno was presumably also responsible for the marble altar frontal, for erecting the six Byzantine columns that form the screen, and for carving the entablature of the screen. Until 1810 the space thus created was covered by a gilded bronze cupola. The gilded bronze tabernacle door by Jacopo Sansovino probably replaces an original in wood. Text, Chap. 8.

Add. bibl: Caspary (1965), pp. 86–7; Schulz (1984b), p. 146.

89 TITIAN

Resurrection (central panel); Sts Nazarius and Celsus with Altobello Averoldi (lower left); St Sebastian (lower right); Angel of the Annunciation and Virgin Annunciate (upper panels) (Brescia polyptych) (Pl. 67)

Brescia, SS. Nazaro e Celso

1519–22

Five panels: 278 × 122 cm (centre); 170 × 65 cm each (lower tier); 79 × 65 cm each (upper tier)

Inscribed: TICIANUS. FACIEBAT M.D.XXII

In place above the high altar of the now rebuilt church; the present frame dates from 1814–24 (Lucchesi Ragni and Agosti [1991], p. 98). The polyptych was originally placed against the back wall of the chancel and not directly on the altar table, which was free-standing alla romana (Faino [mid-seventeenth century], ed. 1961, p. 24). The inscription records the date of the completion of the work as a whole, but as is evident from the correspondence between the Duke of Ferrara and his agent in Venice Jacopo Tebaldi, the Sebastian panel was already largely complete by December 1520 (Campori [1874], p. 591). The same letter mentions that Titian’s fee for the work was 200 ducats. Text, Chap. 2 and Epilogue.

Add. bibl.: Wethey (1969), pp. 126–8; Tassi (1976); Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo (1990), p. 311.

90 TITIAN

Virgin and Child with Sts Peter, Francis, Anthony of Padua and donors (Ca’ Pesaro altarpiece) (Pl. 77)

Venice, Frari

1519–26

Canvas: 478 × 266 cm

In situ in its original frame above the altar of the Immaculate Conception in the left nave (Pl. 292). The painting is documented by a series of payments totalling 102 ducats made to Titian by Jacopo Pesaro between 28 April 1519 and 29 May 1526 (Scrinzi [1920]). The payments are clustered in three groups (April to September 1519; April to September 1522; and June 1525 to 29 May 1526), which presumably correspond to the phases during which Titian actually worked on the painting (Hope [1973]). The frame has been recently attributed by Schulz (1991), pp. 68–9, 188–91, to Lorenzo Bregno; and the author plausibly argues that its construction must have been well under way, if not complete, by 1522–3. Text, Chap. 3 and Epilogue.

Add. bibl: Wethey (1969), pp. 101–2; Titian (1990), pp. 194–6.

91 TITIAN

Annunciation (Pl. 300)

Treviso, Duomo

c.1520–3

Panel: 210 × 176 cm

In situ in its original frame by Lorenzo Bregno (Pl. 301) in the former Malchiostro chapel, dedicated to the Virgin Annunciate and St Andrew. Co-patron of the chapel, together with the Canon Broccardo Malchiostro, was the Scuola della SS. Annunziata, founded on 25. March 1519 expressly to use and maintain it (Liberali [1963], pp. 48–51). According to the documents discussed by Liberali (1963), pp. 44–5, 47–8, building of the chapel had begun by April 1518, and was complete by October 1519. The author suggests that a payment made in 1517 for four planks refers to the preparation of Titian’s panel. This is possible, but the circumstantial evidence of the commission indicates that Titian did not begin work until after Pordenone had finished painting the frescoes some time in the first half of 1520. The altarpiece was almost certainly complete by the time of the consecration of the chapel in the spring of 1523. Text, Epilogue.

Add. bibl: Wethey (1967), pp. 69–70.

92 TITIAN

Virgin and Child with Sts Francis and Blaise, and Alvise Gozzi as Donor (Ancona altarpiece) (Pl. 124)

Ancona, Pinacoteca Civica

1520

Panel: 320 × 206 cm

Inscribed: Aloyxius gotius Ragusinus Fecit fieri MDXX Titianus cadorinus pinsit

From the high altar of the now-deconsecrated Franciscan Observant church of S. Francesco ad Alto in Ancona. Nothing is known of the original frame. According to M. Cordaro (in Tiziano: la pala Gozzi [1988], p. 39), the panel was originally rectangular, and probably received its present arched form only in 1703 (Pl. 123); it is likely, however, that the original spandrels were simply covered by the frame, and that visually the painting was always meant to have an arched format. The mitred saint is often called Louis of Toulouse (the name saint of the donor, Alvise Gozzi); but as pointed out by M. Polverari (in Tiziano: la pala Gozzi, p. 26, n. 5), he is almost certainly Blaise, patron saint of Gozzi’s native city of Ragusa (Dubrovnik). Text, Epilogue.

Add. bibl: Wethey (1969), pp. 109–10.

93 VINCENZO CATENA

Martyrdom of St Christina (Pl. 48)

Venice, S. Maria Mater Domini

c.1520

Panel: 225 × 150 cm

In situ above the second altar on the right, dedicated to St Christina, in its original marble frame. The inscription on the frame (M.D./ ANG(ELI) PHILOMATI. PLEB(ANI) ET FRATR(UM) IMPEN(SIS) XX) identifies the donor as the parish priest Angelo Filomati, and provides an approximate date. Christina was the former titular of the church, and a confraternity dedicated to her celebrated a weekly mass endowed by Filomati at the altar. See Tramontin (1962), pp. 17, 49. Text, Chap. 7.

Add. bibl: Robertson (1955), pp. 30–2, 59–60.

94 VITTORE BELLINIANO, FRA MARCO PENSABEN AND GIOVANNI GEROLAMO SAVOLDO

Virgin and Child with the Blessed Benedict XI Boccassini, Sts Nicholas, Dominic, Thomas Aquinas, Jerome and Liberale (S. Niccolò altarpiece) (Pl. 234)

Treviso, S. Niccolò

1520–1

Panel: 555 × 329 cm

In place in its original wooden frame above the high altar, but evidently moved higher up the wall in the seventeenth century to accommodate the present altar and choir-stalls (Pl. 233). Documented by a series of entries in the convent’s account-books, first published by Federici (1803), pp. 130–2, and republished in revised and expanded form by Fossaluzza (1985). The entries include payments to a carpenter for the manufacture of the panel; a payment to Vittore Belliniano, acting on behalf of Fra Marco Pensaben, a friar from SS. Giovanni e Paolo in Venice; Fra Marco’s meal expenses in Treviso; the travel expenses of another friar, who went in search of Fra Marco when he mysteriously vanished, leaving the painting incomplete; the travel expenses of Savoldo and his assistants, who were brought from Venice to complete the work; and the costs of installing the painting when it was finally ready. The recorded payments to Fra Marco total 222 lire, 49 soldi (about 36 ducats) and to Savoldo 256 lire, 20 soldi (about 41 ducats). From the documents and from the visual evidence (including infra-red reflectographs), Fossaluzza plausibly concluded that the overall design was provided by Vittore Belliniano (whose payment amounted to 49 lire, 12 soldi, or about 8 ducats); that Fra Marco painted most of the first version; and that Savoldo made a number of substantial alterations, especially evident in the figure of the angel and the head of Liberale. According to the additional documents published by Fossaluzza, the frame was not commissioned until October 1524, three years after the completion of the painting; the principal master was the same Lio Lupi who had prepared the panels, but the decorative carving was executed by one ‘maistro Helia intaiador’. The frame was executed in Venice, and brought to Treviso for installation in December 1527. The figure at the extreme left was identified by Fossaluzza as Pope Benedict XI (1240–1304), a native of Treviso and general of the Dominican order at the time of his election. Text, Chap. 7.

Add. bibl.: Gilbert (1986), pp. 22–6, 187; G. Fossaluzza in Giovanni Gerolamo Savoldo (1990), pp. 94–6.

95 BARTOLOMEO DI FRANCESCO BERGAMASCO

St John the Baptist with Sts Menna and (?) Geminianus (S. Geminiano altarpiece) (Pl. 278)

Venice, S. Giovanni dei Cavalieri di Malta

c.1520–3

Marble: 63.5/66 cm high (figures, including bases)

From the high altar of the parish church of S. Geminiano. Identification of the author as Bartolomeo Bergamasco and a terminus ante quem of 1525 are provided by a letter of that year written by the Guardian Grande of the Scuola Grande di S. Rocco to the confraternity of the Misericordia in Bergamo (Schulz [1984a], p. 257, with references). The military saint is clearly identifiable as Menna, a co-patron of the church; but as pointed out by Schulz (p. 264), the identity of the clean-shaven saint dressed as a canon must remain in doubt, since Geminianus is normally shown as a bishop with a long beard. Text, Chap. 8.

96 TITIAN

Virgin and Child in Glory with Sts Catherine, Nicholas, Peter, Anthony of Padua, Francis and Sebastian (St Nicholas altarpiece) (Pl. 297)

Rome, Pinacoteca Vaticana

c.1520–5

Canvas, transferred from panel: 420 × 290 cm

Inscribed: TICIANUS FACIEBAT

From the main altar of the now-demolished church of S. Niccolò ai Frari (or della Lattuga). When it was acquired by the Vatican Museum in the late eighteenth century, the panel was cut down to make it correspond in size and shape to Raphael’s Transfiguration; the original format is recorded in the engraving by Lefebre (Pl. 298). At the time of the transfer of the painting to canvas in the early 1960s, an earlier version of the composition was discovered under the paint surface; and a reconstruction sketch was made by the restorer Luigi Brandi (Pl. 213). The first version has been analysed by von Einem (1971), who attributed it to Paris Bordone, and by Hood and Hope (1977), who more plausibly attributed it to Titian himself. Although the authors dated it to c.1518, an eighteenth-century document published by Vio (1980) suggests rather that the work was commissioned in 1514; and indeed, as far as it is now possible to judge, the character of the composition seems to precede that of the Assunta. See Humfrey (forthcoming, b). The dating of the second version is also controversial. While von Einem dated it to the later 1540s, Hood and Hope dated it to c.1530–5, ascribing its execution to Francesco Vecellio. But further convincing arguments in favour of the dating to c.1520–5 by Wethey (1969), pp. 107–8, were advanced by Lucco (1987b), pp. 163–5; and indeed, Savoldo’s Pesaro altarpiece of 1524-5 (Pl. 282) seems to reflect knowledge of the St Nicholas altarpiece as well as of the Ancona altarpiece (Pl. 124). It may be noted, too, that the altar carried a dedicatory inscription with the date 1522: ‘Almae Virgini Mariae Redemptori Matri Hanc Aram Frater Germanus Divi Nicolai Guardianus dicavit MDXXII’ (Vio [1980], p. 210). Fra Germano da Casale, who as prior of the Frari had previously commissioned the Assunta, became prior of S. Niccolò in 1521; and although juspatronus of the main altar—and hence also the responsibility for decorating it—was held by the Procurators of San Marco De Ultra, Fra Germano may well have brought friendly pressure to bear on Titian at this time to resume work, and to complete the altarpiece. Text, Chap. 7 and Epilogue.

97 GUGLIELMO DE’ GRIGI

Verde della Scala altarpiece (Pl. 110)

Venice, SS. Giovanni e Paolo

1523–4

Marble. Width of inside frame: 251 cm. Height of statue of St Mary Magdalen: 178 cm (including base)

Originally above the altar of the Magdalen in S. Maria dei Servi, endowed by Verde della Scala, daughter of the lord of Verona, who had died in 1394. According to the documents published by Caffi (1884), the Procurators of San Marco De Citra, acting as her executors, finally occupied themselves in 1522 with fulfilling the terms of her will by ordering a marble altarpiece and tomb-slab for her sepulchre in front of the altar. The contract for the altarpiece, dated 6 December 1523, states that it was to be made by Guglielmo with the aid of six assistants, according to the design submitted (‘seguendo la forma e modj de uno disegno fatto per el ditto maistro’) and according to a wooden model provided by the carpenter Biagio da Faenza. The master’s fee was to be 145 ducats, not counting the materials, which were to be provided by the Procurators; and he was to be given workshop space within the convent. On 21 August 1524 Bartolomeo Bergamasco was commissioned to carve a statue of the Magdalen 5¼ Venetian feet high, according to the clay model provided, for a fee of 40 ducats; the marble block, valued at 20 ducats, was again to be provided by the Procurators. A payment made to one ‘Francesco depentor’ in the same year records that the outside frame was surrounded by an ornamental frieze painted in grisaille (‘1524 contadi a maistro Francesco depentor a santa maria mater domini per capara anno marchado fato con lui che die depenzer atorno dito altar zoe a far algune soaze et cornixon con algune spoglie di chiaro et schuro con animali at campo azuro’). In 1812 the architectural frame was removed to the first altar on the left in SS. Giovanni e Paolo; at this time Bartolomeo’s St Mary Magdalen was placed at the centre of Pietro Lombardo’s SS. Giovanni e Paolo polyptych (App. 33; Pl. 257), and its former position was taken by Vittoria’s St Jerome. Text, Chap. 8.

Add. bibl.: Paoletti (1893), pp. 281–2; Angelini (1961), p. 19–20, 120–1; Schulz (1984a), p. 264.

98 LORENZO BREGNO AND ANTONIO MINELLO

St Andrew with Sts Peter and Paul (Trevisan altarpiece) (Pl. 17)

Venice, S. Maria Mater Domini

1524–6

Marble: 114 cm high (Andrew); 105/6 cm high (side saints)

In situ above the first altar to the right in the church. According to Sansovino (1581), ed. 1663, p. 205, the work was commissioned by the patrician Paolo di Andrea Trevisan; and it was begun by Bregno and completed by Minello. The correctness of this information seems to be confirmed by a document of 1525 published by Paoletti (1893), p. 116 no. 106 (see also p. 275), whereby the widow of the recently deceased Bregno sold the contents of his workshop to Minello, on condition that he complete her husband’s outstanding commitments, including those to Paolo Trevisan. Although Schulz (1991), pp. 28, 209–12, has recently disputed the traditional inference drawn from the document, and has excluded Bregno from any share in the work, it still seems probable that he was at least responsible for the design, and perhaps also for some if the initial carving. Andrew was clearly chosen as the titular saint of the altar in honour of the donor’s father, and also of his infant son, whose tomb-slab in front of the altar is recorded by Sansovino. Text, Chap. 8.

99 TITIAN

Death of St Peter Martyr (Pl. 14)

Formerly SS. Giovanni e Paolo; destroyed 1867

1526–30

Canvas, transferred from panel: 515 × 308

Formerly above the second altar on the left in the church, dedicated to St Peter Martyr. Destroyed by fire when temporarily removed from its frame and stored in the Cappella del Rosario in the left transept. The composition is recorded in the mid-sixteenth-century engraving by Martino Rota (Pl. 14) and in numerous painted copies (listed by Meilman [1989], pp. 346–7). According to the documents, the Scuola di S. Pietro Martire had resolved to commission a new altarpiece some time in the latter part of 1525 (Giomo [1903]); and Titian consigned the completed work on 27 April 1530 (Crowe and Cavalcaselle [1881], I, pp. 445–6). Text, Epilogue.

Add. bibl: Wethey (1969), pp. 153–5.

100 GUGLIELMO DE’ GRIGI AND GIOVANNI BATTISTA DA CARONA

Three altarpieces: Annunciation; Nativity; Adoration of the Magi (Pls. 284, 285, 286)

Venice, S. Michele in Isola, Emiliani chapel

1529–33

The history of the Emiliani chapel is conveniently summarised by Meneghin (1961), I, pp. 333–9, who also published new documents relating to its altarpieces. It was built in accordance with the will dated 1427 of Margherita Vitturi, widow of Giovanni Emiliani, who specified that there were to be three altarpieces in the chapel, with the main one dedicated to the Virgin Annunciate, and the others to the Nativity of Christ and to the Adoration of the Shepherds. In 1527 the Procurators of San Marco De Citra, acting as her executors, commissioned Guglielmo de’ Grigi to design the chapel; in 1528 they provided the funds from her estate for the celebration of a daily mass there; and in 1529 they commissioned Giovanni Battista to carve the three altarpieces. According to the terms of his contract, the two marble figures for the main altarpiece were to be three Venetian feet (c.104 cm) high; the design of all three was to follow that of the sculptor’s clay models (‘le palle dieno esser della forma et modo ali modeli di creti’); and he was to be paid 130 ducats. Although the chapel was complete by 1533, the altars were not installed until 1539. Text, Chap. 8.

Add. bibl: Caffi (1884), pp. 31–2; Paoletti (1893), pp. 293–4; Angelini (1961), pp. 121–4.

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