DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.52600#0163
THE PAINTER
117
Magdalen and Lucy in the Duomo of Vicenza, or the
Madonna of 1521 in the Museo Civico of that town),
the more so as there is a record of their collabora-
tion in the vanished frescoes of the Palazzo Gualdo
at Vicenza.1 Many of his own paintings—which he
generally was more fond of dating than his father was
—have been lost.
Among them is the work, the date of which is the
earliest recorded one in the chronology of Benedetto
Montagna’s independent pictorial activity, viz., the
frescoes in the chapel dedicated to the Name of God,
to the Crucified, and to St. John the Baptist, in Sant’
Agostino at Padua—a town where, as has been related
above, Benedetto’s father had left a considerable number
of works. The frescoes in question illustrated the
legend of the Invention of the cross. The Anonimo
Morelliano alludes probably to them when saying in his
notes about Sant’ Agostino : “ La Cappella a man manca
della Nostra Donna fii dipinta da Benedetto Montagna,
fiol del Montagna.” 2 The memory of the author
of these paintings is, however, lost with all the subse-
1 See supra, p. 88.
2 Notizia d’opere di disegno, p. 80. The chapel of the Name of God
was the third to the left of the nave. Prof. Andrea Moschetti thinks,
however, that the chapel hinted at by the Anonimo was the second
to the left of the choir, which chapel, according to the £ Descrizione
di S. Agostino ’ in Diario 0 sia Giornale per I’anno 1761 (p. 82), was also
adorned with frescoes, on the side walls renderings of subjects from
the legends of Saints Stephen and Laurence, and above the altar one of
the Madonna and Child (c/. Moschetti, La prima revisione delle
pitture in Padova e nel territorio, i. 33). Benedetto would thus have
painted in two chapels of Sant’ Agostino, which is of course not im-
possible ; but until there are any positive proofs in favour of Prof.
Moschetti’s conjecture, it seems to me more advisable to refer the
Anonimo’s words to the chapel in which we know with certainty that
Benedetto had been working and which was situated “ a man manca.”
True, it was not dedicated to the Virgin, but neither was this the case
with the other one, the patrons of which were Saints Stephen and
Laurence.
117
Magdalen and Lucy in the Duomo of Vicenza, or the
Madonna of 1521 in the Museo Civico of that town),
the more so as there is a record of their collabora-
tion in the vanished frescoes of the Palazzo Gualdo
at Vicenza.1 Many of his own paintings—which he
generally was more fond of dating than his father was
—have been lost.
Among them is the work, the date of which is the
earliest recorded one in the chronology of Benedetto
Montagna’s independent pictorial activity, viz., the
frescoes in the chapel dedicated to the Name of God,
to the Crucified, and to St. John the Baptist, in Sant’
Agostino at Padua—a town where, as has been related
above, Benedetto’s father had left a considerable number
of works. The frescoes in question illustrated the
legend of the Invention of the cross. The Anonimo
Morelliano alludes probably to them when saying in his
notes about Sant’ Agostino : “ La Cappella a man manca
della Nostra Donna fii dipinta da Benedetto Montagna,
fiol del Montagna.” 2 The memory of the author
of these paintings is, however, lost with all the subse-
1 See supra, p. 88.
2 Notizia d’opere di disegno, p. 80. The chapel of the Name of God
was the third to the left of the nave. Prof. Andrea Moschetti thinks,
however, that the chapel hinted at by the Anonimo was the second
to the left of the choir, which chapel, according to the £ Descrizione
di S. Agostino ’ in Diario 0 sia Giornale per I’anno 1761 (p. 82), was also
adorned with frescoes, on the side walls renderings of subjects from
the legends of Saints Stephen and Laurence, and above the altar one of
the Madonna and Child (c/. Moschetti, La prima revisione delle
pitture in Padova e nel territorio, i. 33). Benedetto would thus have
painted in two chapels of Sant’ Agostino, which is of course not im-
possible ; but until there are any positive proofs in favour of Prof.
Moschetti’s conjecture, it seems to me more advisable to refer the
Anonimo’s words to the chapel in which we know with certainty that
Benedetto had been working and which was situated “ a man manca.”
True, it was not dedicated to the Virgin, but neither was this the case
with the other one, the patrons of which were Saints Stephen and
Laurence.