DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.52600#0168
122
BENEDETTO MONTAGNA
of the saint were depicted in the eight compartments
of the 'predella.1
A painting which bears the date of the last-mentioned
year is, however, still in existence : The Trinity adored
by the Virgin and St. John the Baptist, originally
above an altar in the Duomo of Vicenza and now in
the Museo Civico of that town. This work displays
a greater skill of draughtsmanship than the Brera
picture, but the types this time also are insignificant,
and the colouring, besides being dry, is very inhar-
monious. Here again we find a point of contact with
the art of those humble manufacturers of devotional
pictures in the Romagna, who are influenced by
Venetian painting. The figure of St. John the Bap-
tist recalls strikingly that in Bernardino and Francesco
Zaganelli’s pala from Sant’ Apollinare in Classe, by
Ravenna, now in the Brera (1504) : compare the position
of the legs, the long cross leaning against the saint’s
shoulder and twined round at the top by the fluttering
scroll with the inscription “ Ecce Agnus Dei.” 2
1 Boschini, op. cit. p. 92. It is recorded also by Ridolfi (op. cit. i.
141 : “e Benedetto vi fece il Santo Antonio abate ”); andbyMosca
(op. cit. i. 10). The altar adorned by it was the second to the left.
2 Vicenza. Museo Civico. Sala V. No. 11. God the Father sits
on a throne. His right hand grasps and His left rests upon a cross which
stands on the step of the throne and on which Christ is nailed ; just
above the Saviour’s head the dove floats down. God the Father wears
a brown tunic, a pink mantle shaded with blue and with a lining of hot
dark yellow colour. The Virgin, in black tunic, blue mantle and white
hood, lifts both her hands. St. John the Baptist, in greyish violet
leathern coat and red mantle, folds his hands over his breast. The scene
is a marble enclosure. Below, in the middle, the signature :
• BENEDICTUS MONTAGNA • F • | 1535
On canvas. Mentioned by Boschini (op. cit. p. 5 sqi) as above the altar
of the seventh chapel to the right in the Duomo, in which room (though
no longer above the altar) it is also recorded by Mosca (op. cit. i. 32)
and Berti (op. cit. p. 109). Crowe and Cavalcaselle describe it still as
being in the Duomo (pp. cit. i. 435, n. 2).
BENEDETTO MONTAGNA
of the saint were depicted in the eight compartments
of the 'predella.1
A painting which bears the date of the last-mentioned
year is, however, still in existence : The Trinity adored
by the Virgin and St. John the Baptist, originally
above an altar in the Duomo of Vicenza and now in
the Museo Civico of that town. This work displays
a greater skill of draughtsmanship than the Brera
picture, but the types this time also are insignificant,
and the colouring, besides being dry, is very inhar-
monious. Here again we find a point of contact with
the art of those humble manufacturers of devotional
pictures in the Romagna, who are influenced by
Venetian painting. The figure of St. John the Bap-
tist recalls strikingly that in Bernardino and Francesco
Zaganelli’s pala from Sant’ Apollinare in Classe, by
Ravenna, now in the Brera (1504) : compare the position
of the legs, the long cross leaning against the saint’s
shoulder and twined round at the top by the fluttering
scroll with the inscription “ Ecce Agnus Dei.” 2
1 Boschini, op. cit. p. 92. It is recorded also by Ridolfi (op. cit. i.
141 : “e Benedetto vi fece il Santo Antonio abate ”); andbyMosca
(op. cit. i. 10). The altar adorned by it was the second to the left.
2 Vicenza. Museo Civico. Sala V. No. 11. God the Father sits
on a throne. His right hand grasps and His left rests upon a cross which
stands on the step of the throne and on which Christ is nailed ; just
above the Saviour’s head the dove floats down. God the Father wears
a brown tunic, a pink mantle shaded with blue and with a lining of hot
dark yellow colour. The Virgin, in black tunic, blue mantle and white
hood, lifts both her hands. St. John the Baptist, in greyish violet
leathern coat and red mantle, folds his hands over his breast. The scene
is a marble enclosure. Below, in the middle, the signature :
• BENEDICTUS MONTAGNA • F • | 1535
On canvas. Mentioned by Boschini (op. cit. p. 5 sqi) as above the altar
of the seventh chapel to the right in the Duomo, in which room (though
no longer above the altar) it is also recorded by Mosca (op. cit. i. 32)
and Berti (op. cit. p. 109). Crowe and Cavalcaselle describe it still as
being in the Duomo (pp. cit. i. 435, n. 2).