Saint Benedict and Saint John the Baptist
(Renaissance Europe )
These refined figures of St. Benedict and St. John the Baptist are from an altarpiece commissioned in 1487 for the high altar of the church of St. Giuliano in the town of Fermo on the Adriatic coast. Vittore was a follower of his more famous brother Carlo Crivelli. These figures are more staid than those of this brother but the emphasis on drawing visible through the paint is like his brother's; for example the curly hair of John's chest and the prominence of the shading using parallel lines running upper right to lower right. That orientation tells that he was right-handed!
Provenance
Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.
Don Marcello Massarenti Collection, Rome [date and mode of acquisition unknown] [1881 catalogue: no. 68-69; 1897 catalogue: no. 46, as Verrocchio]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1902, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
Geographies
Italy, Venice (Place of Origin)
Measurements
St. Benedict painted surface H: 48 9/16 x W: 15 1/2 x Approx. D excluding cradle: 3/8 in. (123.4 x 39.4 x 1 cm); St. John painted surface H: 48 1/2 x W: 15 5/8 x D excluding cradle: 1/2 in. (123.2 x 39.7 x 1.2 cm)
Credit Line
Acquired by Henry Walters with the Massarenti Collection, 1902
Location in Museum
Not on view
Accession Number
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
37.709