Madonna and Child Enthroned between Saint James the Apostle and Saint Jerome

The painting, ordered by the brothers Jacopo and Girolamo Sangiovanni for the second chapel on the left in the church of San Bartolomeo in Vicenza, was made in Venice by Cima da Conegliano after long and meticulous studies and numerous preparatory drawings. It was transported to Vicenza only after that. A scroll at the base of the throne bears the signature of the artist as well as the date 1489 and the note adì primo Mazo, meaning the first of May.

The spatial layout of the composition is skilful and well balanced, dominated by an architectural framework through which, behind a high wall, we can glimpse a luxuriant garden (perhaps a kind of Eden), grouping under a pergola, seen in perspective, the Virgin with the Child standing on her knee. “The figure of Mary, sitting high on the marble throne and sadly absorbed in the presentiment of the Passion of her Son, aligned with the access to the garden, may be seen as the gate to heaven and a means of redemption through the blood of the cross, alluded to by the vine on the pergola and the red marble of the throne, and the promise of resurrection, symbolised by the lizard climbing the wall; all according to the fate of death and salvation written in the closed book that she holds in full view on her knee or the one that Saint Jerome draws to the attention of the onlooker, or in the open book in which Saint James is engrossed in meditation” (Avagnina). A clear light filters through the pergola and caresses the figure, emphasising the aura of mute suspension that emanates from the painting.

The precise perspective construction of the pergola over the throne of the Virgin is an example of the complete assimilation of the function of architecture in painting, as celebrated by Leon Battista Alberti.