Madonna and Child Enthroned between Saints John the Baptist, Bartholomew, Augustine and Sebastian and three angel musicians

The imposing altar-piece, once located on the back wall of the apse of the church of San Bartolomeo in Vicenza, razed to the ground in 1838, is the masterpiece of Bartolomeo Montagna, the artist who, more than any other, dominated the great season of Renaissance painting in Vicenza(1480-1520).

This solemn and hieratic work, dating back to about 1485, was seen in those years as a model for all the subsequent painting production in Vicenza, embodying echoes of the paintings of Giovanni Bellini, Antonello da Messina, Alvise Vivarini and Andrea Mantegna, as well as references to artistic production in Central Italy, particularly in Ferrara.

The Virgin and the saints, represented here in the typical format of the Sacred conversation, are placed under an elegant light pavilion, opening onto the surrounding landscape. The crystal-clear morning light makes the colours bright and sharp. The landscape to the right of the picture shows a view of the church of San Bartolomeo and of the tower that was part of the old city walls. The Madonna, seated on a high throne (with a scroll at the base bearing the signature of the artist), gazes at the little red carnation that she holds in her fingers, a sign of the Passion of her Son, while the Child, raising his eyes from the book that he holds in his hands, pauses to look at the spectator. At their feet, three putti reminiscent of the style of Mantegna play celestial music, which only the four monumental figures of saints are privileged to hear: they are Saint John the Baptist, Saint Bartholomew, Saint Augustine and Saint Sebastian.

The predella proposes five episodes from the life of Saint Bartholomew taken from the Golden Legend by Jacobus da Varagine. It has been hypothesised that some of the master’s collaborators may have worked on these panels, which are rendered with a narration that is “minute, popular, rather gossipy” (Barbieri), very distant from the sacred air of the altar-piece itself.