Madonna and Child under a pergola between Saint John the Baptist and Saint Onuphrius

The work, signed on a small scroll at the base of the Virgin’s throne, was originally placed on the third altar, to the left of the entrance, of the church of San Michele in Vicenza, demolished in 1812. It is one of the most significant works of Bartolomeo Montagna. Here, in fact, the language of the artist, who in Venice had been in contact with the Vivarini and the Bellini, with Antonello da Messina and with Vittore Carpaccio, shows that he has reached full maturity and an original style of his own. In this painting and in the other altar-piece in the Civic Art Gallery depicting the Madonna adoring the Child between Saints Monica and Mary Magdalene, he shows that he possesses a very high poetical vein.

The extremely high quality of this painting, featuring a simplified composition layout, springs from the perfect agreement between the thin bodies of the saints and the severe brown and red colouring of their flesh.

The rocky throne on which the Virgin sits is placed under a canopy supported by two trees. At the sides are Saint Onuphrius, patron of the guild of dyers, and Saint John the Baptist who, pointing towards the Child and looking towards the spectator, seems almost to involve us and make us share in the austere calm of the sacred event. The green countryside setting, animated by the rocks and lit by a clear transparent light, expresses an absolute harmony between man and the environment: an agreement that springs from Montagna’s profound knowledge of the results of Giovanni Bellini’s painting.