Style of Ambrogio Bergognone, 'Saint Ambrose (?)', late 15th century

Two small saints – Saint Paul, with a sword and book, and a bishop saint, perhaps Saint Ambrose, in richly coloured and gilded robes – stand against dark backgrounds. The angle at which they are shown makes it clear they were intended to be seen from below: both probably came from top row of a polyptych.

This kind of altarpiece continued to be popular in provincial Italy even after the invention of the pala, where the composition is shown on a single unified surface. It would have had a number of saints standing in different panels around a larger central image, probably of the Virgin and Child. In the early Renaissance the backgrounds behind the saints were usually burnished gold; here they are simply painted black, rather than being set in a landscape or classical frame, as is often seen in late fifteenth-century paintings.

We do not know who the artist was, but the style of the panels links them to the work of both Ambrogio Bergognone and Vincenzo Foppa. They must have been painted by a less talented follower of either artist, and are quite similar, although less finely painted, to Foppa’s Saint Augustine and Saint Theodore (Pinacoteca del Castello Sforzesco, Milan). The pictures are painted on poplar, the usual wood for Italian paintings, covered with fabric, as was quite common.