Giorgio Schiavone, 'The Pietà', probably 1456-61

These ten panels once made up a polyptych (multi-panelled altarpiece), painted by Giorgio Schiavone between about 1456 and 1461. The centre panel, depicting the Virgin and Child enthroned, was crowned by an image of the Pietà and flanked by two rows of saints: Bernardino, Anthony of Padua, Peter Martyr and John the Baptist in full-length on the lower tier, with bust-length images of saints Jerome, Catherine, Sebastian, and an unidentified female saint in the upper tier. The altarpiece must have had an elaborate original frame, which has been lost.

The polyptych is often referred to as the San Niccolò Altarpiece, as it was painted for the funerary chapel of the wealthy Roberti family in the church of San Nicolò in Padua. Its altar was dedicated to the Franciscan missionary Bernardino of Siena, seen among the full-length saints in the lower tier. He was an important Franciscan missionary who preached across the Italian peninsula, including in Padua in 1423. He died in 1444 and was canonised in 1450, shortly before Giovanni de Roberti left funds in his will for the chapel’s construction.

The depicted saints were chosen for their special significance for members of the Roberti family. John the Baptist was the name saints of Giovanni, while his sons Antonio and Piero were represented by Anthony of Padua and Peter Martyr, who were also the patron saints of Padua. It has been suggested that the female saint with the white headdress in the upper tier might be identified as Saint Dorothy, the name saint of Giovanni’s wife Dorothea, but this remains uncertain since Dorothy is typically shown as a maiden holding a basket of flowers.

The artist’s real name was Juraj Čulinović. He has signed his name on a cartellino on the front of the Virgin’s throne: OPVS. SCLAVONI. DISIPVLI. / SQVARCIONI. S (‘the work of Sclavoni, Squarcione’s pupil’). Schiavone means ’Slavonian': he came from Dalmatia (in modern-day Croatia) but trained in Squarcione’s workshop in Padua from about 1456 to 1459. He returned to Dalmatia in about but made occasional visits to Venice and Padua.

The San Niccolò Altarpiece demonstrate Schiavone’s familiarity with the work of his contemporaries. The panel of Saint John the Baptist is indebted to designs by Donatello, who worked in Padua between 1443 and 1453, while the composition of the Pietà is based on a painting attributed to Fra Filippo Lippi, who stayed in the city in the 1430s. Additionally, Schiavone’s gradually shaded variations of tone and the solidity of his figures are close to the style of Andrea Mantegna, and the creased and crumpled draperies of his figures recall the paintings of Marco Zoppo. Both were similarly pupils of Squarcione. Schiavone’s style is also similar to that of Carlo Crivelli in some ways – for example, his scattering of illusionistic fruits and flowers around his paintings.