Paolo Morando, 'Saint Roch', 1518

These are two panels from a triptych for S. Maria della Scala, Verona. The central panel of the Virgin and Child with Saint Anne by Gerolamo dai Libri and the flanking panel of Saint Roch by Paolo Morando are both in the National Gallery’s collection, but the other flanking panel of Saint Sebastian by Francesco di Marco India Torbido is missing. It is quite unusual for each of the three panels of a triptych to be painted by a different artist.

The commission for this work was connected with an outbreak of plague in Verona from 1510 to 1512. Roch and Sebastian are both saints invoked against plague.

In the central panel, the Virgin, Christ Child and Saint Anne are in an enclosed garden, or hortus conclusus, symbolic of the Virgin’s purity. Three musician angels sit at the base of the throne playing instruments and singing; one reads her part from an open book of music.The trellis surrounding the garden supports climbing pink roses – a sprig of which has been plucked and placed at the feet of Saint Roch in Morando’s flanking panel. The three holy figures are sitting on each other’s laps beneath a lemon tree, emphasising that this is the generational family tree of Christ.

The lemon tree features frequently in images of the Virgin and Child produced in Verona during this period, including in the National Gallery’s other painting by Morando, The Virgin and Child, Saint John the Baptist and an Angel. Here it may refer to the lemon tree in the Song of Solomon (2: 3), in which the lemon tree becomes a symbol of the beloved or Christ: ‘As a citron among trees of the forest, So is my beloved among the sons, In his shade I delighted, and sat down, And his fruit is sweet to my palate’.The dead dragon at the feet of the Virgin and the olive branch held by the Christ Child symbolise victory over the devil, but may also refer to the ending of the 1516 siege of Verona. After the Treaty of Brussels in December 1516, Emperor Maximilian I gave Verona to his grandson Charles I of Spain, who ceded it to France, who then returned it to Venice.

In Morando’s flanking panel, Saint Roch turns in surprise as an angel swoops down from heaven to bless him. Having contracted plague from those he tended and been turned out of Piacenza, Saint Roch is living in the wilderness. His hat hangs from his pilgrim staff. The crossed keys on its brim show that has made the pilgrimage to Rome, as they are the emblem of Saint Peter whose basilica is there. Saint Roch lifts his garment to reveal his ulcerated thigh caused by the plague, and at his feet is the nobleman’s dog which brought him a loaf of bread every day and licked his wounds. The panel is signed and dated 1518.

Made in Verona, at the crossroads of artistic influences, this altarpiece combines the emphasis on light and colour of Venetian art and the sculptural style of Paduan painting derived from works by Mantegna with the focus on naturalistic detail inspired by northern European artists.