(known 1462-1502)

Polyptych c. 1475 Tempera on wood, 152 x 88 cm (central panel), 152 x 47 cm (side panels) Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Unlike Bartolomeo Vivarini, the early works of Andrea da Murano display the fullness of sculptural form and clarity of spatial structure which we note in the works of Giovanni Bellini. His masterpiece of this period is the polyptych, originally in the church of St. Peter Martyr of Murano. Although conceived according to the traditional dividing up into compartments, with St. Vincent Ferrer and St. Roch in the centre, St. Sebastian on the left, St. Dominic on the right, and in the lunette (not shown here) the Madonna of Mercy with St. Louis, a Dominican saint, St. Bernardino and St. Catherine, the palimpsest acquires a wholeness of vision through his confident mastery of perspective. Masters of the space within which they stand naturally on the gold ground, the figures have both a sculptural and a spiritual quality. In the three compartments, St. Sebastian stands transfixed gazing sorrowfully upwards while the other saints motion benignly and reassuringly towards the devotees.

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Author: ANDREA DA MURANO Title: Polyptych Time-line: 1451-1500 School: Italian Form: painting