(Santa Croce circa 1485–1556 Venice)
Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist, Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Nicholas,
oil on canvas, 85 x 112 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private collection, Milan;
art market, Spain, 1970s

The present painting is registered in the Fototeca Zeri under no. 39392 (as Girolamo da Santacroce).

We are grateful to Mauro Lucco for confirming the attribution after examination of the present painting in the original. He dates the work to circa 1530.

The present composition shows a Sacra Conversazione with the Madonna and Child in the centre, next to Saint John the Baptist on the left and Saints Francis of Assisi and Nicholas of Bari on the right. The figures are rendered distinguishable due to several signature elements with which each are portrayed. Saint John is shown holding his distinctive wooden cross and banner, Saint Anthony is in his Franciscan habit, and Saint Nicholas is wearing his liturgical bishop’s robe and is carrying a crosier, the Bible, and golden spheres, symbol of the dowry of three bags of gold he gave in charity.

Some of the figures in the present painting relate to works by Giovanni Bellini and Cima da Conegliano. In particular, the physiognomies of the Saints John and Anthony are similar to those depicted in Bellini’s Sacra Conversazione Dolfin, in the church of San Francesco della Vigna in Venice. Saint Nicholas, on the other hand, is similar to the figure in Cima da Conegliano’s Madonna with Child between Saint Catherine and Saint Nicholas, conserved in the Yale University Art Gallery (inv. no. ILE1984.8). The Infant Jesus, with his curly golden hair and plump body, is similar to the Child depicted in Girolamo da Santacroce’s Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine, held in the Musée Jeanne-d’Aboville in La Fère.

Girolamo da Santa Croce takes his name from the village near Bergamo where he came from. He began his training as an artist during the last decade of the fifteenth century in the workshop of Gentile Bellini in Venice. In 1507, Bellini left him some of his drawings that had been previously lent to Bernardino Pinturicchio. He studied in the atelier with Bellini’s brother, Giovanni, who profoundly influenced his painting, as did other Venetian artists including Carpaccio and Palma il Vecchio. Girolamo was active in the lagoon area, where he produced mainly devotional works, altarpieces and polyptychs. He was also in demand with patrons in Dalmatia and Istria.