The Virgin and Child enthroned

The precise identity of the artist Girolamo da Treviso remains unclear. A group of paintings exist, datable to circa 1475-1490, signed Hieronymus Tarvisio. However, there were two artists working in Treviso at that time, to whom the signature might equally apply. The first, Girolamo di Bartolomeo Strazzarolo da Aviano is documented in 1476, and died in 1497. The second, Girolamo di Giovanni Pennacchi (1455-before May 1497), was the elder brother of the painter Pier Maria Pennacchi. One of the pictures in question, a Saint Jerome in the Wilderness (private collection, Bergamo), is inscribed on the back to the effect that it was painted in Padua; Girolamo Pennacchi's will states that he had previously worked in Padua. However, Strazzarolo is known to have been been in Paese, near Treviso, in September 1496, where he was given payment for a work, and in Paese there is an altarpiece of Saint Martin and the Beggar dated 1496.

In a letter dated Venice, 7 February 1984, Vittorio Sgarbi relates this work to a painting by the artist in the cathedral of Treviso, and notes its importance as an addition to the artist's oeuvre.