The Madonna and Child enthroned

Although little is known about Antonio de Carro's life, recent documents have surfaced that allow us to attribute to him a substantial oeuvre. De Carro was from Piacenza, an important economic center where traded flowed freely and which, as a consequence, was extremely receptive to different cultures. De Carro's most important existing work is a polyptych of the Madonna and Saints originally for the convent of Santa Franca in Pittolo and now in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. He was clearly an important artist whose models inspired Lombard masters long after his death. His name is mentioned in several different documents at the end of the fourteenth Century. In fact, in his Commentary on Vitruvius published over 150 years after De Carro's death, Cesare Cesariano mentons his paintings along with those of Pisanello as being the most faithful examples of work faithful to the precepts of Antiquity. Moreover, De Carro's style shows a subtle difference in tone to many of the other Lombard Masters, indeed his chromatic sensitivity is akin to the type of light hues used by the French that had reached Lombardy by the end of the fourteenth Century.

We are grateful to Dr. Andrea de' Marchi for suggesting the attribution to Antonio de Carro on the basis of a color transparency (verbal communication, March 2004).