Saint Francis of Assisi

We are grateful to Mauro Lucco and Antonio Mazzotta for independently confirming the attribution on the basis of photographs. Prof. Lucco notes that the figure relates to that of the Benedictine abbot in Montagna's polyptych in the Church of Santi Nazaro e Celso, Verona (see M. Lucco, Bartolomeo Cincani detto Montagna dipinti, Venice, 2014, no. 52), though believes this panel to slightly pre-date the work in Verona. He also suggests that it may be a fragment of an altarpiece formerly in Santa Maria degli Angeli, in Vicenza, given to the church by Tommasina di Matteo Dal Toso in December 1481, whose description notes that it featured a Saint Francis. Documentary records show that Montagna produced at least thirty-one altarpieces in Vicenza and nearby, commissions that provide evidence for his key contribution to painting in the Veneto in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century.