Marcello Fogolino (Vicenza 1483/88-d. after 1548)

The present lot was first attributed to Marcello Fogolino by Federico Zeri in 1962. The composition is based on Giovanni Bellini's Donà delle Rose Pietà (Venice, Gallerie dell'Accademia), dateable to circa 1505. Fogolino's painting resembles two of his early altarpieces, which, due to their stylistic ties with Giovanni Bellini and Montagna, can be dated to before 1515. The Saint Francis in the present lot can also be found in Fogolino's Saint Francis in his Madonna and Child with Six Saints in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam dated to circa 1513-15 (see L. Puppi, Marcello Fogolino, pittore e incisore, Trent, 1966, pp. 12, 20). The distant landscape and detailed trees in the altarpiece formerly in the Kaiser-Friedrich Museum, Berlin and its predella in the Museo Civico, Vicenza also show a resemblance to the present painting.