Luca Signorelli (Cortona c. 1450-1523 ?)

This panel was plausibly identified by Kanter (1989) as from one of the pilasters of Signorelli's Lamentation of 1501-2, originally on the high altar of the church of S. Margherita at Cortona and now in the Diocesan Museum there, which is unquestionably the most distinguished of the numerous commissions Signorelli executed for his native town. Descriptions of the altarpiece establish that the pilasters represented Saints Michael, John the Baptist, Anthony Abbot, Basil, Jerome, Francis, Louis of Toulouse and Bonaventura, and thus suggest that this panel was the topmost element of the left-hand pilaster. Panels of Saint John the Baptist and Saint Jerome which are thought to be from the same series are recorded (Henry, nos. 61 and 63), and Henry associates a Saint Anthony of Padua (his no. 62) with these.