FRANCESCO SALVATOR FONTEBASSO (VENICE 1707-1769)

This sheet relates to a series of pictures depicting variations on the Virgin appearing to Saint Jerome, of which eleven different versions are in Brescia, Budapest, Cres, London, Milan, Munich, Padua, Paris, Trieste and Venice (see M. Magrini, Francesco Fontebasso, Vicenza, 1988, nos. 18, 28, 39, 75-6, 92, 99, 118, 123, 160 and 167, figs. 32-8). The Venice picture, the largest of all, was commissioned for the New Sacristy of the Scuola di San Girolamo in Venice, today the Ateneo Veneto. The other ten pictures, bozzetto-size, were probably painted in 1740-1750 for the cells of the monks.