These three panels are from an altarpiece painted for a Dominican church in the Marchigian town of Ascoli Piceno. It is possible that the child was originally shown reaching for a flying bird, his frequent attribute. The cracked marble dais is a recurrent feature of Crivelli's work. On it are two pears, symbolic of the Fall of Man, and a fly, conceivably an emblem of Satan. Crivelli loved visual tricks, and the shadow cast by the fly gives a disturbingly realistic quality.

Saint George (fourth century) is shown in contemporary, fifteenth-century armor with the dragon he slew. For a reconstruction of the altarpiece, see metmuseum.org/collections.

The Virgin, her head turned to the left, is seated on a polychrome marble throne with an arched top before which hangs a cloth of honor. A white veil covers her forehead, and an elaborately patterned gold brocade cloak with a green lining falls over her shoulders and sweeps across her lap. She delicately steadies the infant Christ, who is turned toward the right, his legs straddling her lap and his arms outstretched. In front of the throne is a broken marble dais on which, to the right, are two small pears and a fly. The pears may be symbols of the Virgin and Christ or of the Fall of Man. The fly has been explained by André Pigler [see Ref. 1964] as a device to protect the picture from flyspecks rather than as a symbol of evil or sin, but it may also be a symbol of Satan [see Ref. Lightbown 2004]. The elaborately tooled gold background must originally have terminated in a pointed arch but has been cut. The date was originally inscribed as 1473 and then changed by Crivelli to 1472, possibly due to confusion as to which regional calendar pertained; it seems likely that Crivelli completed the altarpiece after December 25, 1472, and before March 25, 1473.

The composition has received much comment [see especially Ref. Lightbown 2004]. Motifs such as the prominently cracked marble at the right reflect Crivelli's training in Padua. The action of the Child, usually interpreted as a visual link to the lateral figure of a saint, may have been directed at a flying bird, the symbol of Christ's Passion. The composition is intimately tied to that of the central panel of the Montefiore Altarpiece (Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels), which is not dated but would seem logically to precede the MMA picture. It also provides the best visual evidence for mentally reconstructing the arched top of the MMA work.

The picture was correctly recognized by Bernard Berenson [see Ref. 1895] as the center panel of a polyptych, but it was not until 1933 that Lionello Venturi [see Ref.] identified three of the lateral panels, a Saint Dominic and a Saint George in the Metropolitan Museum (05.41.1,2) and a Saint James now in the Brooklyn Museum (78.151.10). Harry B. Wehle [see Ref. 1940] further noted that the three panels of saints were in the collections of Cardinal Fesch and the Reverend Davenport Bromley, along with a fourth panel showing Saint Nicholas; this panel was subsequently identified by Henry Sayles Francis [see Ref. 1952] with a picture in the Cleveland Museum of Art (1952.111). There can be no doubt that the five panels belong to the same altarpiece. Beyond their agreement in style and dimensions, all five are listed in the Fesch catalogue, and the modern tooling on the background of the Madonna and Child matches exactly that on the filled-out spandrels of the companion pictures.

Zampetti further suggested that a Pietà in the John G. Johnson Collection, Philadelphia Museum of Art, formed the central element of a second tier of panels and identified five small panels that show, respectively, Christ Blessing (Philbrook Art Center, Tulsa), Saint Peter (Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven), Saints John the Evangelist and Bartholomew (Castello Sforzesco, Milan), and Saint Andrew (Proehl collection, Amsterdam) as from the predella. Although Zampetti's reconstruction has been accepted by a number of critics, neither the Pietà nor the set of predella panels is likely to have belonged to the altarpiece [see Ref. Lightbown 2004]. The five ex-Fesch panels have a combined width of 69 inches, while the probable number of predella panels of the size of those under consideration (the predella would logically have included Christ, the apostles minus Saint James, who appears above, and possibly another figure) would measure over 118 inches. The Pietà must originally have had a plain gold ground—the tooled hanging behind Christ is a later addition—whereas the gold ground of the five main panels is elaborately tooled. Moreover, its figures are lit from the right rather than the left, as they are in the polyptych. Such disparity of treatment is not encountered in other altarpieces by Crivelli. The arrangement of the panels has been disputed. Berenson [see Ref. 1957] placed Saints Nicholas and Dominic at the two extremities, and Saints James and George flanking the Virgin; Lightbown [see Ref. 2004] placed the Saint Dominic to the Virgin’s left, and also took up the suggestion of Anna Bovero [see Ref. 1975] that the altarpiece may come from the church of San Domenico in Macerata. Amico Ricci (Memorie storiche delle arti, Macerata, 1834, p. 214) describes one altarpiece by Crivelli in that church as showing a Madonna and Child with two Saints ("Madonna in mezzo a due Santi"), which is unlikely to be the Fesch altarpiece. However, it emerges that in 1827–28, five panels by Crivelli were acquired by Ignazio Cantalamessa of Ancona and subsequently sold in Rome; these could be the Fesch altarpiece, which must have come from a Dominican foundation.

[2011; adapted from Ref. Christiansen 1984]

Inscription: Signed and dated (bottom left): +CAROLVS+CRIVELLVS+VENETVS+ / 1472 PINSIT+

probably church of San Domenico, Fermo (until 1827–28; sold to Cantalamessa); probably Ignazio Cantalamessa, Ancona (from 1827–28; sold in Rome); Cardinal Joseph Fesch, Palazzo Falconieri, Rome (until d. 1839; his estate, 1839–45; inv., 1839, no. 15425; cat., 1841, no. 2303; his estate sale, Palazzo Ricci, Rome, March 24ff., 1845, no. 1777, for 100 scudi to Baseggio); G. H. Morland, London (until 1863; his sale, Christie's, London, May 9, 1863, no. 76, for £53.11, bought in); William Graham, London (by 1875–d. 1885; cat., 1882, no. 363; his estate sale, Christie's, London, April 2–10, 1886, no. 331, for £131.5 to Colnaghi); [Colnaghi, London, from 1886]; Robert and Evelyn Benson, London (by 1887–1927; cat., 1914, no. 70; sold to Duveen); [Duveen, New York, 1927–28; sold for $300,000 to Erickson]; Alfred W. Erickson, New York (1928–d. 1936); Mrs. Alfred W. Erickson, New York (1936–d. 1961; her estate sale, Parke Bernet, New York, November 15, 1961, no. 9); Mr. and Mrs. Jack Linsky, New York (1961–his d. 1980); Mrs. Jack Linsky, New York (1980–82)

London. Royal Academy of Arts. "Winter Exhibition," 1875, no. 182 (lent by W. Graham).

London. Royal Academy of Arts. "Winter Exhibition," 1887, no. 180 (lent by R. H. Benson).

London. New Gallery. "Venetian Art," 1894–95, no. 32 (lent by Mrs. R. H. Benson).

London. Grafton Galleries. "National Loan Exhibition," October 1909–January 1910, no. 71 (lent by R. H. Benson).

London. Burlington Fine Arts Club. "A Collection of Pictures of the Early Venetian School and Other Works of Art," 1912, no. 9 (lent by R. H. Benson) [separate ed., "A Collection of Pictures of the Early Venetian School and Other Works of Art," no. 4].

New York. Wildenstein. "The Italian Heritage," May 17–August 29, 1967, no. 6a (lent by Mr. and Mrs. Jack Linsky).

Posthumous inventory of Cardinal Fesch. 1839, fol. 454v, no. 15425 [Archivio di Stato, Rome, Not. Capitol., Ufficio 11, not. Augusto Appolloni, anno 1839, vol. 611, fol. 37r–503v; see Ref. Thiébaut 1987], as "Quadro in tavola alto piedi tre, largo piede uno, e un terzo rappnte Madonna in Trono con Bambino di Carlo Crivelli. Scudi cinquanta".

Catalogue des tableaux composant la galerie de feu son éminence le cardinal Fesch. Rome, 1841, p. 95, no. 2303, as "'La Vierge sur son trône'; elle tient l'enfant Jésus. La figure principale est revêtue d'une étoffe d'or brodée en fleurs. C'est un bon ouvrage de Carlo Crivelli," 3 pieds high by 1 pied 4 pouces wide.

J[oseph]. A[rcher]. Crowe and G[iovanni]. B[attista]. Cavalcaselle. A History of Painting in North Italy: Venice, Padua, Vicenza, Verona, Ferrara, Milan, Friuli, Brescia, from the Fourteenth to the Sixteenth Century. London, 1871, vol. 1, p. 86 n. 1.

Catalogue of Pictures, Ancient and Modern, 35 Grosvenor Place. 1882, no. 363 [see Ref. Garnett 1982].

George Redford. Art Sales. London, 1888, vol. 2, p. 227, lists it as having been bought in for £53.11 at the Morland sale of 1863, and sold for £131.5 to Colnaghi at the Graham sale of 1886.

Bernhard Berenson. The Venetian Painters of the Renaissance. 3rd ed. New York, 1894, p. 106 [1895 ed., p. 99].

Bernhard Berenson. Venetian Painting, Chiefly Before Titian, at the Exhibition of Venetian Art. London, [1895], p. 12 [reprinted in "The Study and Criticism of Italian Art," London, 1901, pp. 102–3], states that "the virgin's facing to the left, and the child's eager movement to the right indicate that this panel must have formed originally the middle of a polyptych, with saints on either side".

G[eorg]. Gronau. "Correspondance d'Angleterre: l'art vénitien à Londres, à propos de l'exposition de la New Gallery." Gazette des beaux-arts, 3rd ser., 13 (February 1895), p. 165.

G. M'Neil Rushforth. Carlo Crivelli. reprint, 1908. London, 1900, pp. 46, 93–94, 119, ill. (frontispiece).

Lionel Cust. "La collection de M. R.-H. Benson." Les arts 6 (October 1907), p. 3, ill.

Lionello Venturi. Le origini della pittura veneziana, 1300–1500. Venice, 1907, pp. 195–97.

Roger E. Fry. "La mostra di antichi dipinti alle 'Grafton Galleries' di Londra." Rassegna d'arte 10 (March 1910), p. 36.

Tancred Borenius. "La mostra di dipinti veneziani primitivi al 'Burlington Fine Arts Club'." Rassegna d'arte 12 (June 1912), p. 88, ill.

J[oseph]. A[rcher]. Crowe and G[iovanni]. B[attista]. Cavalcaselle. A History of Painting in North Italy: Venice, Padua, Vicenza, Verona, Ferrara, Milan, Friuli, Brescia, from the Fourteenth to the Sixteenth Century. 2nd ed. [1st ed. 1871]. London, 1912, vol. 1, p. 85 n., Borenius mentions it.

B. Geiger in Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler. 8, Leipzig, 1913, pp. 129–30.

Catalogue of Italian Pictures at 16, South Street, Park Lane, London and Buckhurst in Sussex collected by Robert and Evelyn Benson. London, 1914, pp. 137–38, no. 70, ill. opp. p. 137.

A[dolfo]. Venturi. "La pittura del Quattrocento." Storia dell'arte italiana. 7, part 3, Milan, 1914, pp. 362, 364, 367, fig. 279.

Bernardo Berenson. "Nicola di Maestro Antonio di Ancona." Rassegna d'arte 15 (1915), p. 168.

Bernhard Berenson. "Venetian Paintings in the United States: Part Two." Art in America 3 (April 1915), p. 114 [reprinted in Bernard Berenson, "Venetian Painting in America: The Fifteenth Century," New York, 1916, p. 20].

Laudedeo Testi. "Il divenire." La storia della pittura veneziana. 2, Bergamo, 1915, pp. 557, 611–12, 616–17, 673, ill.

"Duveen Buys the Famous Benson Collection." Art News 25 (July 16, 1927), pp. 1, 5, 8.

Franz Drey. Carlo Crivelli und seine Schule. Munich, 1927, pp. 41, 54–55, 57, 63, 127, 150, pl. XXI.

Bernhard Berenson. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Oxford, 1932, p. 162.

Lionello Venturi. "Fifteenth Century Renaissance." Italian Paintings in America. 2, New York, 1933, unpaginated, pl. 364, identifies the Saints George and Dominic (MMA, 05.41.1, .2) and the Saint James (Brooklyn Museum of Art) as three lateral panels from the same altarpiece as this work.

Luigi Serra. "Il periodo del rinascimento." L'arte nelle Marche. 2, Rome, 1934, p. 389.

Bernhard Berenson. Pitture italiane del rinascimento. Milan, 1936, p. 140.

Raimond van Marle. "The Renaissance Painters of Venice." The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting. 18, The Hague, 1936, pp. 6–10, fig. 4.

Harry B. Wehle. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Catalogue of Italian, Spanish, and Byzantine Paintings. New York, 1940, p. 178, identifies a Saint Nicholas (then lost, now Cleveland Museum of Art) as the fourth lateral panel of the polyptych of which this work was the centerpiece.

Henry S. Francis. "'St. Nicholas' by Carlo Crivelli." Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 39 (September 1952), p. 188, publishes the panel depicting Saint Nicholas of Bari and tentatively accepts the connection with the 1472 polyptych.

Pietro Zampetti. Carlo Crivelli nelle Marche. Urbino, 1952, pp. 22, 69, 77, no. 82.

Federico Zeri. "Il Maestro della Annunciazione Gardner." Bollettino d'arte 38 (July–September 1953), p. 241, accepts the reconstruction of the 1472 polyptych.

Bernard Berenson. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Venetian School. London, 1957, vol. 1, pp. 69–70, pl. 137 (reconstruction), accepts the reconstruction of the 1472 polyptych.

Rodolfo Pallucchini. La pittura veneta del Quattrocento. 2, Padua, 1957–58, pp. 17–19, 21 [see Ref. Zampetti 1986].

Anna Bovero. Tutta la pittura del Crivelli. Milan, 1961, pp. 23–24, 51, 59–60, pl. 27.

M. L. D'Otrange Mastai. "New York News." Apollo 74 (November 1961), p. 151, ill.

Rodolfo Pallucchini. "Carlo Crivelli in Palazzo Ducale." Pantheon 19 (November–December 1961), p. 274.

Pietro Zampetti. Carlo Crivelli e i crivelleschi. Exh. cat., Palazzo Ducale. Venice, 1961, p. XXXII.

Pietro Zampetti. Carlo Crivelli. Milan, 1961, pp. 16, 24, 75–77, 103, figs. 24 (reconstruction), 25, tentatively adds five predella panels and a Deposition (or Pietà; Johnson collection, Philadelphia Museum of Art) to the 1472 altarpiece [see Notes].

Federico Zeri. "Cinque schede per Carlo Crivelli." Arte antica e moderna no. 13/16 (1961), p. 162.

André Pigler. "La mouche peinte: Un talisman." Bulletin du Musée Hongrois des Beaux-Arts no. 24 (1964), p. 50, no. 5, fig. 37.

René Gimpel. Diary of an Art Dealer. English ed. New York, 1966, p. 398, mistakenly states that Erickson bought it from Duveen for $350,000 (the actual price was $300,000).

Barbara Sweeny. John G. Johnson Collection: Catalogue of Italian Paintings. Philadelphia, 1966, pp. 25–26, under no. 158, accepts the expanded reconstruction of the 1472 polyptych, including the Philadelphia Pietà and the five predella panels; mistakenly cites Zeri [see Ref. 1961] as associating the Philadelphia Pietà with this polyptych.

Fern Rusk Shapley. "Italian Schools: XV–XVI Century." Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. 2, London, 1968, pp. 35–36, accepts the expanded reconstruction of the polyptych.

Gerald Reitlinger. "The Art Market in the 1960s." The Economics of Taste. 3, London, [1970], p. 85, gives sale prices from 1845 through 1961.

Charles Seymour Jr. Early Italian Paintings in the Yale University Art Gallery. New Haven, 1970, p. 240, under no. 180.

Pietro Zampetti. La pittura marchigiana da Gentile a Raffaello. [Milan], [1970?], pp. 180–82.

Federico Zeri with the assistance of Elizabeth E. Gardner. Italian Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Venetian School. New York, 1973, pp. 21–22.

Elizabeth de Fernandez-Gimenez in "European Paintings Before 1500." The Cleveland Museum of Art: Catalogue of Paintings. part 1, Cleveland, 1974, pp. 68–69, under no. 26, fig. 26a (reconstruction).

Anna Bovero. L'opera completa del Crivelli. Milan, 1975, pp. 83, 87–89, 95, no. 48, ill., states that the altarpiece must have been made for a Dominican church, and suggests the convent of San Domenico, Fermo, noting that a Madonna with two saints is recorded as having been sold from there shortly before 1834.

Everett Fahy. "Babbott's Choices." Apollo, n.s., 115 (April 1982), p. 240.

Oliver Garnett. Letter to Sir John Pope-Hennessy. September 27, 1982, notes that it is included in an unpublished inventory of the collection of William Graham of 1882 [see Ref.].

Keith Christiansen in The Jack and Belle Linsky Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1984, pp. 29–32, no. 5, ill. (color), notes that the pentiment in the date, changed from 1473 to 1472, may have been due to Crivelli's confusion over differing regional calendars, and suggests the altarpiece was completed sometime between December 25, 1472, and March 25, 1473; calls the innovative compositional elements Paduan in origin; believes that neither the Philadelphia Pietà nor the five predella panels [see Notes] belong to the 1472 altarpiece; rejects the identification of the 1472 altarpiece with the one sold from San Domenico, Fermo [see Notes]; thinks the correct order of the four flanking panels is, left to right, Saints Nicholas, James, George, and Dominic.

Keith Christiansen in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Notable Acquisitions, 1983–1984. New York, 1984, pp. 46–47, ill. (color).

Pietro Zampetti. Carlo Crivelli. Florence, 1986, pp. 16, 29–30, 39, 257–261, pl. 14 (reconstruction), colorpl. 15, ill. pp. 258 (reconstruction), 259, agrees with Bovero [see Ref. 1975] that the provenance could be San Domenico, Fermo.

Dominique Thiébaut. Ajaccio, musée Fesch: les primitifs italiens. Paris, 1987, p. 183, ill., quotes from the Fesch inventory of 1839 [see Ref.]; gives the purchase price at the Fesch sale of 1845 as 100 scudi.

Colnaghi in America: A Survey to Commemorate the First Decade of Colnaghi New York. New York, 1992, p. 131.

Stefano Papetti in Vittore Crivelli e la pittura del suo tempo nel Fermano. Milan, 1997, pp. 56, 68 n. 11, identifies the 1472 polyptych with an altarpiece by Carlo Crivelli bought by Ignazio Cantalamessa from the Dominicans in Fermo on May 26, 1831 for 50 scudi.

Valter Curzi in Pittura veneta nelle Marche. Cinisello Balsamo (Milan), 2000, pp. 307, 320 n. 4.

Cecilia Prete in Pittura veneta nelle Marche. Cinisello Balsamo (Milan), 2000, pp. 343–44, 349 n. 152, tentatively agrees with Papetti [see Ref. 1997] in identifying the 1472 altarpiece with the work bought by Cantalamessa from the Dominican convent in Fermo.

Ronald Lightbown. Carlo Crivelli. New Haven, 2004, pp. 127–29, 131–32, 136, 149, 151, 205, pl. 32, states that the altarpiece to which the five panels belong was painted for San Domenico, Fermo, probably for a secondary altar; rejects the association with the Philadelphia Pietà.

Lisa Monnas. Merchants, Princes and Painters: Silk Fabrics in Italian and Northern Paintings, 1300–1550. New Haven, 2008, pp. 171, 359 n. 132.