Newly discovered documents demonstrate that these two panels are probably from Fra Carnevale's most celebrated work, an altarpiece for the oratory of Santa Maria della Bella in Urbino, for which he was paid in 1466. The oratory was attached to a hospital, which may explain the genrelike approach to narration. The emphasis on architecture—clearly inspired by Leon Battista Alberti's architectural treatise—and the oblique treatment of the ostensible subject matter have been the source of discussion for more than a century. In no comparable Renaissance paintings have the religious themes been used as a point of departure for the study of architecture and the suggestion of everyday life (note the beggars in one of the pictures). The paintings originally had frames with a row of arches along the upper edges; these shapes have been painted out but are still visible.

With these works Fra Carnevale established himself as a learned architect and an artist of ingenuity and fantasy (the critical terms of the day would have been ingenio, fantasia, and artificioso).

cat. no. 45a, b