FRANCESCO MORONE (Verona, ca. 1471 – Verona, 1529)

Scenes from the Life of San Lorenzo Giustiniani
A tri-partite ‘predella’,  circa 1500

Three scenes, each: 12 ½ x 22 inches (32 x 56 cm)

Oil on Canvas

Provenance:
Schweitzer Collection  (Auction Berlin, 1918 Nr. 27)
Von Pannwitz Collection, Berlin & Beenebrock (Haarlem)
Thence by descent.

Exhibitions:
Geschichten auf Gold, Gemaeldgalerie Staatliche Museen zu Berlin,  November 4, 2005 – February 27, 2006, catalogue  Number 29,  ills. pages 281-283, Text Pages 284-286.

Mantegna e le Arti a Verona 1450-1500, Palazzo della Gran Guardia, Verona, September 17, 2006 – January 14, 2007 (extended until the end of January).
pp. 348-350, ils. In color p. 349.

Bibliography:
Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance (Central and North Italian Schools). London, Phaidon, 1907 and 1968. Page 194, Ill. 1320 and 1321. As Girolamo da Libri.

Die Kunstsammlung von Pannwitz ,Voume I, Gemäelde by Max J. Friedländer
Verlag F. Bruckmann A.G, Munich, 1926.  Friedländer notes, in translation:
These predellas must have been part of an altar piece to Saint Lorenzo, possibly 
for St. Giorgio Maggiore (see Bernard Berneson, North Italian Painters, (1907)
page. 240. 

Del Bravo, Carlo. Francesco Morone in “Paragone”, no. 151. July 1962, pages 3-23. As Francesco Morone.

Brugnoli, Pierpaolo. Maestri della Pittura Veronese. Banca Mutua Popolare di Verona, 1974. Page 139. As attributed to Francesco Morone.

Francesco Morone received his early training in the atelier of his father Domenico (ca. 1442 – ca. 1518). By the end of the 15th century, this was the most active and well-known studio in Verona numbering among its apprentices Girolamo ‘da Libri’, Michele da Verona and Cavazzola. These artists, including Francesco, were uniformly influenced by Mantegna and Carpaccio and often collaborated on larger commissions. Vasari reserved high praise for the art of Francesco, mentioning also the artist’s great moral rectitude and religious commitment. In fact, a sense of deep mysticism pervades the large, late Crucifixion (Verona, San Bernardino) that marks a high point in Francesco’s art.

Lorenzo Giustiniani was born in Venice in 1381 in an ancient and noble family. After a youthful vision of the “Eternal Wisdom”, he chose an ascetic and mendicant life, joining the monks on the Island of San Giorgio and becoming Prior of that community in 1409. Although not a charismatic preacher, he developed a wide public following through the example of his humble and saintly lifestyle and prolific writings. He also exerted a powerful reforming influence on the Venetian church and was named the first Patriarch of Venice in 1441 by Pope Nicholas V. Lorenzo Giustiniani was much venerated both before and after his death in 1455, attaining canonization in 1694 under Pope Alexander VIII.