Altarpiece of St. Ambrose

Abstract

This painted marble altarpiece is dated 1482, making it the earliest one to be preserved in the Cathedral of Como. The inscription also names the patron, Giacomo de Vituduno, who is shown kneeling in the upper register on the left, smaller than St. Lucy, who places her hand on his head as ne kneels facing the Madonna in the central panel, who has her arms crossed in a gesture of prayer and turns towards Giacomo, as she looks down at the infant Christ. St. Lucy, Giacomo, Mary and Jesus all overlap in front of the classically-inspired frames of their panels, breaking up the otherwise somewhat rigid composition and making the figures seem to project into the viewers' space. The figures depicted in the predella are: St. Stephen, St. Lawrence, St. Anthony, St. Leonard of Limoges, and St. Katherine of Alexandria; in the lower level: St. Proto, St. Ambrose (shown triumphing over a tiny heretic, and holding a book with the Te Deum, of which he was erroneously thought to be the author), and St. Giacinto; on the second level: to the right of the Madonna and Child, St. James of Campostella; and above God the Father, framed by angels. Conservation treatment in 1993 revealed ample traves of the original polychromy and gilding. Photograph(s) licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.