San Luca Altarpiece

San Luca Altarpiece
Artist Andrea Mantegna
Year 1453-1454.
Type Panel
Dimensions 177 cm × 230 cm (70 in × 91 in)
Location Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan

The San Luca Altarpiece, also known as the San Luca Polyptych, is a polyptych panel painting by Northern Italian Renaissance painter Andrea Mantegna. The altarpiece is a polyptych panel painting featuring 12 figures each in his or her own arch. The seven figures in the top row flank the central figure of Jesus Christ. The five beneath flank Saint Luke.

History

On August 10, 1453, Mantegna signed a contract to paint the work for the monastery of Santa Giustina in Padua.[1] In return for 50 ducats, Mantegna agreed to complete the work, providing paints with which to depict the figures and the azzurro Todesco (a blue pigment derived from copper) with which to inlay them.[2] The work was completed within that or the following year.[3] The polyptych is located in Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan.[4]

Notes

  1. ^ Merrifield (1849), p. 199.
  2. ^ Merrifield (1849), pp. 196, 199.
  3. ^ Vasari et al. (1911), p. 262.
  4. ^ Laven (1971), p. 13.

References