Madonna and Child with Saints Barbara and Christina and Two Donors

The two men kneeling in profile on either side of the Virgin paid for this picture, and their names are now lost. Venetian painters had long shown patrons this way. In 1488 Giovanni Bellini painted Doge Agostino Barbarigo kneeling side-on, introduced by Saint Mark. Here the older man in the dark gown is brought forward by Barbara, who holds up her emblem, a small tower, on the flat of her hand. The young man in red has Christina's hand on his shoulder, the millstone of her martyrdom tucked under her arm. The museum dates the canvas to 1508 or 1509. The twisting Child and the fruit tree behind the throne recall the Venetian painter Lorenzo Lotto so strongly that two leading connoisseurs around 1900 took the whole picture for a copy of a lost Lotto.