St Peter Blessing and a Donor

Look for the small dog near the donor's feet. It carries a little scroll reading esto fidelis, Latin for be faithful, and it belongs to the kneeling man who paid for this panel around 1505. He had himself painted small and devout beside Saint Peter, who raises a hand in blessing over him. The dog is his emblem of loyalty, and the motto works two ways, the donor faithful to his church and the animal faithful to its master. Behind the two figures Bartolomeo Montagna, the leading painter of Vicenza, does something quietly local. Into the holy landscape he slips real buildings his neighbours would recognise: the front of Vicenza's cathedral and the great Roman arena at Pola, across the Adriatic.