The Fracanzani Altarpiece

In 1428 Lucia Fracanzani, abbess of the convent of San Martino at Avesa, in the hills just north of Verona, paid for this altarpiece and had the date painted on it. She chose an unusual subject for the centre. The Virgin is pregnant. She sits enthroned before a red hanging, a book in one hand, the other resting on her swelling body, a type of image that Italians call the Madonna del parto. The inscription at the lower right still records in Latin that Sister Lucia had the work made.

On either side ride the two knightly saints who protected the convent. Martin cuts his cloak in half for a beggar, and George, with the princess praying behind him, swings his sword over the dragon. Small panels above add the archangel Michael and, split between two pinnacles, the angel and the Virgin of the Annunciation, the moment the pregnancy began. The painter is not known. The museum finds the work very close to Giovanni Badile, to whom it was once given, and labels it as coming from his circle.