The story
The Civic Museums of Padua occupy the former convent of the Eremitani friars, a few steps from the Scrovegni Chapel, the chapel Giotto covered in frescoes, which belongs to the same museum complex. Alongside an archaeological collection, the picture gallery here follows Venetian and Paduan painting from the Middle Ages to the 18th century.
Two small panels in it have long divided specialists. The Birth of Adonis and The Legend of Polydorus were once painted panels from a cassone, a decorated chest, and were left to the city in 1864 by the Paduan collector Emo Capodilista. They used to be given to Giorgione. Most scholars now see them as early work by Titian, from around 1506 to 1508, while a few still prefer the Brescian painter Romanino.
The gallery also holds Giovanni Bellini's Portrait of a Young Senator, a small Venetian likeness from around 1480.
