Retábulo de San Francesco dei Zoccolanti, Matelica

In March 1491 a contract was signed in the hill town of Matelica, in the Italian Marche. Ranuccio Ottoni, head of the local ruling family, and the prior of the Franciscan convent agreed to split the cost of a new altarpiece for a family chapel. Crivelli built it to fit that exact room. The chapel had a window on the back wall, so the altar stood against a side wall, and Crivelli painted the light falling from the upper right to match the daylight actually coming through that window. Look low on the main panel and you find the Ottoni coat of arms, set there for everyone kneeling before it. It is one of only three Renaissance altarpieces here still in the frame it was made for.