Cristoforo Moretti (Cremona-Milan, documented from 1451 to 1485 ca.)
Stories of Saint Genesius and Other Saints or Prophets
tempera on panel; inv. P 53
provenance: uncertain, probably from Pelagio Palagi Collection, 1860
This fragment was part of the dais of the polyptych by Cristoforo Moretti, originally housed in the Chapel of Sant’Aquilinus, attached to the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Milan.
The central sections of the altarpiece are now held in the Poldi Pezzoli Museum, also in Milan. Roberto Longhi, an Italian art historian and critic, describes Moretti’s style characterized by a: “turbid and sleepy elegance, bordered with gold and ermine, with a flesh that seems to be made out of smoked wax”.
The painter was still influenced by the outdated late-Gothic examples of Michelino da Besozzo and of other more distant Venetian trends, such as the works of Pisanello or Stefano da Zevio.
From the Medieval section of the Museo Civico.
