Maestro di Arquà (Jacobello di Bonomo?) (Venice, second half of the 14th century)
Saint Jerome with Donor and Annunciation, 1370 ca.
tempera on panel; inv. P 67
provenance: on extended loan from Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Bologna, Policlinico Sant’Orsola-Malpighi
The author of this remarkable panel is certainly the same artist who executed the polyptych for the Oratory of the Santissima Trinità at Arquà Petrarca, near Padua, recently identified, as Jacobello di Bonomo.
Although this attribution is still uncertain, the author was probably trained in the circle of Lorenzo Veneziano, a loyal follower of former artistic traditions.
The complex structure of the throne is strikingly modeled through the use of chiaroscuro.
Also worth noting is the dimensional contrast between the small-scale Annunciation and the overbearing Saint Jerome who looms over the donor.
