Page of St Ambrose Polyptych by VIVARINI, Bartolomeo in the Web Gallery of Art, a searchable image collection and database of European paintings and sculptures (1100-1850)

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St Ambrose Polyptych

1477
Tempera on wood, 125 x 47 cm (central panel), 108 x 36 cm (side panels)
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Unlike Mantegna's humanistic ideals of beauty, the rigour of Bartolomeo Vivarini's tormented vision is not softened even by the influence of the lyricism of Giovanni Bellini. In the St Ambrose polyptych Vivarini still uses the impenetrable gold ground on which the figures with their obvious sculptural quality, stand in isolation, each within their own compartment on their marble plinth of uncertain perspective. In the central panel the icon-like figure of St. Ambrose sits rigid on his throne while at his feet the members of the stonecutters' guild kneel in the proportions dictated by the Mediaeval iconographic tradition.