Saint Ambrose of Milan and Saint Anthony of Padua, tempera on panel, gold ground, 123 x 70 cm

We are grateful to Prof. Mauro Natale for the identification of the present panel as part of the polyptych of Santa Maria Nullate in Como and for his assistance in cataloguing the present work. The present work, depicting Saints Ambrose of Milan and Anthony of Padua, dates from the first years of the 16th Century and once formed part of an important winged altarpiece in the parish church of Santa Maria Nullate in Como (rebuilt in the 17th Century on the ruins of the older church). A panel showing Saints Clara and Lucia (127 x 73 cm) that was originally part of this polyptych, most probably commissioned by the Franciscan congregation, is now in the rectory of San Fermo della Battaglia in Como ( A. di Lorenzo, in: Pittura a Como e nel Canton Ticino dal Mille al Settecento, ed. by M. Gregori, Milan 1994, pp. 278/79). The panel showing the female saints was installed at the polyptych’s right top, and the present composition must have appeared directly underneath it. Unfortunately, it has not been possible to date to identify any further elements of this important polyptych, at least four parts of which are missing: the two central panels and the two panels of the left wing. Both works are strongly influence by the works of Ambrogio Bergognone’s maturity, but reveal a harsher expressivity and geometric simplification that was alien to the Lombard painter. The same features appear in a small group of paintings including a Saint Catherine in the Saibene Collection, Milan and – in a Virgin and Child with Saints Joseph and Jacob and a Donor in the collection of the Counts Moroni, Bergamo, both of which were earlier attributed to Bernardino Bergognone (photograph, Istituto d’arti grafiche, no. 816). These works are suggestive of a painter that must have been in close contact with Ambrogio Bergognone. He was probably the latter’s collaborator during the Master’s late period and was capable of achieving stylistic results equal in quality to the frescoes once in Santa Maria presso San Satiro and now in the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan. However, one also recognizes Bernardo Zenale’s influence. A work that resemble this group, but is probably by a different hand, is the Virgin Enthroned with Saints Sebastian and Jerome in the Pinacoteca del Castello Sforzesco, Milan. Originally, this latter painting was initially attributed first to Ambrogio and subsequently to Bernardino Bergognone.