Focus on this artwork and analyze the History.
A transcribed document in the Fermo archives (the original is now lost) states that the altarpiece was commissioned in 1470 by a man named Giorgio Salvadori, an Albanian immigrant to Italy fleeing the Ottoman advance after Skanderbeg's death in 1468. He headed the Salvadori family, who owned the altarpiece for centuries and who eventually split it up.
The work's dating is not only based on its style but also 18th century documents which state that a signature by Crivelli was once visible at the bottom of the frame, reading "CAROLUS CRIVELLUS VENETUS PINXIT ANNO 1470" - this is now illegible. It also appears in two inventories, one of 1727 by Anselmo Ercoli and another made in 1771 during a pastoral visit, the latter of which describes the altarpiece in minute detail and mentions that the same chapel also contained two paintings each with three saints and each with the Salvadori coat of arms (perhaps originally the altarpiece's predella and now lost). An 1805 document in the Salvadori family archives refers to a Last Supper, compatible with the measurements of the paintings of "some saints" (a palm) and which may have formed the centre of the predella.In 1803 the old parish church was demolished and the altarpiece moved into the Suffragio church, which was hosting the church's services until a new San Giorgio was built. In 1832 the painting was in the Salvadori family home, still waiting for the new church's completion - there Maggiori saw it. By 1832, when it was seen by Amico Ricci, the new church was complete and the altarpiece was in it, though the half-length figures of saints had already been removed to stay in the Salvadori house. In 1835 the whole work was taken to Rome and sold in pieces to the Portuguese ambassador Hudson for 90 scudi via Luigi Salvadori Paleotti. The prior of the monastic community of Porto San Giorgio claimed ownership of the altarpiece, however, and tried to contest the work's sale by the Salvadori family. A new payment of 300 scudi settled the dispute. It passed into the Ward and then Dudley collections, where Waagen saw it. It was exhibited at the Egyptian Hall in London, where it was seen by Joseph Archer Crowe and Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle. In 1876, it was acquired by Martin Colnaghi at the sale of the Dudley collection and dispersed.
Amico Ricci San Giorgio Martin Colnaghi 1876 Joseph Archer Crowe Egyptian Hall Skanderbeg scudi Ottoman Porto San Giorgio Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle predella