How does this artwork elucidate its Description?
The altarpiece depicts the Madonna and Child who, seated on a cloud between two musician angels, sends a blessing to the four saints below, inserted in a landscape, which are (from left to right) Saint Peter, Saint Dominic, Saint Paul and Saint Jerome. It is a mystical vision, evoked by the saints and their readings.
The figures of the saints, depicted in a larger than life size, are located in the foreground and represented with a viewpoint from below. Between them opens a landscape with Venice seen from the Fondamenta Nuove, so as to bring out the Dominican basilica of San Zanipolo at the center of the composition, the mother house of the Dominicans of the areas of influence of the Venice Republic. If in the lower half a natural light diffuses, the upper one is dominated by the dazzling luminous cloud behind Maria, made of seraphs in flight, citing Titian's altarpiece of the Assumption.
In the drapery of the characters the artist used his particular way of making them heavy and shiny like velvet, with strong silver reflections given by dense and full-bodied brushstrokes.
Saint Dominic Saint Paul Dominicans Titian Jerome Venice Saint Jerome Saint Peter