Mantegna, Andrea (c.1431-1506)
Polittico di San Luca (Saint Luke Polyptych)
1453–1455
Tempera on panel, 177 x 230 cm
Pinacoteca di Brera, Milano
The Altarpiece of San Luca was made for the church of Santa Giustina in Padua from 1453 to 1454 and was one of Mantegna‘s first works, and shows a lack of coordination in the sizes of the figures. It was created in a moment of intense dialogue between the two brothers-in-law when Mantegna married Giovanni Bellini’s sister Nicolosia. It demonstrates the adhesion of the monastery of Santa Giustina to the new Benedictine rule invented by Father Ludovico Barbo. (Brera)