Madonna and Child in glory with Saints John the Evangelist, Apollonia, Catherine of Alexandria and Michael the Archangel (Scarani Altarpiece)

This painting by Perugino, one of the leading figures of the Italian Renaissance, arrived in Bologna thanks to Gabriele di Michele Scarani, who commissioned it for the family altar in the church of San Giovanni in Monte, the same that was to host, in the adjacent Duglioli Chapel, Raphael’s St. Cecilia.

The altarpiece, made around 1500, balanced and perfectly symmetrical, is structured in a dual order that divides the celestial sphere from the earthly world.

In the upper section, Madonna and child are seated on a throne of clouds inside the golden almond, around which are angels’ heads and a pair of adoring angels.

At the bottom left, the four saints, Archangel Michael, Catherine of Alexandria, Apollonia and John the Evangelist, recognizable by their iconographic attributes, are arranged in a semicircle, allowing the viewer to contemplate the landscape which stretches toward a distant horizon in a remarkable series of hills, trees, mountains and a turreted village in the valley.

Precisely for the fine execution of the landscape, together with the composition’s layout, the most recent studies believe this to be a work by the master, confirmed by the signature on the wheel of St. Catherine. The execution of the Saints, on the other hand, where we find variations of solutions already adopted by Perugino in earlier paintings, is attributed to collaborators from the workshop.