LORENZO VENEZIANO
(Venice, documented from 1356 to 1372)
The burial of St. John the Baptist
1350
Tempera on panel, gold ground
10½ x 9 11/16 in (26,6 x 24,6 cm)
Brilliantly-coloured, inspired in narrative and marked by bold foreshortening, this panel is a rare illustration of the early style of Lorenzo Veneziano, the most important and innovative Venetian painter of the mid-to-late 1300s. The remarkable attention to realism, surprising for its time, is probably inspired by Bolognese examples.
It formed part of a predella narrating scenes from the life of John the Baptist (two other panels survive in the Detroit Institute of Arts and in a private collection).
Acquired by the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Tours (France)