ALBEREGNO, Jacobello
(died before1397 in Venice)

Triptych

1360-90
Tempera on panel, 45 x 56 cm
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Much more of an innovator than either Catarino or Lorenzo Veneziano was Jacobello Alberegno, who in the Triptych with Crucifixion and Saints, his only signed work, reveals himself to be an artist of penetrating refinement. If it is true that the two lateral saints, St Gregory and St Jerome, are examples of stylized Gothic figures, the images of the small central panel display a naturalness worthy of one of the best of Giotto's disciples. An extraordinary human dimension seems to govern the expression of sentiments in the picture: a grief-stricken St John the Evangelist clutches his cloak to his breast while the Virgin extends imploring arms and stares transfixed with anguish at her crucified son.