BARTOLOMEO DELLA GATTA
(b. 1448, Firenze, d. 1502, Firenze)

The Lady of the Assumption Gives St Thomas Her Belt

c. 1475
Tempera on panel, 317 x 221 cm
Museo Diocesano, Cortona

Around 1475, Bartolomeo della Gatta painted this picture for the Benedictine Church of the Contesse in Cortona. It can be considered his masterpiece because it reaches a degree of lyricism only achieved previously by Piero della Francesca.

The painting was moved into the Church of St Dominic in 1788 where the Servants of Mary, who used to run the church, repainted the two Benedictine saints in the foreground, St Benedict and St Scolastica, transforming them into Filippo Benizzi and Giuliana Falconeri, two saints of their religious order. recent restoration has returned the painting to its original beauty and has also removed a group of angels added in the eighteenth century.




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