1476 Altarpiece

History

The altarpiece was likely originally constructed for the Dominican church of Ascoli Piceno, given the inclusion of Dominican saints on the lower levels of the altarpiece. The church held another 1476 Crivelli work, the Saint Peter Martyr Altarpiece. Both works were dismantled from their altars c. 1776 due to renovations in the church. They were then sold to an antiquarian, Grossi, who further separated the panels and regrouped them. (The predellas that went with the altarpieces are lost.)

The altarpiece was seen by Luigi Lanzi and purchased by Francesco Saverio de Zelada in Rome in 1789, and it arrived in Florence with the Rinuccini family. The 1476 Altarpiece arrived at London's National Gallery in 1868, having come from the Demidov collection.

Art historians Federico Zeri and Rodolfo Pallucchini reintegrated the formerly separated altarpieces, referring first to the Pietà in the Metropolitan Museum and second to the Madonna in the Museum of Fine Arts of Budapest. In 1961, the National Gallery again disjoined its panels and reconstructed them into two separate polyptychs.