After 1496

The Miracle of the Oil Lamp and the Flagellation of the Saint Bartholomew

Italian (active Ravenna, Venice, and Forlì), documented 1495 - 1502

This panel was cut from a predella (the bottom tier of an altarpiece). On the left, a woman pours oil into a lamp, part of the episode of the Miracle of the Oil Lamp, in which a single day’s worth of oil burned for eight days. On the right Saint Bartholomew is being punished for converting the king of Armenia to Christianity. The main part of the altarpiece from which this predella panel was taken has been in the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan since 1811, when it was brought there from the church of San Domenico in Ravenna. At that time paintings from Italian provinces conquered by Napoleon were being transferred to Milan to make the Brera the principal museum in French-occupied Italy. They were not returned after the fall of Napoleon. The predella, which had been separated from the main panel before 1783, was first displayed in the sacristy of the church before being sawed into pieces and sold separately. Three additional scenes would have accompanied the two on view here: two are now in the Musée du Petit Palais in Avignon, France; the third is unlocated.