St Luke
by PORDENONE, Oil on panel, 75 x 75 cm
Pordenone specialized in depicting powerfully built, often ungainly figures in dramatic movement, and seen foreshortened from below. He found the fullest scope for this specialism in the decoration of ceilings and domes. The panel, showing the Evangelist St Luke with his customary attribute of a bull (or ox), was also painted for a Venetian ceiling, namely for the ceiling in the Scuola dii San Francesco ai Frari. The ceiling was dismantled in 1733.