View of the oratory

The picture shows the altar wall at the Oratory of San Giovanni Decollato, Rome. The altarpiece of The Deposition by Jacopino del Conte is flanked by Salviati’s St Andrew (left) and St Bartholomew (right).

Francesco Salviati intervened in the oratory decoration around the fervent years of the Jubilee of 1550, prepared by pope Paulo III Farnese but celebrated by pope Giulio III. The Florentine painter was the protagonist around the mid-16th century in Rome and worked for prestigious patrons. Paying his most sincere tribute to Michelangelo’s plasticity, in 1550 Salviati painted the powerful figures on both sides of Jacopino del Conte’s altarpiece.