Polyptych of Torchiara

In the centre, the Virgin with Child and angels, from the left, St. Anthony abbot, St. Nicomedes, St. Catherine of Alexandria, St. Peter the Martyr; in the predella, the Twelve Apostles. The polyptych is in its original frame and was commissioned by Pier Maria Rossi for the chapel of the castle of Torchiara, near Parma. It is dated 1462 and signed by Benedetto Bembo who belonged to a family of painters active in the ducal court between Milan, Pavia and Cremona. The expressive vivacity of the apostles and the almost grotesque realism of the faces testify to the abandonment of late Gothictradition and the influence of Tuscan culture, but more particularly of Ferrara, in the Lombardy area.