Altichiero's 'anchona' for Margareta Lupi : a context for a lost painting

Abstract

The Veronese painter Altichiero (documented 1369-84) has long been associated with the Lupi di Soragna family. Originally from Parma, but exiled for their Guelph associations, several branches of Lupi settled in Padua in the 1360s. Bonifacio Lupi is well documented as a condottiere and as the patron both of the hospital on the Via S. Gallo, Florence, and of the chapel of S. Giacomo in the Santo, Padua, frescoed by Altichiero. His uncle, Raimondino, commissioned the oratory of S. Giorgio on the Piazza del Santo, also decorated by Altichiero.' We know less about the myriad of everyday commissions Altichiero is likely to have undertaken, especially since there is no extant panel signed or dated by him. The purpose of this note is to publish in full documentary evidence about the context and patronage of one domestic painting by the artist, which has unfortunately not survived. The recipient of the work was Margareta, the daughter of Corradino Lupi, a kinsman and trusted agent of Bonifacio. The panel formed part of her trousseau on the occasion of her first marriage with the Paduan apothecary Giacomo da Bragazo, and was paid for in 1384.2 Since Margareta's father had died on 15th September 1383, it was Bonifacio Lupi who, as executor, carried out Corradino's wishes and kept a meticulous record