Trinity and Virgin on the Throne and Assumption

The elegance of gold

Kept in the small diocesan museum, on the first floor of the sacristy of the Cathedral of Santa Maria Maggiore, the painting is divided into two parts: the main part depicts Christ and the Virgin on the throne with God the Father placing his hands on their shoulders and the dove of the Holy Spirit. The other shows a Christ in mandorla with the soul of the Virgin in his hands and angels playing various musical instruments.

Exemplary among the many paintings with a gold background present in Barletta, the panel in the Cathedral is probably the only surviving part of a more complex polyptych, of which the carpentry has been lost.

The work has long been attributed to the Venetian painter Giovanni di Francia - or Zanino di Pietro - or, in any case, traced back to his circle. Recent research has however highlighted its similarity to the anonymous author of the so-called Missal of San Corrado kept in the Cathedral of Molfetta, a miniated codex from the 15th century, whose figurative culture is similar to that of the Barletta panel.