A SMALL DEVOTIONAL ALTAR, URBINO, PATANAZZI WORKSHOP, CIRCA 1570 SMALL DEVOTIONAL ALTAR, URBINO, PATANAZZI WORKSHOP, CIRCA 1570 terracotta glazed and painted in polychrome with bistro, yellow ochre, cobalt blue, green and manganese black; 27x22x17 cm Comparative literature F. Sangiorgi, Documenti urbinati: Inventari del Palazzo Ducale (1582-1631) , Urbino 1976, pp. 188-189; T. Wilson in R. Ausenda (ed.), Museo d'Arti Applicate. Le ceramiche , I, Milan 2000, pp. 238-239 no. 247; M. Cambareri, Italian Renaissance Sculpture in Maiolica and Glazed Terracotta in the Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston . In La statua e la sua pelle . Artifici tecnici nella scultura dipinta tra Rinascimento e Barocco , Galatina 2007, pp. 61-69; Z. Sarnecka, Le piccole sculture maiolicate e il loro significato nelle case marchigiane del primo cinquecento, in C. Guarnieri, G. Baldissin Molli, Z. Murat (eds.), Pregare in casa, Rome 2018, pp. 265-278; C. Paolinelli, Gruppo plastico con San Paolo Eremita e santʹAntonio Abate , in C. Ravanelli Guidotti (ed.), La Grazia dell'Arte. Grimaldi Fava Collection. Maioliche , Cinisello Balsamo 2019, pp. 68-69; Z. Sarnecka, Experiencing La Verna at Home: Italian Sixteenth- Century Maiolica Sanctuaries and Chapels, The Institute of Art History, University of Warsaw, published 20 December 2019 The devotional object depicts Saint Francis of Assisi in contemplation of the Crucifix hanging in a natural grotto. To the left of the saint is a small stoup carved out of the rock, while on the right side is moulded the figure of Brother Leo, intent on sipping from a bowl, seated near a spring. On the back of the rock is a barely hollowed-out grotto painted in manganese black to simulate darkness. The work is part of the production of small-scale shrines or chapels created in the 16th century, referred to in sources as hermitages or small temples, with a possible devotional function within residences, probably akin to the more widespread use of devotional plaques or roadside chapels. This particular family of works is mentioned in an inventory of the palace of Urbino in 1608, and a number of specific types can be recognised with the depiction of Christ or saints in prayer. Among the various representations, that of St. Francis in hermitage seems the most suitable to the idea of private recollection, and it is precisely this reference to the saint that is often present on other kinds of maiolica works. And it is relevant in this regard to reiterate how the composition "of the stigmata of St. Francis" in art is often based on the dissemination of prints depicting the scene, used as a source of inspiration both on majolica plates and for small sculptures. Zuzanna Sarnecka has recently dedicated an accurate study to the function, use and significance of these sculptures, listing the surviving ones that are still known, and investigating not only their function of encouraging prayer also through sensorial experience, but also the care taken in their realisation, even by artists who remained anonymous, with stylistic directions and outcomes that often differed greatly. In this analysis, we find a suggestive and pertinent comparison for the work under study here, in a Hermitage conserved at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, which is very similar stylistically, but with a more intense colouristic rendering, and which seems to be more closely related, but without certain attribution, to the sculptural productions of the Patanazzi workshop in Urbino. The comparative sculpture shows St. Francis surrounded by nature, contemplating the crucifix and receiving the stigmata. The Polish scholar in her analysis of the comparison sculpture points out how some of the landscape details and the pose of Brother Leo could be inspired by Marcantonio Raimondi's print taken from Dürer's woodcut or by the master's woodcut itself. The Boston work also seems to facilitate a number of devotional practices: as a container for holy water also present in ours, or the structure of the backrest, which connects the opening to a rocky chimney behind Christ Crucified, a probable connection created to allow the burning of incense, further enriching the devotional experience. Another small hermitage model, previously published by Timothy Wilson, is preserved in the Collections of Applied Arts of the Castello Sforzesco in Milan. Unlike the Boston hermitage and the one under analysis, the saint of Assisi is depicted praying with joined hands inside the cave of the Portiuncula, transformed into a small sanctuary, enclosed and equipped with windows and an altar, but the compositional idea and devices for 'tactile' devotion are the same: on the back is the intentionally enlarged opening where, perhaps as in our work, incense could be housed, or in the space carved out of the rock to the left of the saint. From the point of view of stylistic realisation, the work under examination is positioned as intermediate between the decorative and plastic choices of the two comparisons, testifying to a certain freedom in the realisation of the small temples, and in any case to the availability of different models within the same workshop. This representation of the sacred provided a model for pious everyday life, and seems to reflect the diffusion of religious objects with a precise aptitude for private and intimate devotion, also supported by their portability, escaping categorisation as sculpture or painting. A fashion that well reflects that taste for the representation of the everyday that we also find in the small contemporary majolica sculpture of secular subjects.