VIVARINI (workshop) (VENICE, 15th–16th CENTURY) Saint Louis of Toulouse Circa 1500 Tempera and gold on panel 126 x 39 cm Adorned with all the attributes of a bishop – mitre and crozier – Saint Louis of Toulouse makes a gesture of blessing with his gloved left hand. With his other hand, he tucks down the hem of his chasuble whilst clutching a codex and holding his crozier. Although there is no inscription to identify this saint, two features nevertheless allow him to be recognised. His blue chasuble adorned with fleurs-de-lis, the emblem of the French royal family, confirms that he is a prince of the blood, whilst his monastic habit, visible beneath his chasuble with its hood covering his shoulders, attests to his membership of the Order of the Friars Minor of Saint Francis of Assisi. There is no halo here; the gold background serves as a symbol of sanctification. Saint Louis of Anjou, or Saint Louis of Toulouse (1274–1297), was the son of Charles II, known as ‘the Lame’, King of Naples, Count of Provence, Anjou and Maine. When the latter was taken prisoner by King Peter III of Aragon during a naval battle intended to reclaim Sicily, which had been lost in 1282, he was used as a bargaining chip, along with his two brothers, to take his place in prison. A deeply devout man, Louis vowed to join the Franciscan Order and renounced his claim to the crown in favour of his younger brother Robert. Released in 1295, he took his vows in the Franciscan Order. In 1296, Pope Boniface VIII appointed him Bishop of Toulouse, a post he accepted on condition that he might retain the Franciscan habit. During his brief tenure in Toulouse, he devoted all his possessions, as well as the revenues of his bishopric, to helping the poor and the sick, even humbly serving them at his table. Whilst travelling to Rome for the canonisation of his great-uncle Louis IX (Saint Louis), he died in his hometown of Brignoles, worn out by the tuberculosis that had been ravaging him since his captivity. His relics were transferred to the Franciscan church in Marseille, before being stolen by the troops of Alfonso V of Aragon and taken to Valencia Cathedral in Spain. As miracles were attributed to him after his death, he was canonised on 17 April 1317 by Pope John XXII. Highly venerated, Saint Louis of Toulouse is the subject of numerous depictions, the most notable of which is the politically charged altarpiece painted in the year of his canonisation by Simone Martini, commissioned by Robert of Anjou, King of Naples, in which he is shown kneeling and being crowned by his brother. Whilst in Martini’s altarpiece the saint on his throne occupies the central panel, in our panel the elongated composition suggests that it is in fact the side panel of an altarpiece comprising several such panels on either side of a central panel. Originally from Padua, the Vivarini family worked in Murano from the 1440s until the early 16th century. Antonio Vivarini (1415–1480), the eldest of the dynasty, is known for having painted frescoes, with the help of Giovanni d’Alemagna (1411–1450), his brother-in-law, part of the Ovetari Chapel in the Church of the Eremitani in Padua. Antonio painted several panels depicting Saint Louis of Toulouse, two of which are held at the Louvre (see below). In 1450, Bartolomeo Vivarini (1432–1499), Antonio’s brother, joined the business and steered the studio’s style towards the International Gothic. Together, they worked at the Carthusian monastery in Bologna and at the Church of St Francis in Padua.