Predella with Annunciation and Scenes from the Lives of Four Saints

Nicola di Maestro Antonio d'Ancona was an Adriatic painter active in the Marche region, working in a regional tradition that blended Venetian influence from the north with Umbrian and central Italian elements from the west. His 1477 predella with Annunciation and saints' scenes was likely the base panel of a polyptych produced for a church in the Ancona territory, a region where Crivelli and the Vivarini had established the dominant visual language through their numerous altarpiece commissions. Predella narratives in Adriatic painting from this period tended to be more spatially experimental than the main panels above, as patrons were less prescriptive about their iconography, giving painters more latitude. The multiple scenes — Annunciation plus four hagiographic vignettes — reflect the devotional programme of the commissioning institution.

Working in the Adriatic tradition, Nicola di Maestro Antonio uses a spatially shallow stage for each predella vignette, the scenes separated by architectural framing elements. Figures are compact and emphatic in gesture, following Crivelli's influence in the region. Gold is reserved for halos; the background of each scene is rendered in an architectural grey-blue that gives the panels their cool tonal unity.