Saints Bernardino and Clare

Carlo Crivelli painted these companion panels of Saints Bernardino and Clare around 1480 for a Franciscan church in the Marches. The pairing of these two Franciscan saints — Bernardino of Siena and Clare of Assisi — reflects the importance of the Franciscan order in the Italian Marches, where Crivelli spent his entire mature career. Carlo Crivelli was a Venetian-trained painter who spent most of his career in the Marche, the central Italian region east of the Apennines, where he executed altarpieces for churches in Ascoli Piceno, Camerino, and other provincial centers.

Tempera and gold on panel with Crivelli's distinctive decorative precision. The Franciscan saints' habits provide contrasts of dark and light against Crivelli's characteristic ornamental backgrounds.