Pala di San Pietro di Muralto

Carlo Crivelli's Pala di San Pietro di Muralto, painted in 1488 and now in the Palazzo Colonna, Rome, is a significant altarpiece from his productive years in the Marche. Crivelli's elaborate, richly decorative altarpieces served the piety of smaller Italian towns that could not attract the major Florentine or Venetian masters. His intensely personal style, with its sharp lines and ornamental profusion, remained stubbornly individual in an era of increasing stylistic homogeneity.

Crivelli's altarpiece features his characteristically sharp, precise drawing, brilliant jewel-like tempera colors, and the elaborate decorative elements—swags of fruit, classical garlands, brocade textiles—that distinguish his mature Marche period.