Il polittico di San Clemente di Agostino De Marchi e Marco Zoppo: documenti, cronologia e stile

The polyptych made by Agostino De Marchi and Marco Zoppo for the Bolognese church of San Clemente in the Collegio di Spagna is a very early expression of the new Renaissance style in Bologna. The intention here – backed up by a re-examination of partly unpublished documents and stylistic analysis of the piece as a whole – is to sustain that the work of the woodcarver and the work of the painter were planned concurrently, and this determined a substantial continuity in terms of execution. The completion of the retable, including the painted part, can therefore be dated to no later than the spring of 1459, corresponding therefore with the final payments received by Agostino De Marchi. The study also focus- es on the distinctive techniques adopted by Zoppo and on his highly original capacity to mediate between the perspective and compo- sitional innovations assimilated during his stay in Padua and the chromatic qualities of the Florentine “painting of light” which had arrived in Emilia thanks to the activity there of Piero della Francesca