Albert Figdor, Theodor von Frimmel e il Cristo benedicente della pala Avanzi di Francesco Morone

The article focuses on a Blessing Christ formerly in the collection of Albert Figdor in Vienna, first published by Theodor von Frimmel in 1907 and attributed by him to “probably Bartolomeo Montagna”. The painting was subsequently auctioned twice, in 1930 and again in 2024, under the designation of an “anonymous North Italian painter circa 1500”. A first-hand inspection of the work has led to its reattribution to the Veronese painter Francesco Morone and its identification as the missing panel of the predella of the so-called Avanzi or Crucifix altarpiece (1498) in the church of San Bernardino in Verona. As its structure was modelled on that of the Sacramento altarpiece by Alvise Vivarini (1494-1498) in the Venetian church of San Giovanni in Bragora, the comparison provides compelling evidence of the relationship between the two painters.