Saint Peter Martyr and a Bishop Saint (Saint Evasio?)

Giovanni Martino Spanzotti's Saint Peter Martyr and a Bishop Saint in the National Gallery represents the Piedmontese school of the late fifteenth century, a regional Italian tradition little studied outside specialist circles. Spanzotti was among the most accomplished painters working in Turin and the surrounding region, producing altarpieces for churches and civic patrons across Piedmont. His work shows familiarity with both Lombard painting — Bergognone, Foppa — and the Venetian tradition, synthesized into a distinctive local manner. These standing saints likely formed wings of a larger altarpiece ensemble.

The two saints stand in a shallow architectural space, their attributes — Peter Martyr's wound, the bishop's mitre and crozier — providing identification. Spanzotti's modeling is careful and three-dimensional, his color warm and restrained. Drapery falls in naturalistic folds with competent spatial recession.