Virgin and Child enthroned; St Bonaventura (left); St Louis of Toulouse (right). below, four pairs of figures of Saints: St Agatha and St Augustine; an unidentified female Franciscan Saint and St Clar

Vittore Crivelli was the younger brother of Carlo Crivelli, the most individual Italian painter of the mid-fifteenth century, and spent most of his career in the Marche region where the Crivelli style had established a strong local tradition. This Virgin and Child Enthroned with Bonaventura, Louis of Toulouse, and multiple Franciscan saints (1489) is a typical example of the large polyptych altarpieces demanded by Franciscan institutions in provincial Italian cities. Bonaventura and Louis of Toulouse are specifically Franciscan saint-theologians, and their inclusion signals a Franciscan church commission. The pairing of the two Crivelli brothers in the same regional market created both collaboration and competition.

Vittore absorbs his brother Carlo's ornamental intensity — the elaborately tooled gold haloes, the garland of fruit and foliage motifs — but executes with slightly less refinement. The multiple tiers of saints are differentiated by attribute objects and costume color rather than spatial positioning. Individual faces show the Crivelli family trademark: strong brow ridges, aquiline noses, and expressions of meditative gravity. Gold embossed relief in architectural frames is characteristically dense.