Intorno all'Annunciata di Rovato: committenza, rinascenze tardomedievali e resti pittorici

Within the history of the ancient Servants’ convent built on Mount Orfano in Rovato (Brescia, Italy) in the mid-15th century, we present the documents related to the private chapel erected on the northern side of the Church of Observance of the Annunciation of Mary. The oratory was commissioned by a wealthy patron at the end of the century and was a significant architectural intervention, with stone columns supporting the ribbed vault and robust buttresses. The chapel also had a complex cycle of frescoes dedicated to the Virgin Mary, painted by Nicolò and Liberale from Verona, depicting scenes from the Old and New Testaments, resulting from a careful recovery of ancient styles. Because of its artistic value, the friars transferred the polyptych altarpiece there, with the Annunciation and Saints Augustine and Philip Benizi, carved and painted by Antonio and Bartolomeo Vivarini in 1452. The chapel, which was demolished in the mid-17th century, was an expression of the early Renais-sance, rich in late medieval elements, and few pictorial fragments remain, sufficient to document the high quality of the decorative apparatus and the artistic renewal introduced in the late 15th century.