Two Fabrianese manuscripts pertaining to the late activity of Carlo Crivelli

Abstract This article introduces two newly discovered nineteenth-century sources by the Fabriano-born man of letters Camillo Ramelli (1804–1855), preserved in the family archive, and retraces the provenance of two late altarpieces by Carlo Crivelli (c.1430–c.1495). Originally housed in the now destroyed Church of San Francesco delle Logge in Fabriano, these works were dismantled and dispersed at the end of the eighteenth century. The principal panels of the Becchetti altarpiece (1491) and the Coronation of the Virgin altarpiece (1493) are now in the National Gallery in London and the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan respectively, while several of their ‘minor’ elements are held in four other European museums. Until now, knowledge about both altarpieces was limited to information dating from the period close to their transfer to their current locations. This study contributes new insights into their early nineteenth-century provenance – that is, shortly after their removal from the altars for which they were made. It further enables a deeper understanding of the Becchetti chapel’s original Renaissance architecture, and the ways in which the panels forming the predellas and pilasters of the two altarpieces were separated from the main sections at a very early stage. This confirms a pattern observed in the fate of other Crivelli works during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. At a historical moment when taste for Crivelli’s work had yet to be firmly established, certain developments in provincial contexts suggest the emergence of collectors and dealers capable of appreciating this Renaissance master’s art, though their activities were probably not devoid of speculative intent.