Paintings between 1470 and 1479: Pesaro Altarpiece

The Pesaro Altarpiece was executed for the church of San Francesco in Pesaro. Coronation of the Virgin remained in the church at the time of its dissolution in 1797, then became the property of the Comune, and after various vicissitudes ended up at the Musei Civici in Pesaro, where it is now. The Pietà, which according to customary canons of the time crowned it, at the time of the church's dissolution, went to Paris; it was recovered and brought to Rome by Canova in 1815; it finally came to the Vatican Pinacoteca.

The altarpiece celebrates the profession of Franciscan faith (an Order linked to the Sforza family, then lords of Pesaro, by strong bonds of devotion and protection) through the presence, at the sides of the throne and in the left and right-hand pilasters, of saints whose cult was particularly venerated and fostered by the friars in Pesaro.