Outwardly the Church of Santa Maria Annunziata al Meschio doesn’t seem to merit a special visit but its modest neo-classical facade contains within a treasure of renaissance Venetian painting.

On entering the church’s sober interior one’s eye is drawn to the apse.

On the high altar Previtali’s masterpiece, his Annunciation, enchants with its delicate colours, its light-enhanced draperies, the exquisitely drawn faces of the Virgin and the Angel

and, especially, its magically realistic landscape framed by the window of the Virgin’s intimate chamber with its oriental carpet.

Indeed, the greatest of Venetian painters, Titian, would be in the habit of making a special detour from his home in Pieve di Cadore to his commissions in Venice just to see this painting.

Who was Previtali? Known as il Cordeliaghi, Andrea Previtali was born in Brembate, in Bergamo province, around 1480 and died in Bergamo in 1528. Already well-known for his skills as a painter Andrea moved to the artistic powerhouse of Venice where he trained under Giovanni Bellini. His youthful paintings, which include portraits and landscapes, are influenced by Carpaccio, Giorgione and Palma il Vecchio, whom the artist met during his stay at the ‘Serenissima’ republic.

Around 1511 Previtali returned to Bergamo where he carried out four commissions. In 1512 he painted his first important works: the ‘San Sigismondo’ in the church of Santa Maria del Conventino, the ‘Saint John the Baptist and other Saints’, for the church of Santo Spirito and the ‘Pala di Sant’Orsola’ now in the Carrara Academy, for the church of Sant’Agostino.

In 1512 Lorenzo Lotto arrived in Bergamo and Previtali collaborated with him on various projects including the inlaid work of the choir of Santa Maria Maggiore by Giovan Francesco Capoferri.

Previtali’s numerous, mainly religious, paintings are full of refined realism and supreme skillfulness.

Nothing is known about Previtali’s private life: there are no documents indicating marriages and there is no documentation of wills. The only known fact is that he died of the plague on 7 November 1528 in his house near the church of Sant’Andrea in Bergamo.

Fortunately for Londoners one doesn’t have to go far to appreciate Previtali’s sensitive oevre. The following paintings, for example, are to be found in the National Gallery.

• Stories of Damone and Tirsi ((purchase for the BG by Sir Kenneth Clark)
• The Virgin and the child adored by two angels
• The Virgin and the child with the saints John the Baptist and Catherine
• The Virgin and the child with a supplicant friar and St. Catherine
• The Virgin and the child with olive shoot
• Salvator mundi
• Scenes of the Eglogues of St. Theobald

Andrea Previtali, about 1480 – 1528 The Virgin and Child adored by Two Angels about 1505 Oil on canvas, transferred from wood, 67.9 x 93.8 cm Layard Bequest, 1916 NG3111 https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/NG3111

Andrea Previtali, about 1480 – 1528 The Virgin and Child with a Tonsured Supplicant and Saint Catherine about 1505-6 Oil on wood, 53.3 x 69.2 cm Bought, 1862 NG695 https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/NG695

Andrea Previtali, about 1480 – 1528 Salvator Mundi 1519 Oil on poplar, 61.6 x 53 cm Salting Bequest, 1910 NG2501 https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/NG2501

Andrea Previtali, about 1480 – 1528 The Virgin and Child with a Shoot of Olive about 1515 Oil on wood, 50.2 x 66.5 cm Salting Bequest, 1910 NG2500 https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/NG2500

For us, however, the most significant point about the church of Santa Maria Annunziata al Meschio is that it is the Church where my wife, Sandra’s mum was christened.