ABSTRACT
As Peter Humfrey has argued, a series of altarpieces co-ordinated within the confined space of single church can reveal both an ideal of format and thematic unity between the paintings, as well as a wish to transmit a variety of messages. Humfrey places this development in the period of the Counter-Reformation, yet the same phenomenon can be observed in a series of images executed by Moretto for the Augustinian Congregation of S. Giorgio in Alga as early as the 1540s. The emphasis within the Congregation of S. Giorgio in Alga on allegiance to the Pope, scholarship and meditation ensured it the patronage of staunch supporters of the Catholic Church in Brescia, some of whom also championed Moretto. After Moretto’s death in 1554, the Congregation continued to employ some of Moretto’s assistants, in particular Agostino Galeazzi and Luca Mombello who continued to work in the same clear and narrative style their master had employed.
