The Rovelli Altarpiece is a 1539 oil on canvas painting by Moretto da Brescia, which since 1899 has been in the Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo in Brescia, Italy. [1] Strongly influenced by Titian, it is named after the schoolmaster Galeazzo Rovelli who commissioned it for the church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli in Brescia in 1539, where it remained until being removed in the 19th century and replaced by a copy. [2] Its composition was reused by Moroni in his Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine in the 1560s.
It shows Nicholas of Bari presenting two of Rovelli's pupils to the Madonna and Child, with two more behind the saint. One of the pupils in the foreground holds a mitre while the other holds a book and three gold balls, traditional attributes of St Nicholas. [3] Curiously, the painting contains an image of the Indian Ocean littoral, hidden in the crumbling golden mosaics of the semi-dome behind the figures. [4]