MASTER of San Trovaso - b. ~1450 ?, d. ~1500 Venezia

Italian sculptor. The artist is named after three superlative reliefs of unknown origin now set into an altar frontal in San Trovaso, Venice. Two of the reliefs depict Angels Playing Musical Instruments and the third shows Angels Carrying the Instruments of the Passion (there are anonymous copies of the reliefs in Skultpurensammlung, Berlin). Attempts to attribute the works of the Master of San Trovaso to Agostino di Duccio have not found favour. Pope-Hennessy thought it possible that a relief depicting the Head of St John the Baptist in the sacristy of Santa Maria del Giglio, Venice, was by the same Master. Paoletti (1893) stressed the similarities with works by Antonio Rizzo Comparison of the San Trovaso panels with Rizzo’s reliefs (executed after 1486) for the Scala dei Giganti in the courtyard of the Doge’s Palace, Venice, adds weight to the hypothesis that the Master can be identified with Rizzo, but this suggestion - more convincing than any other - has gained little support.