LUCA ANTONIO BUSATI, FORMERLY KNOWN AS THE MASTER OF THE INCREDULITY OF SAINT THOMAS | Madonna and Child with Saint Nicholas of Bari and a kneeling donor

Oscar Klein, New York, circa 1940-1964;
St. Josephs College, Rensselaer, Indiana;
From whom acquired by present owner.

Federico Zeri first identified the author of this painting as the Master of the Incredulity of Saint Thomas, an artist responsible for a large altarpiece of that subject in the Church of San Niccolò in Treviso.¹  In 1974, Tempestini constructed a comprehensive corpus of works for this anonymous master² and later convincingly linked him to Luca Antonio Busati.³ We are grateful to Dr. Peter Humfrey who has endorsed this attribution on the basis of photographs.  

1.  See Fonazione Federico Zeri, Online Photo Archive, no. 24133.

2.  See A. Tempestini, “Il maestro veneto dell’incredulità di San Tommaso”, in Antichità Viva, 1974, no. 2, pp. 11–17;

3.  See A. Tempestini, “I Fratelli Busati e il Mastro veneto dell’incredulità di San Tommaso” in Studi di Storia dell’Arte, 1993, 4, pp. 27–68.