MASTER OF THE CLOELIA BATH (active in Verona, late 15th/early 16th century) Adoration of the Magi. Circa 1490. Black chalk and tempera on canvas. 115 × 270.5 cm. Provenance: - Kunsthandel Julius Böhler, Munich, 1981. - Swiss private collection. Literature: Mattia Vinco: La scuola veronese di pittura di Jean Paul Richter, Todi 2021, pp. 57-58, ill. 33. This Adoration of the Magi fills the foreground in the form of a frieze from left to right. The second part of the procession can be seen in the background, with men following the Magi, who are paying homage to the Christ Child. This theme gives the painter the opportunity to embellish the painting with many details, such as the comet and the shepherds who are the first to receive the news of the birth. From a technical point of view, this work is unusual, as it was painted with black chalk and tempera in the darker areas and then treated with a fixative. This particular "drawing" falls into the realm of gouache tempera or distemper on canvas, a technique that aims to achieve a matt glossy effect, similar to a fresco, but is made on a movable support. This technique was used in the 15th century in northern Italian cities, particularly in Mantua and Venice, to solve the problem of rising damp, which damaged the frescoes (see K. Christiansen: Some observations on Mantegna's Painting Technique, in: Andrea Mantegna, exh.Cat. ed. by J. Martineau, Milan 1992, pp. 68-78; A. Rothe: Mantegna's Paintings in Distemper, in: ibid., pp. 80-88). Andrea Mantegna and his successors of the 15th century most frequently used canvas as a painting support, both for altarpieces and for secular works. Mantegna is regarded as the one who ennobled the technique of gouache tempera in Italy. Apart from a few Venetian exceptions from the mid-15th century, this technique was used before Mantegna for very specific works, such as processional banners, organ screens and antependiums. Prof. Mattia Vinco published the painting offered here in 2021 as a work by the Master of the Cloelia Bath (see literature). The oeuvre of this anonymous painter from the circle of Andrea Mantegna, who was active in Verona in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, has been examined and reconstructed by Prof. Vinco in recent years (see Mattia Vinco: Cassoni. Pittura profana del Rinascimento, Milan 2018, pp. 336-337). Stylistically, the master is close to Giovanni Maria Falconetto (1468-1535) and Michele da Verona (1470-1540). The work that gives the master his name depicts the female figure Cloelia from early Roman history as she crosses the Tiber to escape Porsenna and is in the collection of the Marquess of Bath at Longleat House in Great Britain (see Vinco 2018, ibid., p. 344, cat. no. 112). This painting, together with Filippo da Verona's gentler depiction of Arianna in Nasso of c. 1510 (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, inv. no. SK-A-3967), testifies to the late rediscovery of Mantegna's models in Verona.