The Madonna in Glory with the Child and Saints Michael and Nicholas

The work represents the Madonna in Glory with the Child among cherubim angels: below there are the Bishop Nicola from Bari and Saint Michael the Archangel spearing Satan. In the background, a rugged landscape where only a bovine grazes and a lake on whose tree-lined banks it is located a tower house. The painting is dedicated to Saint Michael the Archangel and Saint Nicholas to whom two altars of the church were consecrated in ancient times. The composition is pyramidal and presents a stylistic contradiction between the upper and lower part. In fact the Nordic taste of the Child and of the angels and the Virgin's position and clothes, contrast with the Mannerism of the cherubim and the two Saints. The work is not signed, but precisely the contradiction mentioned above and the two different stylistic features of the painting make us think of Ernesto de Schaichis, who had already worked for the Parish of Polverigi in 1606. In fact, it’s likely that the painting was made by the Dutch painter in two steps: the upper part during his period in Camerino when he had not absorbed our culture yet and the lower one during his stay in Castelfidardo when he shows a new knowledge of the Marche Mannerist and Baroque culture enabling him to express himself with wider and airy brushstrokes and brighter colors.