Saint Elizabeth of Thuringia distributing alms

This picture is one of a number of versions, in reduced format, after the large altarpiece, signed by Pittoni and inset into a baroque polychrome marble surround, in the Schlosskirche at Bad Mergentheim, near Württemberg (see F. Zava Boccazzi, Pittoni l'opera completa, Venice, 1979, no. 4, pp. 111-2, fig. 351). Another version, of similar size to the present picture, is in the Museum of Fine Art, Budapest (ibid., no. 37, p. 122, fig. 352). It depicts Saint Elisabeth of Thuringia (1207-1231) distributing bread to the poor during the terrible famine of 1226. Elisabeth was canonized by Pope Gregory IX in 1235 and her shrine at the Elisabthkirche, Marburg became a major pilgrimage site throughout the later middle ages.

An attribution to Anton Kern (Bohemia 1709 - Dresden 1747) can be considered. Kern worked in the workshop of Pittoni and the tonality suggests a German artist.