Venice. The Frari’s Basilica. The Chapel of Milanese. Towards the end of the 15° century, the Lombard colony in Venice commissioned Alvise Vivarini (1445-1503) to paint the magnificent altar-piece (5X2,5 metres). The painting portrays an admirable arcade under which sits St. Ambrose, patron saint of Milan, holding a scourge in his right hand and in his left a pastoral staff. Behind him are two standard-bearers holding the unsheathed sword and the cross. Surrounding him on the left are St. Sebastian, St Louis IX, St. John the Baptist and another Saint. On the right are St. Jerome, St. Augustine, St. Gregory the great, and another Saint. On the steps to the throne, beneath the feet of S. Ambrose, two angels are playing the lute and the mandola. Up above, Christ crowns the Virgin. In the marble tomb in the middle of the chapel are the brothers of the Scuola dei Milanesi, among whom can be found the famous musician Claudio Monteverdi from Cremona, reformer of sacred misic and for thirty years chapel master pf the venetian Republic.