The painting depicting Saints Simon and Judas, recognizable through their respective attributes (saw and club), comes from the destroyed church of Saint Lucia, the ancient oratory of the Old Castle of Casalmaggiore pertaining to the original Palace of the Community adjacent to the same church.
At least since 1579, the canvas adorned the altar of Saints Simone and Giuda, whose benefit had been founded in 1469 by a certain Cirbone of the Ruggieri family, benefit later passed to the descendants of the tax lawyer Angelo Negri and the canon Don Alberto Baccanti, whose portraits are present in the first room of the Museum.
The work is to be referred to the Brescian area, not only for the probable commission of don Archileo Ruggieri, remembering that the Ruggieri family is originally from Maderno (Bs), but for some unmistakable stylistic notes that refer to the developments of the school of Savoldo.
Here represented in adoration of the Holy Spirit, on one side the two saints obey to typical poses of the Roman classicism of the early sixteenth century whose monumentality is accentuated by the low horizon of the background, on the other side on the pictorial level, they sensitively reflect the influence of the Venetian painting, especially in the suggestive piece of landscape that can be seen between the two figures.
Fund of Scuola di disegno "Bottoli"
