Antonello's ability to grasp the intimate essence of the person will lead Antonello da Messina to become one of the greatest portrait painters of all time. This particular skill is revealed since his first Portrait of a Man, dated approximately around 1465-68: here the portrayed, with a sudden jerk of the head and a slightly ironic expression, almost seems to spy on the observer's space. On the low parapet appears the writing, simulating an engraving, in capital letters: “ANTONELLUS MESSANEUS PINXIT”. It is the vindication of an early masterpiece. In this small walnut panel (which measures only 27 x 20 cm) we find the essential data of what the Sicilian painter will be: the presentation of the subject on a dark background half-length, cut just below the shoulder, portrait of three quarters, with thin-lipped mouths, barely puckered by a hint of a smile, and a slightly mocking look that never leaves the observer. The details of the face correspond to the physiognomic data of a character.

The famous Pala Bottigella by Vincenzo Foppa - originally located in the family chapel in the church of San Tommaso in Pavia - is an extraordinary compositional solution: against the background of a skilful perspective construction of an interior stands a series of characters (saints, blessed, donors) around the Madonna and child. All are defined with extreme naturalness, starting with the Madonna, in an affectionate attitude towards her Child who tries to free himself from the embrace to play with Giovan Matteo Bottigella's headdress. The four saints (Matteo, Giovanni Battista, Stefano, Gerolamo) talk to each other on either side of the throne, while the two patrons (Matteo Bottigella and his wife, Bianca Visconti) are presented to the Virgin respectively by Blessed Dominic of Catalonia, founder of the new hospital. San Matteo di Pavia, and by the blessed Sibillina de 'Biscossi, whose miraculously intact body was found in the altar of the chapel. The four characters are painted in full-length profile, with clothes and jewels that attest to their social status. Foppa's language is characterized by a particular plasticity, an interest in nature and light and the influences of Flemish painting, developed in the sense of a new and solemn spatiality, which amplifies the extraordinary truth of the scenes and characters depicted.

The signature is visible on the cartouche placed on the parapet: «IOANNES BELLINVS P». Despite this, the poor state of conservation prior to the restoration, carried out in 2008, had insinuated doubts about the autography, which is now certain and refers to the youthful period of Giovanni Bellini, around 1455. In fact, there are still late Gothic pictorial motifs. , inherited from his father Jacopo, like the very thin fingers of the Madonna or the precious golden dots in the mantle. At the same time, however, the crumpled drapery of the robes and the swollen and almost sculptural hands of the Child denounce the influence of Giovanni's brother-in-law, Andrea Mantegna, who in 1453 had married the Bellini's elder sister, Nicolosia. The two figures emerge from a dark background, draped and enlivened by the presence of a border and a row of pearls that intersect the halo of the Madonna. Thanks to the balanced use of chiaroscuro and the introduction of the architectural element of the parapet, a perspective link is created between the user and the devotional image. The work in the night between 10 and 11 May 1970 was stolen and returned to the museum, without a frame, in 1974 by the nucleus of the Carabinieri for the protection of cultural heritage. The table from 1980 is exhibited in the first room of the Pinacoteca Malaspina, a unique and precious piece.