Stefania Buganza

The Treviglio Polyptych seen through its underlying drawing. Setting-up the study and opening new lines of research STEFANIA BUGANZA, GIANCLUCA POLDI The article analyzes the Treviglio Polyptych (1485-1490) – a masterpiece of Lombard Renaissance painted by Bernardo Zenale and Bernardino Butinone – on the basis of new reflectograms revealing the underlying drawing. The goal is to retrieve new information about the execution and to make a clearer distinction between the individual contribution each of the two artists gave this common task. An introduction on the criticism related to the work – giving account of the different opinions expressed by scholars on the distinction between the two separate interventions and the organization within Butinone and Zenale’s workshop – is followed by a detailed analysis of the drawings underlying beneath all the panels of the polyptych, compared with those made on coeval paintings by both artists. The last section summarizes the results of our study and their incidence on matters of style and autography. The most relevant discovery is the intervention by Zenale on the finished work, on both his and Butinone’s parts, in order to give coherence to the altarpiece.