Ancient Partitions in Lombardy: the Case of Sant’Eustorgio
CARLA TRAVI
The article offers some insight considerations about the structure and
function of partitions and parapets as architectural-liturgical elements
documented in several Lombard churches in the Middle Ages. At the
present state of the studies, the gradual demolition of these parts since
approximately the 15th Century makes it difficult to be more precise
about the number and placement of the documented examples.
Nonetheless, particularly abundant and interesting information has been
found about the partition in the Dominican church of Sant’Eustorgio in
Milan, built in 1239 and heavily modified in 1279. This structure – the
position of which within the church is tentatively defined in this study –
should have been the original location of some pictorial works, such as
an imposing Crucifix in Venetian style erected in 1288 and still present
in the church, or two wood panels there situated in 1315, or immediately
after, and both unfortunately lost.
A golden jewel enameled en ronde-bosse in a Milanese document
from the early 15th Century
ROBERTA DELMORO
The article recopies and analyzes – with particular focus on their
historical and art-historical importance – the contents of a previously
unpublished document found among the folders of Milanese notary
Giovannino Balbi in Milan’s State Archive. The instrumentum, an act of
turnover produced in Milan and dated July 6th 1405, describes – with
compositional and iconographic detail – a votive dangling plaque, then
preserved by Giovanni I Borromeo, entirely made of gold and enameled
in relief in white and red, using the en ronde-bosse technique. The
pendant, now presumably lost, represented the Virgin with Child
between the Saints John the Baptist and Dionysius Confessor, the Holy
Spirit Dove and, at the top, the Holy Father in Heaven with Angels. The
presence of the Milanese Martyr Saint separates the jewel, probably
made in Paris, from the presently known accounts of similar sumptuary
objects found in Lombardy. Its commission is just an episode of the wide
range of trades between Lombardy and France, a result of the
“international” policy adopted by Giangaleazzo Visconti at the end of the
Middle Ages.
The Triptych in the Diözesanmuseum in Vienna
CORINNA GALLORI
The collection of the Diözesanmuseum in Vienna includes a mid-15th
Century painted triptych, the execution of which can be traceable in the
Lombard milieu. This study’s intent is to bring up this artwork – which
has never been thoroughly researched – to the attention of scholars,
analyzing different aspects of it: the reconstruction of the passages of
property that brought it to its current location, the problems of
attribution, the complex iconography. This element deserves particular attention, since the altarpiece is unusually abundant in episodes, linked
to one another in a less than clear way. The in-depth analysis particularly
concerns one specific element, the Dead Christ with Three Angels (Engel-
Pietà), showing an iconography correspondent to that of several other
works, Italian and foreign, possibly the result of the diffusion of a
common printed source.
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.
Pavia 1477: a beginning for Zenale
CARLO CAIRATI
A newly discovered document on Bernardo Zenale casts some light on
the beginnings of the painter from Treviglio, and opens up new lines of
research. At the end of the 1470s, the young artist was living in Pavia –
a fact so far unknown in his biographies – where he established contacts
with Bonifacio Bembo and Giacomino Vismara, and with the group of
painters responsible for the decoration of the partition in the church of
San Giacomo della Vernavola. Zenale’s beginnings should then be found
in this important center in Lombardy, where Foppa and his fellow
painters were the main actors in a daring milieu strongly influenced by
the culture of Ferrara and Bologna.
The Book of drawings of the ambrosiana library
SILVIO MARA
The realization of the rich drawing collection of the Ambrosiana in Milan
goes back to the years of Federico Borromeo, who positively wanted to
ensure the institution he had founded with a large number of “books of
drawings”, the characteristic format such collections were given by the taste of the time. No recollection exists of the original organization of
these volumes, on which several drawings were attached. A coherent
recognition of documentary sources found both at the library and at other
structures – covering a time-span that goes from the early 17th to the late
19th Century – allowed to retrace the history, as well as most of the
original features, of one of the most ancient among such precious books.
The collected data seem to bring up the possibility that the former owner
– and maybe maker – of the Book was the Milanese – though born in
Urbino – architect Giovanni Battista Clarici (1542-1602). The drawings
included in the book were taken after works by several artists from the
16th Century, perhaps with the intent of representing the most relevant
pictorial schools of the Renaissance. Despite that, a truly Milanese
character stands out, particularly in a striking series of caricatures
inspired by the example of Leonardo, alternated with some outstanding
original drawings by the Florentine master.
Pietro Maggi in Crema: the canvases in the demolished church
of San Marino
LICIA CARUBELLI
Following the death of the major local painters from the 1600s, no
personality of particular relevance seems to have emerged in Crema at
the turn of the century. Customers then reached out to other areas, such
as Veneto and Milan. Thus is explained the presence in town of important
works by Legnanino and Giacomo Parravicino, who had been born in
Valtellina but were living in Milan: specifically, the former’s
Annunciation in the parochial church of San Giacomo and the latter’s
rather imposing frescoed decoration in the church of Santa Maria della
Croce, made in collaboration with the Grandi brothers, specialized in the
technique of quadratura.
Pietro Maggi – to whom a cycle of canvases for the church of Bagnolo Cremasco has been attributed in the past – belonged to the very same
milieu; his name is now being associated with a group of 6 canvases
formerly in the church of San Marino in Crema, seat of the Barnabite
Fathers in the 17th and 18th centuries. These works ought to be
attributed to the Milanese painter on the basis of clear similarities with
his known production, showing close links with the figural culture of
both Lombardy (scholars presume he was a pupil of Filippo Abbiati) and
Veneto.
The Crema paintings, representing Alessandro Sauli Receiving
Communion, St. Libor, St. Francis of Sales, St. Anthony of Padua in
Adoration of the Child, St. Anne and the Virgin Mary, St. Charles in
Adoration of the Crucifix, show the work of a painter up to date with the
most important 18th Century innovations, such as light and bright colors
and a vibrant atmosphere, if still within a more traditional classicism.
Painters from Brescia in the Cosway Collection in Lodi
MONJA FARAONI
The article addresses a previously unpublished corpus of paintings, part
of the Cosway Collection in Lodi and attributed to the artist Giovanni
Renica (1808-1884) from Brescia. It consists in some small oil landscapes
and a Portrait of Father Christopher, the back of which reveals a manifold
dedication indicating 1872 as the date of acquisition of all the paintings,
a gift from the artist to Elena Solera, at the time Mother Superior of the
famous boarding school founded by Maria Hadfield Cosway in 1812.
The links between the institution and painters from Brescia were already
revealed by the group portrait in which Gabriele Rottini celebrated
Cosway’s philanthropic activity in 1834-35, depicting the woman
together with other English dames and some students during a lecture.
Another painting by Rottini in the collection is a small Portrait of a Girl,
probably Cosway’s daughter Mariannina, herself a student of the school.
Fascicolo digitale
|
