«Due Nostre Donne di varie grandezze» by Leonardo in Milan
EDOARDO VILLATA
In the drafts of two letters datable to 1508, to be sent to Charles
d’Amboise and to Goffredo Carolo, Leonardo states that he had done «in
assai buon porto» two «Nostre Donne» destined for the King of France; yet
we know nothing of these works. They cannot be identified with any
known Leonardesque work, but they must have existed. They must have
been works of a relatively small format, connected with the inventions
between 1505-1506, and they must have been known mainly in Lombardy.
Perhaps there is a hypothetical model that corresponds to such
characteristics: the one behind a certain number of Lombard Nativities
of the second decade of the 16th Century, the best example of which is
the one from the church of Santa Maria dei Canali in Tortona. Also, the
model was still popular in the seventeenth century, thus very
authoritative even if inaccessible today.
We can find the oldest account of it in a drawing under the layer of paint
in a Madonna at Brera, convincingly attributed to Fernando Yáñez de
Almedina, a Spanish artist who was with Leonardo until 1506. This drawing
shows an inclined female head, along the lines of very well-known
examples such as Leonardo’s St. John the Baptist or Leda, and very similar to
that of some Madonnas painted by Raphael in his Florentine years. Hence
the hypothesis that such a prestigious model could only be the sketch for
one of the «due Nostre Donne» which Leonardo himself mentions.
A Newly Discovered St. John the Baptist in the Desert
from the Caravaggesque period of Giuseppe Vermiglio
MAURO PAVESI
The surveys for the cataloguing of the works of Milan’s Pinacoteca
Ambrosiana brought to the discovery, among the most recent
acquisitions, of a previously unknown St. John the Baptist by Giuseppe
Vermiglio, which presents the same relaxed, calm pose of the painting of
the same subject made by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio and now
part of the collection of Musei Capitolini in Rome. The artwork, never
mentioned in the specific literature, came through a donation to its
present location in 2007, with the attribution to an anonymous 17th-
Century Emilian painter; a number of glaring stylistic and structural
similarities undoubtedly confirm the attribution to Vermiglio. The
derivation from that specific Caravaggio original, painted in 1601 for
Ciriaco Mattei – and also known through a replica documented in the
Pamphili collection since the late 17th Century – adds a new piece to the
reconstruction of the Roman acquaintances in the Lombard artist’s early
career, after the notorious traces of his relationship with the Barberini and
Giustiniani families, as demonstrated, respectively, by the many replicas
Vermiglio had taken from Caravaggio’s Sacrifice of Isaac in the Barberini
collection, and by the Coronation of Thorns at Palazzo Altieri, derived from
another painting by Merisi, formerly part of the noteworthy collection of
Marquis Vincenzo Giustiniani. The possible date of Vermiglio’s newly discovered painting should not be extremely late, given the obvious
derivation from Caravaggio, which suggests a not quite distant impression
from the direct view of Merisi’s masterpieces; nonetheless, a clear
classicist reduction of the model and the normalization of its iconography
– typical elements of Vermiglio’s late Milanese works – seem to suggest a
date near his return to Lombardy (documented since 1621).
Patrons and the construction site.
Archive information for Palazzo Cusani in Milan
MARICA FORNI
The essay focuses on the reading of previously unpublished documents on
the historical uses of Palazzo Cusani, in an attempt to link the patronage of
Abbot Gerolamo Cusani to Roman architect Giovanni Ruggeri, to define a
clearer chronology of events and to put into context the projects and times
of construction within the complex, erratic development of personal affair
and patrimonial controversies among the components of the family. The
1707 post mortem inventory of the Abbot’s movables presents a “snapshot”
of the building during its construction, allowing to identify the nucleus of
its dwellings and to date the completion and assembling of the decorative
structure of the well-known façade on Via Brera to the crucial period of the
political overhaul which led to the submission of the State of Milan by the
Habsburg. The ancient building was gradually eaten away by the new
construction by Ruggeri, which extends from the individual block on Brera
to the sides of the court by the two porches, jointed to the oldest nucleus
of the palace, modified in the two phases of construction during the 1600s.
The bipolarity of Roman and Viennese styles, recognizable in the
modernity of the façade, appears to be well suited to the familiarity
between the components of the family and both the restless workshop
of architectural form of the late-baroque roman milieu – still able to
influence Northern Italy – and the capital of the Austrian Empire, taking
into account such slight, and yet important chronologic gap.
New Discoveries on Federico Ferrario in the Territory of Lecco
GIOVANNA VIRGILIO
The essay presents a series of new documents allowing to push back the
beginning of Federico Ferrario’s activity. The career of this artist is usually
structured in two distinct phases: the first (approximately 1750s and 1760s)
characterized by a constant presence in the Milanese territory – with brief
stays in Monza, Brianza, Orta, Lodi and even Piacenza –, the second (1760s-
1780s) by a frequent activity in the area around Bergamo.
His earliest works, approximately dated 1752, were so far identified as
those for the churches of San Filippo in Lodi and Sant’Angelo in Milan.
Now, two previously unknown paintings in the parish church of San
Giovanni Evangelista in Galbiate (Province of Lecco) push back the
beginning of Ferrario’s career – which still presents some black spots,
especially in the early stages – by a decade. The two pendants represent respectively, the Adoration of the Magi and the Last Supper, and they are
already documented in 1742. The essay also introduces other artworks
that could be attributed based on style to the Milanese painter, found in
the territory comprised among Abbadia Lariana, Mandello del Lario and
Lierna, on the East bank of the Lecco branch of Lake Como.
Giulio Aluisetti and the 19th-Century renovation
of the Church of San Simpliciano in Milan
SIMONA BORGONOVO
Between 1839 and 1846, the basilica of San Simpliciano in Milan went
through a period of deep rearrangement of its interior: architect Giulio
Aluisetti operated a renovation that, while maintaining the
Paleochristian structure, altered both the wall surface and the sculptural
and pictorial decorations.
In order to examine such a crucial turning point in the history of the
basilica, the author meticulously wrote down documents from Milan’s
Archivio Storico Civico and those, never previously published, from the
City’s State Archive and the Parish Archive of San Simpliciano. The Archive
of the Soprintendenza per i Beni Ambientali ed Architettonici of Milan
was also a source, particularly regarding the 20th Century renovations.
Such a vast exam, together with a reconsideration of the existing
literature – among which the studies by Struffolino Krüger, allowed the
author to trace the chronology of Aluisetti’s intervention, identifying the
artists involved in the various stages of the project, and putting into
context the architect’s drawings.
The funeral portrait of Gaston de Foix in the early 19th Century:
preservation, study and collecting
VITO ZANI
A number of documents from Milan’s State Archive and Biblioteca
Ambrosiana reveal two previously unknown historical events connected
with the funeral portrait of Gaston de Foix, sculpted by Agostino Busti,
a.k.a. Bambaia, between 1517 and 1521 for the unfinished monument of
the renown French military commander, projected for the church of
Santa Marta in Milan. If the dispersion of various parts of the monument
– which was never assembled – had already started by the end of the
16th Century, the church still kept the portrait at the beginning of the
19th Century, before if was transferred to the Brera Academy in 1806 and
consequently moved to its present location, the Museo d’Arte Antica at
Castello Sforzesco. Thanks to the retrieved documents, we now come to
know that a relocation of the artwork to the Biblioteca Ambrosiana was
attempted in 1801, and that very few years later Count Alberico di
Belgioioso d’Este tried to acquire it for his prominent collection.
The article also presents an extremely important late-17th-early-18th-
Century drawing retrieved by Francesco Repishti at the Bibliothèque
Nationale in Paris, portraying the arrangement of the funeral monument
in the cloisters of the convent annexed to Santa Marta, commissioned by
the nuns in 1674. Finally, some critical insight is given about two
Renaissance sculptures formerly included in the Belgioioso collection.
Milan 1881. The instruments of representation:
Architecture ordination arrangement
FRANCESCA ZANELLA
The analysis of the 2nd Italian Industrial Exhibition, held in Milan in 1881,
constitutes an important case study for the comprehension of the role architectural project and arrangement in a crucial phase of transition for
Italian culture.
The architecture of the ‘palaces of industry’ has been studied before as a
construction-site of modernity, of technological experimentation and of
formation of the new language of United Italy. In this article, the author
tries, through the testimony offered by the press and the official sources,
but also through archived documents, to trace the planning strategies for
the event, the different actors and the meaning behind the design of
sites and the exhibiting techniques.
The study allowed to figure out the times and ways of definition of the
complex of buildings for the exhibition, the relationship between the
classification issues and the organization of the areas, the dialogue
between the stylistic choices of architect Ceruti and the cultural profile
of his interlocutors in the Executive Committee, with particular focus on
some highlights of the exhibition path, such as the Sala Pompeiana and
the Rotonda della Ceramica.
Adolfo Venturi between collecting and scientific research:
a milanese case
EUGENIA BIANCHI
The previously unpublished documentation found among the
possessions of the heirs of a private collector gives a chance to
analyze Adolfo Venturi’s position towards the international antique
market and private collecting. During the considered period – the early
decades of the 20th Century – artworks from discontinued institutions
or dispersed collections formerly owned by the declining European
aristocracy were involved in an intense movement towards America.
The presence, among the found materials, of expert surveys signed by
Venturi, each subsequently published on the periodical L’Arte and the
more official Storia dell’arte italiana, generates further consideration
on the relationship between the market, scientific research and
criticism.
«A Power Station of Commanding Spirituality»:
Marinetti, Ciliberti, Sartoris and Abstractism in Como
ELENA DI RADDO
The encounter between Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and the local abstract
painters on the banks of Lake Como constitutes an interesting episode in
the history of Italian art, as it witnesses the heritage of the Futurist
movement and the birth of a new tendency which, in the specific case of
Como, was closely linked to architectural rationalism.
The leader of Futurism hoped to find new life for his artistic movement
in the innovative environment of the cultural milieu of Manlio Rho,
Mario Radice, Carla Badiali and architects Giuseppe Terragni and Cesare
Cattaneo, joined in the Thirties by a couple of noteworthy intellectuals,
architect Alberto Sartoris and philosopher Franco Ciliberti. The essay
analyzes the development of this relationship, showing that the abstract
painters approached Marinetti not only in order to gain the favour of
such an influential personality, but also as a reciprocal cultural
enrichment. Moving from Marinetti’s initial presence in Como with the
artists of “Second Futurism”, the essay describes his passionate
participation to the city’s life, in defence of Antonio Sant’Elia’s
architecture, and the strengthening of such bond in some relevant
episodes, such as the formation – thanks to Ciliberti – of the Gruppo
Futuristi Sant’Elia in 1941, which brought to the presence of the Como
abstract painters at the Venice Biennale and the Rome Quadriennale in
the rooms of Futurism, organized by Marinetti.