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This publicationwas madepossiblethroughthe generosityof the LilaAchesonWallaceFundfor The MetropolitanMuseumof Art establishedby the cofounderof ReadersDigest. TheMetropolitan MuseumofArtBulletin Spring 2003 Volume LX,Number 4 (ISSN

0026-I52I)

Copyright? 2003 by The MetropolitanMuseumof Art. Publishedquarterly.Periodicalspostagepaid at New York,N.Y., andAdditionalMailingOffices. TheMetropolitanMuseumofArtBulletinis providedas a benefitto Museummembersand is availableby subscription.Subscriptions$25.00 a year.Singlecopies$8.95.Fourweeks' notice required for change of address. POSTMASTER:

Send addresschangesto MembershipDepartment,The MetropolitanMuseumof Art, Iooo FifthAvenue,New York,N.Y. I0028-OI98. Backissuesavailableon microfilm from UniversityMicrofilms,300 N. Zeeb Road,Ann Arbor, Mich. 48Io6. Volumes i-xxxvii (I905-42) avail-

ableas clothboundreprintset or as individualyearlyvolumes fromAyerCompanyPublishersInc., 5o Northwestern Drive#1o, Salem,N.H. 03079, or fromthe Museum, Box 700, MiddleVillage,N.Y. II379. GeneralManagerof Publications: John P.O'Neill Editorin Chiefof theBulletin:JoanHolt Editor:JenniferBernstein Production: PeterAntony Design:Antony Drobinski Photographyof MetropolitanMuseumworksby Peter Zerayof the PhotographStudioof The Metropolitan Museumof Art. Unlessotherwisenoted, additional photographysuppliedby creditedinstitutions.

Frontcover:Detail of TheThreeAgesofMan, by Dosso Dossi (see. fig. 33).Backcover:Detail of Bartolommeo Bonghi,by GiovanniBattistaMoroni (see fig. 26)

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NORTH THE

APENNINES

ItalianPaintingin Lombardy Sixteenth-Century and Emilia-Romagna

ANDREA

BAYER

The MetropolitanMuseumof Art

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DIRECTOR'S

NOTE

selectionsfrom the Museum'srenownedcollectionof Italianpaintingshave been presentedto the public in issues of the Bulletin. These rangefrom investigationsof earlyworks,such as fifteenth-centurysecularTuscanpainting (1980), fourteenth-centuryaltarpieces(I982),and earlyRenaissance narrativepaintings (1983),to monographicworks on Giovannidi Paolo(1988),on the greateighteenth-century Venetians, Domenico Tiepolo (1997) and his father, Giambattista,specificallyhis paintingsfor the Ca'Dolphin, Venice(1998).Oddly enough, althoughthey have been studied in many other contexts, paintingsof the sixteenthcentury-the periodof the High Renaissance and its aftermath-have not yet appearedin this publication. In this issue,AndreaBayer,associatecuratorin the Departmentof EuropeanPaintings,presentsa rich selection of sixteenth-centuryartistsof Lombardyand its capital,Milan, and of Emilia-Romagnaand its principalcity,Bologna.In a secondBulletin,scheduledfor the summerof 2005, she will turn her attentionto painters from Venice and its territory.Artistsfrom Bresciaand Bergamo,two greatcitiesthatwereat the westernborder of the Venetianempirein the sixteenthcenturybut are now part of the region of Lombardy,will be discussed in the presentpublication. The paintings of Lombardyand Emilia-Romagna were collected early and passionatelyin New York. More than twentyfive enteredthe Museum'scollection by the earlydecadesof the twentieth century.Pictures such as the portraitof FederigoGonzagaby Francesco Franciaand Correggio's altarpieceof SaintsPeter,Martha, Mary Magdalen, and Leonardwere widely discussed and considered among the most important Italian paintings availableat the time. When recommending the acquisitionof the Correggioaltarpieceto the Metropolitanin 1908, the EnglishartcriticRogerFry,active as both Museum curator and European adviser on

VER THE LAST TWO DECADES,

paintings,wrote:"Thisis so importanta picturethatthe Museumwould be justifiedin an exceptionaleffort to acquireit"-justified both becauseof Correggio'simportance and rarity and because of the quality,the andmagic,"of thispainting. "mystery While a taste for Correggiomay seem self-evident today,that for the paintersof the schoolsof Bresciaand Bergamo,and even for that of Milan, requiresmore explanation.Here,Americansfollowedthe lead of British collectorsand scholars,aboveall of SirCharlesEastlake, first keeperand then directorof the National Gallery of Art, London, from I855.He traveledextensivelyin northernItalyin the I85osand I86os, and in his enthusiasmfor worksof theseschools,he visitedand revisited privatecollections, alwayswith acquisitionsin mind. In largepart thanksto his travels,the National Gallery has, for example, more than ten works by Giovanni BattistaMoroniof Bergamo.Eastlakesharedwith other great connoisseursand art critics, such as Giovanni Morelli,his belief in the seriousnessand importanceof these artists,and the impact of their writings carried over to New York.During the I89os and early I9oos, bequests, gifts, and funds provided by some of the Metropolitan'smost importantbenefactors-Benjamin Altman, Theodore M. Davis, John StewartKennedy, J. PierpontMorgan,JosephPulitzer, HenryG. Marquand, and JacobS. Rogers-formed the core of our holdings of these sixteenth-centuryItalianpaintings. A numberof works discussedhere underwentthorough examinationand reevaluationin preparationfor this publication. Charlotte Hale, conservatorin the Museum'sSherman FairchildPaintings Conservation Center,workedcloselywith the authorto interpretthe technicalevidence. Philippede Montebello Director

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INTRODUCTION

t Romanino Thencewe wanderedon to SanFrancesco, emptytoo,where, the the un anledthe ine gnrea the and as it was curtainbefore picture, [was]thronedbehindthehighaltar.Thesacristandrewbackain revealedto us in all it sun-bathed gloryhe exclaimedwithsuddenwonder,as thoughhe had neverseenit before: t stupendo! E stupendo!'- EdithWhartonon Bresciaand itsart in ItalianBackgrounds (o905)

THE

END

OF THE

fifteenthcentury,a remarkable

numberof Italiancitiesnorthof the Apennineswere asgreatartisticcenters.Theseincludfirmlyestablished ed citieswith dazzlingcourts,suchas Milan,Bologna, and Mantua,and, of course,the Republicof Ferrara, Venice.Othercities,suchasBergamo, andParma, Brescia, in thesixteenthcentury. roseto prominence The region was dominatedby Veniceand Milan,whichhad long vied for controlof the lands that stretchedbetween them.BytheI420s, Venicehadconsolidated its terraferit as far the west as At maempire,extending to Bergamo. thebeginningof thesixteenthcentury,thepoliticalsituationin northernItalywasfurthercomplicated by the arrivalof Frenchand Spanishtroops,with claimsto variouspartsof the peninsula.The papacyalsosought to extenditsterritories (takingoverBologna aggressively in I5o6), andduringtheWarof the Leagueof Cambrai (1509-I6), all of theseforcesclashedin ever-changing alliancesacrossthe entireregion.In the yearsthatfolandthe PapalStates lowed,the Spanish,theVenetians, consolidatedtheircontrol,althoughsome citiesmantheirindependence. Despitethepolitical agedto maintain of the firstdecadesof the century,the arts uncertainty cities.Eventhecontemin allof theprincipal flourished authorof the poraryartistandbiographer GiorgioVasari, the Artists Lives (I55o,I568)and a groundbreaking of staunchdefenderof allthingsTuscanandRoman,had to admitthatGiorgioneandTitianin VeniceandCorof whathe reggioin Parmawerebrilliantpractitioners ofpainting. or modern calledthemaniera manner, modera, NewYorkers havecollected Historically, deeplyin thisarea the British and the (oftenfollowing example), European paintof the reflect this taste. Museum ingsgalleries Metropolitan

When discussingtheseschoolsof painting,distinct are evident.For example,in regionalcharacteristics andits capital,Milan,beginningin the late Lombardy fifteenthcenturytherewasa fascination withthevisual In BolognaandFerrara, effectsof perspective. in Emilia, therewereotherinterests,such as a desireto emulate Raphaelandotherartistsactivein centralItalyandthe creationof paintingssuggestiveof poetry.Nonetheless, paintersin the two regionssharedmanyartisticgoals, andforcontemporary artcriticsthesegeographic differencessometimesseem to havescarcelymattered.For example,Vasaricalledthe EmilianCorreggio"thefirst in Lombardy" to beginworkingin the modernmanner to theEmilianDossoDossiasthe"greatest andreferred artistin Lombardy." landscape In fact,manyartistictiesboundtogetherthesenorthern Italian regions. For one, after the I48os and well into the next century, Leonardoda Vinci's influence was strong and can be seen in paintings from Milan, Bologna, and Parma.More broadly,observantviewers and authorssensedthat Lombardand Emilianpainters were unified by the naturalismof their painting-in degreesthat variedfrom artistto artistand areato area but was nonethelesspresentalmosteverywhere."Naturalism"to them meant an investigationof the natural world, with its emphasison directobservationas translatedinto paint-an emphasisthat separatedtheirwork from the strongly classicizing styles of their fellow artistssouth of the Apennines.In the followingpages,I will examineboth sides of this coin: those characteristics that remainedparticularto each region and those that were common to this swath of territory across northernItalyduringthe sixteenthcentury.

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present-day to the Varese and Como includes Lombardy northwest;Pavia,Cremona,Brescia,Bergamo, and Mantua are its other major cities. In the sixteenthcentury,Mantuawas an independent state ruled by the Gonzagafamily,while Bergamo and Bresciawere both part of Venice's The proximityof the latter westernterraferma. two to Milan, however,is deeplysignificantfor the developmentof their artisticschools, and theirpaintersarefrequentlygroupedwith other Lombardartists;I will thereforeconsiderthem at the end of this section. The Sforzadukes presidedover their court, one of the most magnificentin Europe,at the Castello Sforzescoin the heart of Milan. The dukeswere greatpatronsof the arts,founding churchesand building grandcastlesin neighboringPaviaandVigevano,as well as in Milan.

At their suggestion,the French,underCharles VIII, firstenteredItalyin I494-it was a disastrous invitation,leading ultimatelyto the loss of Milaneseindependence.Louis XII, returning to Italyin 1499, droveout the Sforzaduke Ludovico,known as "il Moro."Although the Frenchwere brieflydislodged during the War of the League of Cambrai, by I515FrancisI had reestablishedFrench rule. Even so, there was little stability,as Milan and its territory fell definitively under imperial domination following the Battle of Pavia (I525), which

Francislost to the HabsburgemperorCharlesV. Although FrancescoII Sforzawas made duke, it wasat Charles's andafterFrancesco's sufferance, death in I535 the city was ruled by Spanish governors.These politicaltwistsand turnshad a major impact on the local community of artists.

Milan The course of artistic development in Milan at the end of the fifteenth century and well into the sixteenthwasset by the arrivalof two of the geniusesof the High Renaissance:Donato Bramante,the painterand architect,who was born nearUrbino and took up residencein the late I470s, and the Florentine Leonardo da Vinci, who was invited to Milan in 1482 or

I483.Their examplewas to revolutionizeall of the arts in the city, and both had significant followers. But before their appearance,the most importantpainterworkingfor the court was arguablyVincenzo Foppa (activeby I456,

d. II15/I6),born in Bresciabut activethroughout Lombardy and Liguria. The Museum's Madonna and Child (fig. I), which probably dates to about 1480, is suggestive of the gener-

al direction of Milanese art right at the moment of change. The Madonna is shown standing behind a fictive gold frame before a rose hedge;the Christchild is held up close to her cheek and grasps the hem of her cloak. The image might appearto be old-fashioned in its formal character,but in fact it is intentionallyarchaistic,in that it refersto a venerable fourteenth-centurySienesepainting (itself

Detail of Salome with the Head of SaintJohn the Baptist, by Andrea Solario (see fig. 8)

I,_y I 1"v ..r -'"' \@

I. VincenzoFoppa(Brescian,activeby I456,d. II55/I6). Madonnaand Child,ca. 1480. Tempera,oil, and gold on 25/8 in. (43.8 x 32.1 cm). Theodore M. Davis Collection, Bequest of Theodore M. Davis, I915 (30.95.293)

wood; 171/4X

2. An infraredphotographthat penetratesthe paintlayerof

Foppa'sMadonnaand Childshowsthe delicatedrawing aroundthe fingersof the Madonna'srighthand and reveals the darkunderlayerthat the artistemployedwhen building up the fleshtones of the headsof both the Madonnaand the Christchild.This methodresultedin the characteristic gray tonalityof his work,which a numberof artistsin the region werelaterto emulate.

3. Dieric Bouts (Netherlandish, active by I457, d. I475). Virgin and Child, ca. I455-60. Oil on wood, 8/2 x 61/2in. (21.6

XI6.5cm). TheodoreM. Davis Collection,Bequest

ofTheodore M. Davis, I915 (30.95.280)

a replicaof an earliericon) that hangsin Cambrai Cathedral, in northern France, and is known as the CambraiMadonna.In some details, such as the veil coveringthe Madonna's hair and the gray-huedflesh tones (see fig. 2), Foppa'spaintingcomes very close to the Cambrai picture and suggests the possibility that Foppaknew a copy of it, or of another,similar work, that may havebeen circulatingin northern Italy.However,it is morelikelythat Foppa's versionof the image is inspiredby one of the numerous Netherlandishpaintings that were themselvesinspiredby the CambraiMadonna. These includeimagessuchas the Museum'sVirgin and ChildbyDiericBouts (fig.3) and others by Rogier van der Weyden (The Museum of

FineArts,Houston)and HansMemling(Wernher Collection,Ranger'sHouse, London).Each of these,in turn,modifiesthe CambraiMadonna in some way:Foppa's,for example,is closest to the Memlingversionin the positionsof the child'sright hand and head. Lombardpainters of the fifteenthcenturywere deeplyinfluenced by Netherlandishpaintings-indeed the vogue for them was nowheregreaterthan in Milanwhich existed in many of the region'scollections, and this influence continued to be felt well into the next century. Also characteristicof Milanese painting at this moment is the subtleplay betweensurface decorationand the perspectivaldescriptionof pictorialspace:here,the Madonnastandsbehind 9

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4. Bramantino(BartolomeoSuardi; Milanese, active by I490, d. I530).

Madonnaand Child,probablybefore I5o8. Temperaon wood, 95/8 x I1/4 in. (24.3 x 28.6 cm). John Stewart

Kennedy Fund, 1912 (I2.I78.2)

the goldenframingborder,yet herhalois evidentlyflushwithit. (Inanothersmalldevotional paintingby Foppain Milan, in the Museo d'ArteAntica,CastelloSforzesco, theMadonna standsbehinda similarfictionalframe,but her in frontof it.)An interestin perhaloprotrudes of spacein paint, spective,andin thedescription had fascinatedFoppasince his earlyyearsin Padua,wherehe wouldhaveseenthe famous bronzereliefsby Donatelloin the churchof the Santo,with theirelaborateinteriorscenes of thelifeof SaintAnthony. Thisinterestwould havebeen reinforcedby Bramante's arrivalin and the of Lombardy by appearance his first paintedworksin BergamoandMilan. I0 *

Bramante (I443/44?-I514), best known as the

brilliant architectof the Tempietto in Rome and of the first plans for the new church of Saint Peter's,is less well known as a painter. However, in his earlier career in Milan, he painteda numberof importantfrescoesthat are noteworthy, above all, for a forceful figure style-not unlike that of AndreaMantegnaand for elaboratearchitecturalsettings, with classicizingornament and carefullycalculated perspectives.He had one outstanding pupil, Bartolomeo Suardi (active by

I490,

d. 1530),

known as Bramantinoafter his teacher.Bramantino paintedpanelsand frescoes,prepared cartoonsfor an extraordinaryset of tapestries

(the Trivulzio Months, I5I0-9; Civiche Raccolte

d'Arte Applicata, Castello Sforzesco,Milan), and designedarchitecture:in all of these activities, he expresseda preferencefor clearlydefined spaces and rather austerely beautiful, monumental architecture.Technicalstudy of one of his most intricate compositions, The Adorationof the Kings(The National Gallery, London),showsthat its severe,ruinedarchitecture and the objectsplacedon the steps of the throneweredesignedto fall along the orthogonals of the grid laid out on the recedingpavement. Perspectivealso playsa majorrole in the (Pinacoteca impactof the SaintMichaeltriptych Ambrosiana,Milan), in which a demon in the formof a froganda nudemaleareseenlyingacross the ground in steep foreshortening,stretched out towardthe pictureplane. Bramantinowas the most innovativeartistof his day in Milan, and in

1525

he was named official painter and

architectto Duke FrancescoII Sforza. Our BramantinoMadonnaand Child(fig.4) is conceived, albeit in a modest way, along similarlines. The Madonna,with her voluminous robe and oversizedhands, is planted in the center of the painting, while the Christ child stands on a table set at an oblique angle to the pictureplane.The settingis an extensive but barrencourtyard;darktreesgrow in a garden at the left, but the backgroundis dominated by the crenellatedwalls of a stronghold with towers, suggestinga well-fortifiedhortus conclusus(enclosed garden). The planes of these unadornedbuildingsaredefinedby light and shadow and continue the perspectiveof the walls of the courtyard.Although the effect is somewhat austere,the painting has, in the words of the important Bloomsbury critic RogerFry,"adelicatesense of intervaland silhouette.... [Bramantino] realizes, with a ten-

dernesswhich remindsone of his contemporary Bergognone, the idea of the beautiful seclusionand reposeof the Virgin'slife." The fascinationwith perspectiveand acute foreshortening,classicalarchitecture,and the depictionof spaceremainedstrongamongMilanesepainterswell into the sixteenthcentury. This predilectioncan be seen in one of the most

monumentaland impressiveworks of the (active periodin theMuseum,AndreaSolario's by I490, d. 1524) Christ Blessing(fig. 5), which was painted late in his career, in about I524.

Whatappearsat firstglanceto be a rathersimple image repays closer attention. The space in which Christ stands is defined by a simple doorlikeopening, one lit side of which we can see, while the otheris visibleas a darkedge, introducingan element of asymmetry.The back wall is boundedby anotherdoorwayflankedby columns; we can just make out the edges of their bases and capitals.The heavy green curtain hangs in an unusual, rather mysterious manner: the corners have been twisted into balls,then tied by ribbonsthat threadthrough the volutes of the capitalsand drop down in ringlets.Althoughthe curtainis bunchedup on the floor at the right, it falls behind the pavement at the left, forcing us to reflect further about the natureof the space being described and the way the floormustdropoff in the background.The recessionof the pavement,with its coloredmarbleinlayof a circleinscribed in a square, has also been carefullycalculated.Infraredphotographyof the lowerleft-handcorner(seeillustrationin Notes) revealsthe underdrawingand scoringthatestablishedthe perspectivalscheme. This perspectivecreatesthe illusionthat Christ standsin a sacredspacethat is an extensionof the viewer's. Given the importance and grand scale of this painting,it is odd that we know neitherin which churchit originallyhung nor whetherit was intended as an independent work or as part of a largerprogram.It closely resembles the centralportion of a cyclepaintedby a contemporaryof Solario's,Bergognone,about 151I for the Sala Capitolareof the church of Santa Maria della Passione in Milan-indeed, it is probable that the Solario intentionally refers to this ensemble. The more completely described architecturearound the central figure hints at the way our Christwould have appearedin a stronglyarchitecturalframetypical of the region (see fig. 7). But Bergognoneportrayedhis Christ surroundedby the apostles,

with the adjacentwallsfrescoedwith saintsof *

5. Andrea Solario (Milanese, active by I490, d. 1524). ChristBlessing,ca. I524. Oil on wood, 804 x 511/2in. (203.8 x

I30.8cm). Fromthe Collectionof JamesStillman,Gift of Dr. Ernest G. Stillman, 1922 (22.16.12)

FedericoZeri,coauthorof the Museum'scatalogueof northern Italianpaintings(1986),proposedthat the distinctlystatuesquequalityof this figure,with its simplebut sweeping draperysuggestingthe formsunderneath,may havebeen inspiredby a statueof Christcarvedby Antonio di Giusto Betti (Antoine Juste, I479-I519) for the chapel of the chateau at

Gaillon,whereSolariowas at workfromI507.

7. Bergognone(Ambrogiodi Stefanoda Fossano; Milanese, ca. I453-I523). Christ, ca. I5II. Sala Capitolare,

SantaMariadellaPassione,Milan. Photograph:Soprintendenzaper BeniArtisticie Storicide Milano This imageis partof the decorationof the SalaCapitolare,paintedin both frescoand oil, representingChrist and the apostleswith othersacredfigures.

6. AndreaSolario.Headofa BeardedMan. Black,red, and yellowchalkon brownishpaper, 43/4 x I03/4 in. (37.4 X 27.3 cm). Rogers Fund, 1906 (06.151I.I9)

This impressivedrawingis close in styleand date, althoughnot directlyrelated,to ChristBlessing(fig. 5). Its techniquegrowsout of Leonardo's chalkdrawings,and it is one of a smallgroupin which his followersexperimentedwith coloredchalks.

devotional importance to the Augustinians, who officiatedat the church.Unfortunately,it is difficult to assignany such precisemeaning to Solario'sChristBlessing,but it may be suggested that the severe architecture of the drapeddoor is meant to evoke antiquetombs, and that Christ is being shown as triumphant overdeath.This interpretationis reinforcedby the floor pattern-the circle inscribed in the square-which refersto the natureof Christas God in human form. Solario came from a family of Milanese sculptors. Trips to Venice and probably to Romewereinfluentialfor his development,but his careerwas basedin Milan, and therehe was one of Leonardo'smost distinguishedfollowers. * 13

Leonardoda Vinci (I452-1519)had arrivedto work for Ludovico "il Moro" in 1482, having advertisedhis expertisein many fields, including engineering.He stayeduntil I499 and left the city alongwith his patron.His multifarious activitiesduringthose seventeenyearsincluded paintingsome of his greatestworks- TheLast Supper(SantaMaria delle Grazie,Milan) and probablythe first version of The Virginof the Rocks(Museedu Louvre,Paris)-and recording ideas for other major projectsin many notebooks and drawings. Leonardo returned to Milan again in late I5o6 and remainedthere much of the time until 1513,working for the Frenchgovernorand the marshalGian Giacomo Trivulzio.In I49I Leonardowrote an account of an incidentin his studio that makesit clearthat some of the local artistswere his students and assistants.He complained that his new, young assistant,known as Salai-"thief, liar,obstinate,glutton,"Leonardocalls himwas stealing from two other students, Marco d'Oggiono and Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio. Othernotesby Leonardoindicatethathe helped his students with drawingsand in numerous otherways.AndreaSolarioprobablyworkedin his studio at some point. Leonardo'simpact on the local art scene was incalculable-although not necessarily completely positive. Of the many criticswho have attacked the leonardeschi,I will quote only one here, the great Italian art historian Roberto Longhi: "[....those] macabre embalmersof busts in wax and skin, those dour draftsmenof chilly beauty,not one capableof reanimatingthe corpseswhich shortly before had trembled under Leonardo'smiraculous anatomist'stouch."However,renewedinterest in this school of painting has revealed that some adherentswerevery talented,successfully ideasonto a moretraditional graftingLeonardo's way of painting. Leonardo'sinfluenceon Solariocan be seen in ChristBlessinginthe figure'sstrong,rhetorical gesture.The positionof his left hand-stretched out towardthe viewer,lit from aboveand shadowed below-was inspired by hand gestures found in both The Virginof the Rocksand The I4 *

Last Supper.Solario'sSalomewith the Head of SaintJohntheBaptist(fig.8) is alsoinfluencedby Leonardo.The subject itself, the rathergruesome one of the executioner'splacingthe Baptist'shead in a salverfor the waitingSalome,is found frequentlyin Milanat this periodamong followers.These paintingsdepictthe Leonardo's moment in the Gospel of Mark (6:21-28, espe-

cially28) when the young Salome,daughterof Herod'swife Herodias,is grantedher wish to haveJohn the Baptistexecuted.Althoughthere are versions by numerous other artists-with both full- and half-lengthfigures-it is rarefor the executionerto be so severelycroppedthatwe see only his outstretchedarm.This arm,with its clenchedfist and roughdrapery,is an unsettling synecdochefor the man as a whole.

8. AndreaSolario.Salomewith theHeadof SaintJohn the Baptist,probably ca. 1506-07. Oil on wood, 221/2 x I81/2in. (57.2 X 47 cm). Signed (lower right): ANDREAS DE SOLARIO / F.

The FriedsamCollection,Bequestof

Michael Friedsam, I931 (32.100.81)

Thereareseveralclosevariantsof this painting,including anothersignedversion(formerlyNorthumberlandCollection, Syon House, Brentford),but the Metropolitan's is the finestin quality.Both close observationwith the nakedeye and studywith infraredreflectography (IRR) show numeroussmallchangesas the artistworked,in Salome'snecklineand fingersand at the edgeof hersleeve, as well as in the executioner'ssleeveandwrist.The Museum conservatorCharlotteHale, who performedthe infraredexamination,notes that the artisttook considerable painsto achievethe picture'selegantcontours,which suggeststhatwe indeedhavethe primaryversionof the comwas found in the position.Althoughno underdrawing fleshtones, thereis a distinctivebrushy,tonal underpainting in the shadowsof the flesh,which weresubsequently finishedwith thin scumblesof paint. IRR also revealsthat some of the decorativeelementsof the costumehad first been drawn,beforeany paintwas applied,and that some of the draperyfolds brushedin with underpaintwere laterchangedin the upperpaintlayers.Finally,throughout the righthalfof the painting,lines thatwereincised into the gessowith a straightedge arelegiblein raking light. It appearsthat the artistwas thinkingof some kind of architectural settingbut nevercarriedout the idea. None of the directvariantsof the workcontainsany such architecture.

Many of the Milanesepaintingsof Salome probably derive from a lost composition by Leonardo.Here, both the enigmaticcharacter of Salome'sgaze and the modeling of her flesh are inspiredby his work, as is the intentional contrast between her skin tone, that of the Baptist, and the ruddy, rough executioner's arm-a dynamic that grew out of Leonardo's interestin the contrastof beautyand ugliness and what that contrast can imply about a

figure's character.To a Renaissanceviewer, Salome'sbeautywas highly ambiguous,as she combined within herself both admirableand reprehensiblequalities.Finally,Salome'selaborate coiffure, braided and spilling over her shoulders, reflects Leonardo'sstudies for the head of Leda, either the standing or kneeling Ledaand theSwanemulatedby so many of the artist'sfollowers. The Salome,whichis conspicuouslysignedin

the lowerrightcorner,is one of Solario's finest characteristic of his paintingsandis completely It is worked to a one thatfinish, style. up high as the eminentconnoisseurBernardBerenson pointedout-is similarto thesurfaces perfected his the In Cristoforo Solari. brother, by sculptor thispicture,Solarioachievessomeastonishing effects:the reflectionsand sheenof the silver bodiceof Salome's basin,the transparent dress, thedelicacyof description of theBaptist's head, and the marblingof the parapet.Aboveall, Salome's of her jewelryandthe ornamentation dressareimaginedandpaintedwiththeutmost precisionandcare.Herfineryincludesa necklacestrungwithpearlsanda square-cut gem (a and an abundanceof jewelssewn sapphire?) onto cuffsand bordersand into elaborateall' the blueband,or anticaepaulets.Interestingly, in hairis commonly she her that wears frontale, associatedwith weddingimagery,as in the Museum'sVenusand Cupidby LorenzoLotto of Salome's apoc(fig.9).This,too,is a reminder ryphalpositiveroles.Someauthorsclaimedthat her shelovedJohntheBaptist;otherspresented as an agentin the transitionfrom allegorically, theOldTestament periodof thelawto theNew Testament ageof grace. AlthoughSolariowas activeprincipallyin Milan, he journeyedto Francein 1507 and spent at leasttwo years,and perhapslonger, working for Cardinal Georges d'Amboise (I440-1510),

uncle of Charles II (I473-I5II), the

Frenchgovernorof Milan,at his chteau at Gaillon.Solario's staythereis one of the first artist majorinstancesof an ItalianRenaissance at workin France,andhisjewel-likepaintings weremuchcovetedandhada majorimpacton Frenchartists.The Salomeis undatedbut can be tracedto Frenchcollectionsfromthe late eighteenthcentury,andit maywellhavebeen hassuggestpaintedin France.Recentresearch ed that the subjectitself was of particular meaningto his Frenchpatrons,the Amboise family.FromI503to 1512, Georges'sbrother, Aimery,wasthe grandmasterof the Orderof the Knightsof SaintJohn(laterusuallyknown as the Knightsof Malta),who werededicated to SaintJohnthe Baptist,and it maybe no coin-

9. LorenzoLotto (Venetian,ca. I480-I556). Venusand Cupid,probablymid-Is2os. Oil on canvas,363/8 x 437/8 in. (92.4 x III.4 cm). Purchase, Mrs. Charles Wrightsman

Gift, in honor of MariettaTree,I986 (I986.138)

cidencethatdevotionalpaintingsfocusingon becamesodesirable JohntheBaptist's martyrdom in MilanandFranceduringtheseexactyears. The panelknownas GirlwithCherries (fig. Io) wasalsopaintedby an artistin Leonardo's circleandis deeplyindebtedto his example.It portraysa youngwomanwearinga garlandof groundivy(withits beautifultinyblueflowers) aroundherheadandholdinga bowlof fruitnot justcherries,but pearsandothervarieties. in thenineteenthcenturywith It firstappeared an attributionto Leonardohimself,and the subjectwasidentifiedat thattimeas Pomona, the Romangoddessof fruit.Berensonrather andsoon thereafter, scoffedat the attribution, in I906, it hungin an exhibitionin theMetropolitanMuseumorganizedby RogerFryas a workof GiovanniAmbrogiode Predis,anartist thelateactiveat theSforzacourt.Interestingly, Milanesepainterandauthor sixteenth-century GiovanniPaoloLomazzorecordeda "laughing wassaidto havepaintthatLeonardo Pomona" thatthesubject-andrelatedimed,suggesting have been currentin his milieu. ages-would asin so manypaintingsof theperiod, However,

io. Attributedto GiovanniAmbrogiode Predis (Milanese, active by 1472, d. after 50o8)but possibly by Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio (Milanese, ca. I467-I516). Girl with Cherries,ca. I491-95. Oil on wood, 19V4x I43/

in. (48.9x 37.5cm). MarquandCollection,Gift

of Henry G. Marquand, I890 (91.26.5)

The paintingwas examinedto discernwhetherany of its could help resolvethe question technicalcharacteristics of its attribution.Unfortunately,a lead-whitegroundrenderstheX radiograph virtuallyillegiblein termsof handling

of the paint layers,and no underdrawingcan be seen eitherthroughthe surfaceof the paint or by using The ratherextensive,small-scale infraredreflectography. craquelurefound in the fleshtones and elsewherehas been noted in manyworksby Leonardo'sfollowersin Milan:this is a mediumdefect,not especiallysurprising giventhe master'soften experimentaltechnique.However,the moredisturbingdamageto the girl'sleft hand and the bowl of fruitmay be the resultof laterexposure to heat. SusanMoody,horticulturalistatThe Cloisters, identifiedthe wreathwith blue flowersas groundivy.

* 17

the subjectseemsintentionally vague,andit is more likelyto representan idealizedportrait type.Thatthe girlis crownedwith ivy,which oftenencirclesthe headsof poetsin drawings andpaintingsof thisschool,mightsuggesther connectionwithhumanistic andliterarycircles inMilan.Forexample, thereisarareLeonardesque engravingof a youngwomanwith a comparablewreatharoundherheadandincludingthe words:Acha[demia] Le[onardi] Vi[nci] following of LeonardodaVinci). (Academy Thispaintingmustbe considered in lightof the exampleset by Leonardo's brilliantportraitsand figurestudies.For example,from Ladywith an Ermine(fig. ii), a portraitof mistressCeciliaGallerani, Ludovico"ilMoro's" about comes the closeattention I490, painted paidto the hand,withits outstretched fingers; the slighttwistof the head,with eyesglancing pasttheviewer;andthe subtlefallof lightover the flesh.The studiedqualityof the handswas probablyachievedthroughcarefullyrendered a brilliantprecedent wouldhavebeen sketches; the slightlyearlierdrawingby Leonardoin metalpointheightenedwith white for the handsof Ginevrade' Benci (see fig. I2). The vi-

brantsenseof life in the girl'scurlsis a testalove of the movementof ment to Leonardo's as similarto watercurrents which he saw hair, of motionandwhichhe and otherparadigms studiedin manydrawings. Yetthis paintingis alsoa good exampleof the limitationsof Leonardo'sfollowers.Althoughthe fall of light overthe hands,neck, the effectin no andfaceis carefullycalibrated, lifein a paintthe shimmer of wayapproaches ing by Leonardohimself.The areasthatrepresent flesh seem to floatwithin the costume, which has a flatter,less modeledappearance (someof whichmaybe dueto condition).The that wholehasthe somewhatfrozencharacter marksso manyworksby the leonardeschi. To whichof the lattershouldthischarming and very characteristic paintingbe ascribed? The persistentattributionto GiovanniAmbrogiode Predis(activeby I472, d. afterIo58), at the Sforzacourt bestknownas a portraitist and later at the Habsburgcourt of Emperor

Maximilian I, seems unpersuasive.The portraitsthat are firmlyattributedto him suggest that he remainedtied to an oldergenerationof paintersand was scarcelyinfluenced by Leoinsteadshowsan nardo.Our Girlwith Cherries artistgrapplingwith Leonardo'sideasand technique;it belongsto a groupof paintingsof disputed authorshipthat sharesimilarcharacteristics. It has sometimesbeen suggestedthat the creatorof this fine group of works may have been the young Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio (ca. I467-1516), one of Leonardo's most gifted

followers.(It was he who sufferedthe loss of a silverpointstylusfromthe thievingyoung Salal, as recorded by Leonardo in

I49I.)

The early

yearsof Boltraffio'scareerhave affordedus just one documentedaltarpiece,made in collaboration with anothermemberof Leonardo'sworkshop, and arethereforenot easyto reconstruct. Yetit is clearthat fromthe outsethe was a keen

ii. Leonardo da Vinci (Florentine, 1452-I519). Lady with an Ermine(CeciliaGallerani),ca. I488-90. Oil on wood,

,???''-\' L r

in. (53.4x 39.3cm). Czartoryski Museum,Crakow. Nimatallah/Art Resource,N.Y. Copyright Photograph:

12.

.4_

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21 x I5/2

Leonardoda Vinci. StudyofArmsand Hands,ca. I475-78. Metalpointheightenedwith white, overblack chalk,on papercoatedwith a buff-coloredpreparation; 8 3/ X 578 in. (21.4 x 15 cm). RoyalCollection,Windsor Castle(Windsor-LeoniI2558). Photograph:Copyright Alinari/ArtResource,N.Y.

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13. Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio (Milanese, ca. I467-I516).

? ?/

YouthCrownedwitha Garland.Metalpointon graypre-

.. I

pared paper, 63/8 x 53/8 in. (16.2 X I3.8 cm). Gabinetto

Disegnie StampedegliUffizi,Florence(425E).Photograph:GianlucaMengozziand RobertoPalermo

, i%

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observerand a brilliantdraftsman,and that he genuinely understoodhis master'sideas. The groupof paintingsalludedto abovecould plausibly have been producedby him from about

?5.

wavinghairsurroundsan exquisitelyidealface, with hatchingthat delicatelydescribesthe lips, 1491 to I495, just before he truly hit his stride with a number of magisterialworks about I500oo. nostrils,and curveof the cheek. A beautiful silverpoint drawing by Boltraffio in the Uffizi, Youth Crowned with a Garland (fig. I3), suggests what a preparatorystudy for this painting could have looked like: the lightly

It is only quite recentlythat the artisttraditionally known as Giampietrinohas been rather securelyidentified as Giovanni Pietro Rizzoli (active by ca. I495, d. 1549). He is referredto as

Gioanpietroin one of Leonardo'slistsof people in the workshopand reappearsin variousguises in the texts of severallater writers,as one of Leonardo'smore famous pupils. Although he was an accomplishedpainterof altarpiecesand devotionalworks,Giampietrinoseems to have carveda niche for himselfwith the depictionof femaleheroinesof mythologyand Roman history. Inspiredby the two Leda and the Swan compositionsby Leonardo(both lost), the figures are generallyshown nude and, often, full lengthandset in a landscape.Diana theHuntress (fig. 14), portraying the chaste goddess of the

hunt beforea dense bank of treeswith a delicate deer besideher, is one of the most beautiful and poetic of these. Milanesecopies after Leonardo'sso-called Standing Leda show a woman in a contrappostostancesimilarto that of our Diana, with one hip backand the opposite foot forward. Carefully observed plants and flowers must have been an important * 19

I4. Giampietrino(GiovanniPietro Rizzoli;Milanese,activeby ca. I495, d. 1549). Diana the Huntress,after

Oil on wood, 447/8 X 231/4 in. Purchase,Mr. and Mrs. FrankE. RichardsonGift, I989 I526.

(114 X 59.I cm).

(1989.21)

The paintingenteredthe collection of the MetropolitanMuseumin a gentlybowdlerizedstate,with a sheerswathof draperyfluttering aroundthe figure'smidsection.This provedto be a much lateraddition andwas removedin the courseof cleaningthe picture.

20 *

15. Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio

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orParmese, (Veronese

~ca. |_/IIB^^^^H'

I500/1505-I565),

after

RossoFiorentino(Florentine, 1494-1540).

Diana, from the

seriesGodsin Niches.Engraving, as retouchedby Francesco

-I j<

Villamena (1566-I624). Engraving (Bartsch xv.78.35),

sheet8/4x 4/4 in. (21x Io.8cm). The ElishaWhittelseyCollection, The ElishaWhittelsey Fund,

1949

(49.97.233)

and then seeking new inspiration in the Caraglio prints after they appeared in I526.

Although we do not know who owned Giampietrino'sDiana originally,it is very suggestive that our first recordof the painting is in a Frenchcollection. Rosso himself went to work for FrancisI at Fontainebleauin 1530, and his ideasand compositions-known especially throughprints afterthem-were widely circulatedand admiredin the country.As we have alreadyseen, through the early decades of the century, Milan was governed by the French,who grew to admireMilanese artists, above all the leonardeschi. Then, too, by midthe of Diana and the stag had century subject becomeparticularlycurrentin Francethrough the influenceof Diane de Poitiers,the mistress of Henry II. Her chateauat Anet (underconstruction from ca. I547) was filled with images

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element of Leonardo'spainting as well. But if the original inspirationis from Leonardo, Giampietrinohas reliedon anothersourcefor the figure itself. She is based on a print of Diana (fig. I5) by the engraver Giovanni JacopoCaraglio,dated 1526,which is, in turn, part of the twenty-printseries Godsin Niches, drawnfor the engraverby the greatFlorentine

relating to the goddess, including the great marble group Diana with a Stag, now in the Louvre.It seems possible that the Diana was paintedspecificallyfor a Frenchpatrontoward the end of Giampietrino'scareer. Not all artistsin Milan so closely followed in Leonardo'sfootsteps:therewas a strongand continuing local tradition largely untouched by his example. TheAssumptionof the Virgin (fig. i6) by Ambrogio di Stefano da Fossano (ca. 1453-1523), known as Bergognone, is a fine

example of this approach. Bergognone was Mannerist Rosso Fiorentino (1494-1540). While among the most admired and sought-after relianceon a print sourceis not at all uncom- artists active in the later years of the Sforza mon in Renaissancepainting, Giampietrino's court. He was a principalcontributorto the interest in Florentine art and his ability to decoration of the family's most significant weave together his two disparatesources are foundation, the Certosa di Pavia;he frescoed quite remarkable.It has been suggested that the transeptsof the greatchurchand supplied the Diana was one of a groupof four imagesof many of its altarpieces.Bergognone'ssmaller"femaledeities,"includingotherpanelsdepict- scale devotional paintings have a particular ing Minerva,Juno, and Venus and Cupid, all poignancy and beauty.The sacredfiguresare painted for the samecommission.None of the delicately painted, with slender, sometimes other imagesis basedas directlyon a Caraglio mournfulfaces,and often inhabitrecognizable print, although the Minervais relatedto one. landscapesof the region.As is characteristicof The Juno and the Venusare insteadclosely re- Lombardpainting, the saints are apt to share lated to Leonardo'sStandingLedain composi- theirspacewith donors in an intimateway. The Museum'slargeAssumptioncertainlyis tion, and it is more likely that Giampietrino continued to work with these popularsubjects the workof a verytraditionalartist,one steeped overtime, beginningwith ideasfromLeonardo in conventionsthatgo backto the quattrocento. * 2I

I6. Bergognone.The Assumptionof the Virgin, ca. I500-510o. Oil and gold on wood, 953/8 X 421/2 in. (242.3 x I08 cm). Fletcher Fund, 1926 (27.39.1)

The paintingrelatesclosely in compositionto an Assumptionof the Virgin (Pinacotecadi Brera, Milan)paintedby Bergognone in 1522 for the

churchof SantaMaria dell'Incoronata in Nerviano of (province Milan).That paintingis widerand longer,includesadditional saints,and showsthe apostlesfull-length.The Breraaltarpieceomits the bandsof music-making angelsthat areone of the most attractiveelements of this painting.It is widely believedthat the Metropolitan'sAssumption was done well beforethat in the Pinocotecadi Brera,which has a ratherrepetitive, stolid quality. The gold starson the Virgin'sgown areprobably a lateraddition.

22 *

The staidgroupingsshowlittle of the movethatwereLeonarment,unity,andexpressivity do'sand Raphael's contributions to sixteenthit is a workof exNonetheless, centurypainting. with of bravura ceptionalquietbeauty, passages painting.The artisthas nicelycontrastedthe withthesweetness of the gravityof the apostles

music-making angels,who sing,puffout their cheekswhileplaying windinstruments, andoften catchtheviewer's As in of the artist's eye. many ispaintedwithconsiderable works,thelandscape it is and freedom;here, subtlymonochromatic andthebuttof thebrushhasbeen thinlypainted, usedto definethecontoursof hillsandfields.

The WesternVeneto Now thirty and fifty minutes by train from Milan, respectively, Bergamo and Brescia were, in the sixteenthcentury,the greatwestern outposts of the Venetian terraferma. Both cities saw a remarkablefloweringof the artsin the earlydecadesof the century,with the advent of strongschoolsof local paintingand the arrivalof talented "foreigners,"mostly from Venice. In both places, artistswere attracted to Venice and Milan by turns; this push and pull is one of the recurrentand fascinatingaspects of their painting.The Museum is particularly rich in works by the three principal Brescianpainters:Moretto,GirolamoRomanino, and Giovanni Gerolamo Savoldo. Although they belonged to a regional school of painting, they were to have an impacton Italianart disproportionateto theirapparentplacethanks to theirinfluenceon a young artistborn in the regionlaterin the century:MichelangeloMerisi (I57I-I610), known to us as Caravaggio,after the town of his birth. Caravaggiodeeply admiredthe Brescians' approachto sacredpainting, with its deliberatelyhumble, earthycharacter. Indeed, these paintersformed the core of the groupthat RobertoLonghidubbed iprecedenti di Caravaggio predecessors). (Caravaggio's Vincenzo Foppa,whom I discussedearlier, must actuallybe consideredthe founderof the Brescianschool. He spent much of the earlier partof his careeroutsidehis hometown but returnedlaterin life to become the city'sofficial painterand to teach painting to young artists. Although his production dropped off at the end of his life and must haveseemedarchaicin someways,otherlateworks-especiallya fresco,

TheJusticeof Trajan,that he paintedunderthe porticoesof the Piazzadella Loggia,Bresciawere extremely influential for the younger generation. Of that generation, Girolamo Romanino (I484/87-?I56o) was one of the first to become

an independent master, in about I508. The MetropolitanMuseumhas only recentlyadded a significantpaintingby him to its collection,a double-sidedcanvas:The Flagellationand The Madonna of Mercy(fig. I7). Dated to about I540, this painting exemplifiesthe artist'sapproach and those characteristicsthat brought him fame-and notoriety.It is a processional standard,meant to be carriedby confraternity membersthroughthe streetsduringa religious procession.This accountsfor its double-sided construction,for the thin and very fine support, and for the medium, which has the appearanceof distemper,perhapswith some oil paint (the medium has not been analyzed). Distemper is a medium of pigments mixed with a glue size on a barelyprimedcanvasand typicallyused for works that had to travelor were to be seen from a distance:processional standards and organ shutters are the most common examples.Artistswho paintedin distemper were able to work loosely and thinly; the picture was usually left unvarnished,resultingin a mattesurfaceand a verydistinctive appearance. Taking full advantageof this techniqueand reflecting his early study of Titian in Venice-Romanino has worked with broad and sketchybrushstrokes,in which, for example, faces are defined by a few darkerstrokes * 23

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17. GirolamoRomanino(Brescian, I484/87-?I560). The Flagellation and The Madonna ofMercy, ca. 1540.

Oil (?)and distemper(?)on canvas, 7078 x 471/2in. (80o x 120.7 cm). Purchase,AnonymousBequest,by exchange, 1989 (1989.86)

When firstrediscovered, only slightly morethan a decadeago, the painting was lined so that only one side of the bannerwasvisible.The removal of the lining was thereforea revelation. Unfortunately,as is clearfrom the photograph,the conditionof TheMadonnaofMercyon the reverseside had been somewhatcompromised.Restorationalsorevealed an irregularareaat the baseof the canvaswherea pole would have been attachedto carryit throughthe streetduringprocessions.When the bannerwashung permanentlyin a church,and no longerfilledits original function,this areaof attachment was paintedover. * 25

punctuatedwith flicksof whiteto suggestthe highlighton a noseor cheekasit emergesfrom shadow.TheFlagellation showsChristtiedto a column at the center,with his tormentors groupedtightlyaroundhim, croppedat the sides.Theirbrutishness, thedramaof theirgesand the mountainous tures, backgroundare reminiscentof Germanprints of scenes of Christ's Passion,suchasthosebyHansBaldung Grienand AlbrechtAltdorfer,well knownto artistsworkingin the northof Italy.Here,apthe artistexploitsthis expressivity propriately, to contrastthe gentlevulnerability of Christ with the roughnessof the soldierswho bind theirswitchesandthreaten him.(Onotheroccasions,Romaninowasaccusedof goingbeyond the boundsof the appropriate and the decorous in his imagery,creatingpaintingsthat somecontemporaries deemed"bizarre.") On thereverse, a rathermorestaidMadonna (similarto thosepaintedby his rivalMoretto) standswith SaintsFrancisandAnthony,shelteringa groupof men in hoodedwhiterobes who are carryingscourges.These are the patronsof the standard,membersof a flagellant dedicatedto theFranciscans, who confraternity used the imageof Christ'sflagellationto encouragetheirown devotionalpractices.Their havebeenwonderfully bythe portraits captured thoseat the left of the canvas, artist,especially whereonemangazesup at theMadonnaandis in turnbyhisneighbor. regarded It is very unfortunatethat we haveso far beenunableto determinewhichconfraternity is representedhere;in which churchit was housedand eventuallyhung its processional andwhetherthis churchwas in the standard; The earlyhistory of Brescia or its territory. city of the paintingwould be of greatinterestin any case,but is even moreso becauseit apknewthisverywork.As pearsthatCaravaggio a youngartist,he wouldhavebeenfascinated of the solby the naturalisticrepresentation diers'unpleasant tasks,thewaylightis usedto enhancethe drama,and the carefulobservation of the portraitheads.Butit is remarkable thathe seemsto havecarriedthis imagewith him (in his memory?a lost drawing?)as far as 26 *

Naples, where, in I607, he painted his own Flagellation(fig. I8) for the church of San Domenico Maggiore.Although reversed,the figure of Christ is remarkablysimilar, with crossedlegs and a broad, beautifullymodeled torso. In Caravaggio'spainting, too, we find one of the same torturers,his leg cropped at the left, bending to bind a bundle of branches with his face cast in deep shadow.Caravaggio's reinterpretationof Romanino'simage is a testament to its visualimpact. The three works by AlessandroBonvicino (ca. I498-1554), known as Moretto da Brescia,

in the Museum'scollectionspan the full career of this importantartistand representthe two I8. Caravaggio(MichelangeloMerisi;Lombard, The Flagellation of Christ, I607. Oil on canvas, 8 ft. 85/8 in. x 6 ft. ii7/8 in. (266 x 213 cm). I57I-I6I0).

MuseoNazionaledi Capodimonte,Naples.Photograph:CopyrightAlinari/ArtResource,N.Y.

principal sides of his activity, as a religious painterand a portraitist.He was known both for the deeplydevotionalcast of his altarpieces and for bringinga real understandingof centralItalianart to his hometown.GiorgioVasari found his paintingto be imbuedwith a classicism similar to Raphael'sand noted that if Morettohad lived nearerto Raphael,he would have been even more like him-stressing the physicaland mentaldistancebetweenartistsin northernItalyand those in Florenceor Rome. At the sametime, Moretto'spaintings,especially earlyon, suggestthat he was keenlyawareof contemporaryVenetianart,particularlythat of Titian and LorenzoLotto. In the early Christin the Wilderness (fig. I9), painted in about 1515,the scene is one narrated in the Gospel of Mark (I:I3):"Andhe was there

in the wildernessforty days, temptedof Satan; and was with the wild beasts;and the angels ministered unto him." Most of the animals gatheringnearthe seatedChristare recognizable, but some are mythical, like basilisksor dragons, as are described in Psalms 9I:13:

"Thoushalttreadupon the lion and adder:the young lion and the dragonshalt thou trample underfeet."The creaturesaredotted acrossthe landscapein a patternthat is still suggestiveof how Pisanellopainted animals a half century earlier.Until the painting'srecentcleaningand restoration,the angelshoveringnear Christat the rightand the cherubimwho arejust visible at the left had been coveredby overpaint(see fig. 20). The canvashad probablybeen altered to disguise the fact that it is a fragment:the cherubimmust have formed a mandorlathat surroundedanotherfigure,and the foliagehas been very oddly cropped at the bottom left. But a fragment of what? This question has never been answeredsatisfactorily.It is sometimes suggested that Christin the Wilderness originallyformedthe backgroundof a largeraltarpieceor devotionalpainting, or that it was somehow paired with a comparablepainting by Moretto, ChristBlessingSaintJohn the Baptist (The National Gallery,London), but both possibilitiesremainconjectural.In any case, a numberof Moretto'searliestworkstreatsimilar

themesof Christand the Baptistin landscapes, with angels or heavenly visions partially in view.The most impressiveaspectof the painting is the figureof Christhimself.He sits solidly within the rockylandscape,swathedin robes of red and blue. With his chin cupped in his hand, his face is thoughtful and introspective-almost oblivious to the swirl of activity aroundhim. The seriousnessand intensity of this figurewould be the hallmarksof Moretto's approachto religiousthemes. Moretto was a more matureartistwhen he came to paint Portraitof a Man (fig. 2I) in about

1520-25.

The sitter is unknown, but he

must have been from one of Brescia'snotable families. By the mid-eighteenth century, the painting could be seen in an outstandingcollection, that of the Maffei family, and it remained with one branch of that family until about 1871.While it belonged to ErizzoMaffei, it was praisedby two of the greatestart expertsof the nineteenthcentury,Otto Miindler and Sir CharlesEastlake. In the thirdvolume of theirseminalbook A History of Painting in North Italy (1871/I912),

J. A. Croweand G. B. Cavalcasellealso turned their attention to this painting, calling it Titianesqueor Giorgionesquein its movement and in the contrastof light and shadow.The portraitwas, indeed, done at the time when the artistwas most drawnto artisticcurrentsin Venice.Its format-the torsowide and parallel to the pictureplane, the head turnedover the shoulder,the hand wonderfullyobservedat the lower center of the composition, the curtain and landscapebehind-all come from Titian, as in his Gentlemanin a Black Beret(Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen) of about 1515-I8.LikeTitianas well is the broadlypainted, shimmering silk of the man's clothing. Moretto was also inspired by the remarkable portraitsof the VenetianartistLorenzoLotto, whosesittersoftenhavea ratherinward-looking expression,as does this one, and who hold or are surroundedby objects that have special meaningto them. Here, an hourglasssits on a carpet-coveredledge, and the man grasps a scrolledsheet of paper,the blankside of which * 27

I9. Moretto da Brescia (Alessandro Bonvicino; Brescian, ca. I498-I554). Christ in the Wilderness,ca. I515.Oil on canvas, i8 x i 3/4in. (45.7 x 55.2 cm). Rogers Fund, 1911

(n.53) 20. Moretto's Christ in the Wildernessbefore recent

restoration

Moretto da Brescia. Portrait of a Man, ca. I520-25. Oil on canvas, 341/4 X 32 in. (87 x 81.3 cm). Rogers Fund, 1928 (28.79) 21.

28 *

facesthe viewer.Some musingon the passageof time must be intended,but the precisemeaning remainshidden to us. Interestingly,the viewpoint of the painting is more characteristicof Milanesepaintingthan of Venetian.Everything is viewedfromslightlybelow:we cannotsee the top of the ledgeor the plinthon which the man leans,as both drop backawayfrom the picture

plane.This subtleplaywith the vantagepoint is to be found aboveall in the Milaneseworksof Bramantino,whom the artistclearlyadmired. Moretto's own very personal approach to color-evident in the rathersubduedblue-green tones of the landscape-complements his successful synthesis of Venetian and Milanese traditionin this portrait.

* 29

The final paintingby Morettoin the collection is both the latestand the most difficultfor viewers.Indeed, it was his very last, as it is inscribedwith a date-October I554-just two months before his death. In The Entombment (fig. 22), Christ is supported by the Virgin, SaintJohn, and the Magdalen,with Josephof Arimatheaholding the crown of thorns and Nicodemus the nails of the Crucifixion.The paintingis inscribedwith words,in Latin,from one of Paul'sEpistles(Philippians2:8): "he... became obedient unto death...." Poignantly, although the principal referenceis obviously to Christ and his sacrifice,the words ring true for the devout painteras well. The Entombmentwas commissioned by a confraternityfor an oratory,or disciplina,adjacent to the churchof San GiovanniEvangelista. It hung on the upperlevel-as with many such institutionsin Brescia,the oratorywas built on two stories, one for men and the other for women. The somber quality of the painting, with its muted, rich tones, its crepuscularlandscapepunctuatedby threecrosses,the darktomb opening, and the elderlyand sufferingVirgin, createda mood properto the devotionsof the confraternitymembers.So, too, did the artist's of the figures-pressedcloseto the arrangement pictureplane,with Christsupported,awkwardly, in a position analogousto that he had held on the cross.Morettoandthe otherpaintersin Brescia stroveto interprettraditionalreligioussubjects in light of the ferventdesirefor churchreform and renewedpiety on the part of the lay community that swept through northernItaly from the I520S, following Martin Luther'sbreak

fromthe CatholicChurch.Morettohimselfparticipatedin thismovementby his involvementin confraternities,such as that of the Santissimo Sacramento(MostHoly Sacrament)basedin the city'scathedral.By the end of his life, such activities were being inexorablychanneled and censoredby Rome, with the Council of Trent (I545-63) well under way and its participants attemptingto impose artisticorthodoxy.However,the very particularand intense devotional cast of much Brescianart from the I52os to the I550Sis one of its principal contributions. 30 *

TheEntombment probablyleft the oratory whentheconfraternity thathadcommissioned it was suppressed in I771; in the nineteenth

century,it belongedto two importantBrescian families, the Brognoli and the Frizzoni.The provenanceis significantbecause,like Moretto's Portraitof a Man, this work was seen and admired by such connoisseursas Eastlake,who took long notes on the paintingwhen he considered it for purchaseby London'sNational Galleryin I862. Eastlakeappreciatedthe Brescian school and understoodits idiosyncrasies, but he could not quite acceptthe awkwardrelationship between Christ and the Virgin: "The C[hrist] is hardlyrepresentedseated on her lap the legs being nearlystraight.The head Her handsarearound dropsforwardawkwardly. the body, her right hand on the chest, her left, very unfortunately,on the abdomen...." He wonderedto himselfwhethera judiciousaddition of some white draperywouldn't ameliorate this section of the painting (a jarringattitude common to nineteenth-centurycollectors that must be kept in mind) but, in the end, decided againstthe purchase.It is fascinating that the very aspectsof the painting that Eastlakefound indecorouswerethose that Moretto struggledto bring out for the devout confraternity:the helplessnessof Christ, the resemblanceof the pose to that of a Crucifixion,and the closenessbetweenmother and son. The Magdalen'sflowing hair and shimmering silks show the influence of the last of the triumvirate of Brescian painters, Giovanni GirolamoSavoldo(activeby 1506,d. soon after I548). His depictionsof the Magdalen,wrapped in a silken cloak and glancing at the viewer, werefamousduringhis lifetime;one of them is known to have been in a BrescianCollection

Oil on canvas, Morettoda Brescia. TheEntombment. x x Stewart in. (240 94/2 I89.2 cm). John 741/2 Kennedy 22.

Fund, I912 (12.6I)

The paintingis datedon the cartellinoat the lowerleft: (In the OCT[OBRIS] of the artist in month the October); year of our Lord 1554

AN[N]O

DOM[INI]

/ MCLIV MENS[IS]

died in late Decemberof that year.

3 31

from an early date. Unlike Romanino and Moretto, Savoldo did not settle in his native city. He traveledearlyon to Parma(1506)and Florence (50o8) and was living in Venice by I52I (and perhapswell before then). Savoldo had students in Venice, notably the painter and author Paolo Pino, and his work was well known there. Pino wrote in praiseof him but mentioned that his workswere few. The Metropolitan'sSaint Matthewand the Angel (fig. 23) is one of the most fascinating that have come down to us and may be one of the small group that was singled out and discussedby Savoldo'scontemporaries.In it, Saint Matthew the Evangelistis writing his Gospel, with the assistanceof his accompanyingangel, in a darkroom lit by a single lamp. Behind are other scenes from Matthew'slife, as narrated in the thirteenth-century Legendaaurea(Golden At the rightwe probablyseeMatthewLegend). 32 *

23.

GiovanniGirolamoSavoldo(Brescian,activeby 15o6,

d. soon after 1548). Saint Matthew and the Angel, I534. Oil on canvas, 36 3/ x 49 in. (93.4 X 124.5 cm). Marquand Fund, 1912 (12.14)

now elderlyand seatedbeforea fire-receiving hospitalityin the house of the eunuch of the queen of Ethiopia, a country in which he preachedand exposedthe falsenessof two magicians. The left-hand scene is more difficult to interpret.Foursmallfigures,one lowerdown on the ground,aresilhouettedagainsta towering edifice seen in moonlight. These may be citizensof Ethiopiawhom Matthew is healing of the malign sorceryof the two magicians;or, the towermaybe the principalsymbolicelement of the vignette, as Matthew used that very metaphorto describethe "tower"of virtuesthe apostlescould build through their knowledge of manytonguesand contrastedit to the Tower

of Babel. Finally, the scene could represent another moment during Matthew'slong sojournin NorthAfrica.When the son of the king of Ethiopia died (perhapshe is the figure on the ground?) and the people lamented, the magicianswereunableto bringhim backto life, but Matthewmiraculouslydid so; in response, the king and his people built a greatchurch. We arealmostcertainthat the paintingoriginallyhung in the palazzoof the zecca,or mint, of Milan. Vasaridescribesfour paintingsthere by Savoldo,"nocturnes,with fires,very beautiful"-a description that would fit the Saint Matthew.DocumentsshowthatSavoldoworked for the Milaneseduke FrancescoII Sforzain 1534,the date given by most scholarsto this painting. Its subject, the Evangelist,who had originallybeen a tax collector,would also be appropriate,given the functionof the mint. But it is not often noted that the works by Savoldowere only part of the extensivedecoration of what must have been an imposing public building-an institution that merits furtherstudy.Vasaridescribesa work by Savoldo's compatriotMoretto there, as well as a paintingby Bramantinoand two by Leonardo's gifted follower Cesareda Sesto. Of the latter, one representingSalomesounds similarto our painting by AndreaSolario,while the other is one of the greatmasterpiecesof Lombardart, a monumental Baptism of Christ (Collection GallaratiScotti, Milan). These examplesshow that the subjectsof the pictureshangingin the palazzowere not limited to those with a direct connection to the mint and its activities.Their eclectic nature makes it difficult to guess the criteriafor their selection. In this regard,they arequite differentfrom, say,the paintingcommissionedfrom LorenzoLotto for the zeccain Venice in I547, which was a much more straightforwardvotive work of the Madonna and child with saints and portraits of the donors,JacopoPisaniand LorenzoGiustinian, two magistratesof the mint. The SaintMatthewis one of the most evocativenocturnalscenesin Italianpainting.Savoldo was known in his time for such themes di notte,and it is clearthat they were alwayscon-

sideredextraordinary. Here,the simple,rough at the of the tablethrowsthe figure lamp edge intoareasof intenselightanddark,stronglyilluminatingthe torsobut leavingmuchof the head in shadow.Each of the background sceneshas its own sourceof light-firelight and the moon-and the expressivedramaof thepaintingis linkedwiththisinvestigation of and dark. At about the same time, light Romaninopainteda similarnocturnalimage of Matthewfor the churchof San Giovanni in Brescia; bothartistsemphasized Evangelista the saint'shumblesurroundings and lack of adornment. Becauseof thesequalities,Roberto the BresLonghi,the criticwho reintroduced ciansto modernviewers,consideredSavoldo's SaintMatthewto be theparadigmatic pre-Carworkof art.At the sametime,the avaggesque poeticgentlenessof the angelwasinspiredby paintingsby Leonardo,suchas TheVirginof the Rocks,that Savoldocould have seen in of thewide Milan-yet anotherdemonstration territorythroughwhichtheseBrescianartists traveled,and of theirclosestudyof the great worksof arttheyencountered. Recent technical study has disclosed a ratherextraordinary secrethiddenbeneaththe in its current state(seefig. 24).X rapainting reveal,at therightof thecanvas,the diographs fully worked-upfigureof a woman, hands claspedin prayer,gazingin thedirectionof the saint.It is of the samescaleas the otherfigures,althoughthewoman'sexactlocationand positionin the pictorialspacearedifficultto Therearetwo possibleexplanacomprehend. tionsforthepresenceof thisfigure,whichwas ultimatelycompletelypainted out by the artist.It mayhavebelongedto an entirelyseparatecomposition-thatis, to a paintingthat was abandonedbut the canvasof whichwas reusedfor the SaintMatthew.A subsequently secondpossibilityis thatit wasintendedto be part of this composition,but that the artist changedhis mind afterhavingpaintedthe woman.In thelattercase,it is mostlikelythat she was a donor,perhapssomeonerelatedto Duke Francesco,the probablepatron.Thereare other examples in Savoldo'swork of donors ' 33

24. X radiographof Savoldo'sSaint Matthewand theAngel,with the imageof a prayingwoman,which was laterpaintedout, visibleat the right-handside of the canvas.

beingincludedat the veryheartof the sacred narrative,most notablyin a Nativity(Royal Collection,HamptonCourtPalace,Surrey)in whicha husbandandwife standat eitherend of the Christchild'sbed.Why this figurewas paintedoverwe cannotsay,but the removal madewayfor the sceneat the fireplaceat the farright,withitswonderfully observedinterior. The greattraditionof Brescian paintingwas continuedinto the next generationin the careerof GiovanniBattistaMoroni(b. no later than I524, d. 1578).Born in Albino, a town he studiedwithMoretto-from nearBergamo, whom he openlyborrowedmotifsin his religiouspainting-in the earlyI540s. He wasactive in Trentduringthe openingyearsof the greatcouncilbut then returnedto Bergamo and, ultimately,to Albino.There,he became one of the most outstandingportraitpainters of thesixteenthcentury-but onewhoworked vein. He built upon the in a very particular tendenciesof the Brescians,even naturalistic outdoingthem with his incisiveobservation A well-knownanecdoteatandforthrightness. Moroni'scontributedto Titiansummarizes of him. When two estimation temporaries' wereaboutto takeup govVenetianpatricians Titianadvised ernmental positionsin Bergamo, if they themto haveMoronipainttheirportraits wantedthem done "fromnature"(not necessarilya purecomplimentfromtheVenetian). 34 *

The portrait of Abbess LucreziaAgliardi Vertova (I490?-?I557) brilliantly makes this point (fig. 25). It depicts a woman from one of

the most importantfamiliesin Bergamo,who was widowed young (herveil is of a type often worn by widows) and went on to found the Carmeliteconvent of Sant'Annain Albino in 1525. She was probably painted in I556, the

yearshe made her will; the inscriptionrecords her likely death date of 1557 (interestingly, Moroni'scousin was sindaco,or auditor,of the convent in I556). The abbess was buried at Sant'Anna,and the portraitremainedtherefor more than two centuries, until shortly after the convent'ssuppressionin I797. Lucreziais shown in a plain Carmelite habit, holding a

25.

GiovanniBattistaMoroni (Bergamese,b. no later

than I524, d. I578). AbbessLucreziaAgliardi Vertova.Oil on canvas, 36 x 27 in. (91.4 x 68.6 cm). Theodore M.

Davis Collection,Bequestof TheodoreM. Davis, 19I5 (30.95.255)

The inscription on the cartouche reads: LVCRETIA ALEXIS ALARDI

NOBILISS[IMI]. HONORATISS[IMI].

/ FRANCISCI

VXOR DIVAE ANNAE

ALBINENSE

/ BERGOMENSIS

FILIA

CATANEI VERTVATIS / TEMPLVM

IPSA

(Lucretia,daughterof of the most nobleAlessioAgliardi Bergamo,wife of the most honorableFrancescoCataneoVertova,herself foundedthe churchof Sant'Annaat Albino, I557).

STATVENDV

CVRAVIT.

/ M.D.LVII.

'; '' ? ? t l~ ~,

-.-

bookandstandingbehinda ledgewithmarble scrollwork bearinga long inscription.Moroni has been unsparingin his descriptionof her: sheis unadornedandwrinkledandhasa small goiter.Hersimpleshapeis set againstan absoThisdepictionis in lutelyneutralbackground. both with the artist'sapproachto porkeeping traitureandwith the sitter'sdevout,unpretentious lifestyle.Yetat the sametime, this is a paintingof marvelouselegance.Like many BrescianandBergamese paintings,it is cool in built around a tonality, medleyof grays,with innumerable subtletransitions in tonethroughthe out backgroundand fictive stonework. the brownhabit,thewarmflesh Only abbess's tones, and the blue grayof the edgesof the book's pages providecontrast.The scholar LionelloVenturi,writingin 1933,capturedthe allureof this painting:Moroni's"loveof realisedformsandof silverytones,inheritedfrom Moretto,enable[him]to abandonhimselfto the re-evocation of life, with an absoluteness, an impartiality, a creativespontaneity without The here if as parallel. figureappears arising from its own tomb, demonstrating the religious piety of the founderof the templeof St.AnnaatAlbino...." Theportrait ofBartolommeo Bonghi(d.1584) is a lessaustere,but no lesspenetrating, depic-

the portraitwas painted.It is a curiousfact that the crumblingtower portrayedin the to a nabackground-instantlyrecognizable tive as thatof the PalazzoComunaleof Bergamo-was

restored in I551-52. Given the date

of Plauzio'spublication, the painting cannot have been done before I553, and therefore the

background scene intentionally refers to an older view, perhapsone of historic resonance. Some critics believe that Bonghi's portrait should actually be dated several years after these events in his and Plauzio'scareers, to about I560, as it is stylisticallyclose to a number of Moroni'sdated paintingsfrom that moment. Bonghi's intense and intelligent gaze and the elegant play of his complex form against the neutral, but inflected, wall make this one of the artist'smost successfulworks. The Venetianpatricianswho receivedTitian's advice might have been quite gratifiedto be portrayedthus.

tion (fig. 26). Importantstepsin describingthe

circumstances of the commissionandthesitter weremadein articlespublishedbetween1913 andI922, when,forexample,it wasnotedthat the nameon the coverof the bookin Bonghi's author: hand,Plauzio,is thatof a contemporary CamilloPlauzioPezzoni,a professorof lawat the Universityof Pavia,who, in I553, wrote a commentaryon a work that codified Roman civil law, the Pandectsof Justinian.The man holding the book is its dedicatee,a memberof an importantBergamofamilywho was also an expert in canon and civil law. Plauzio and Bonghi were colleaguesat Pavia,whereBonghi served as rector from

I552

to I553. His costume,

with its berrettaa corniand fur collar,is appropriateto a universityrector. Despite the telling coincidenceof the dates, there is some debate about the year in which 36 *

26. GiovanniBattistaMoroni.Bartolommeo Bonghi,probx x 81.9 cm). Oil on in. ca. canvas, I56o. (IOI.6 40 321/4 ably Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1913 (I3.I77)

When the paintingwas conservedin 1991,a coat of arms and an inscriptionthat had been addedafterthe sitter's death-and afterthat of the artist-were removedfrom the background.This maneuverrevealedthe beautiful tonal paintingof the wall behindBonghi and the original shapeof the recessedwindow embrasure,thus addingto the senseof spacein the picture.The inscription,which was probablysuggestedby a memberof Bonghi'sfamily, reads: BARTHOLOMEVS BONGVS.I[TRIVSQUE]. D[OCTOR]. / CAN[ONIC]Vs ET PRIMICER[I]Vs CATH[EDRA]LI. BERG[AMEN]S!S / PROTHONOT[ARI]VS AP[OSTO]LICVS. COMES ET EQVES/ANNO.

D[OMI]NI. MDLXXXIV. (Bartolommeo Bonghi, doctor of

eitherlaw [canonor civil], canon and deanof the cathedralof Bergamo,apostolicprotonotary,count and knight, in the yearof our Lord1584).

,:e .II;.

: I:'.? :';E ;I???:

? ??

"''?

:*.

?'?-s-:? i

.,I..

? ?.i

.n i??',

?.;

i.l

r: Is

:r --?i?1

:j.

IS':F j q 't!!? ,sli 'c,

-r: ?

-I J

EMILIA-

ROMAGNA

of the provinceof CITIES are stretched in a remarkably Emilia-Romagna direct,diagonalline alongthe ancientRoman Via Aemilia, from Piacenzain the west through Parma, Reggio Emilia, Modena, Bologna,Faenza,Forli,and Rimini.The notableexceptionis Ferrara, locatednortheastof Bolognaandcloseto theborderof theVeneto. During the sixteenthcentury,these citiesalthoughmostly small in population-were vibrantand quite distinctive,artisticallyand The threeprincipalcenters,Ferrara, culturally. and Parma,wereespeciallyso, and Bologna, eachhad a uniquetrajectory both in politics

MOST

OF THE

and in the arts.Ferrarawas home to one of the most importanthumanistcourtsof the Renaissance, that of the Este dukes, while Bologna was renowned for its university,founded in the second half of the eleventh century.Both Bologna and Parmaare crucialin the history of Renaissanceand Baroquepainting, thanks to the groundbreakingand influentialartistry of Antonio Allegri, known as Correggio,and GirolamoFrancescoMariaMazzola,known as Parmigianino,who were activein the firsthalf of the sixteenth century, and to the innovations of Ludovico, Agostino, and Annibale Carracciin the second half.

Bologna Bologna, now one of the wealthiestand most attractivecities in Italy,saw its political status change dramaticallyin the first decadesof the sixteenthcentury,in a crisissimilarto that we have alreadyencounteredin Lombardy.Governed in the fifteenthcenturyby a senatewith a memberof the Bentivogliofamilyas its capo, and much of the time by the long-rulingGiovanni II Bentivoglio (I443-I508, signore from

I463), the city was nonetheless fighting off papalclaimsto its territory.This stateof affairs came to an abrupt end in 15o6, when Pope Julius II, Giuliano della Rovere, entered the city with greatpomp, forcingGiovannito flee. Save for a brief moment in 15II-epitomized by open rebellion,duringwhich a monumental bronzestatue of the pope by Michelangelo was pulled down from over the door of the

churchof SanPetronioanddestroyed-Bologna remained part of the Papal States until the Napoleonic era. The courseof Bolognesepainting from the late fifteenththroughthe late sixteenthcentury is a fascinatingone (as is the history of its sculpture). Giovanni II Bentivoglio and his familywerepatronson a grandscale,although their massivepalaceand much of its contents were destroyedin the upheavalat the beginning of the century. They favored artistsboth local ones and theirpeersfrom neighboring cities-who appealed as well to other courts, notablythat at Mantua,where Isabella d'Este (I474-I539) was so influential. In the

early years of papal rule, several works by Raphael-above all, the majesticSaint Cecilia (PinacotecaNazionale, Bologna)-arrived in

Detail of Saints Peter,Martha, Mary Magdalen, and Leonard,by Correggio (see fig. 38)

Bolognaand elsewherein Emiliaand had an immediateand far-reaching impact.Raphael's wasso strongthatanentiregeneration influence of paintershascometo be calledEmilianclassicists,or Romanists.A school of Mannerist artistsalsothrivedin Bologna:the reactionof cousinsin theI58osagainst theyoungCarracci of late Manneristpaintingis ittheartificiality selfthestuffof Baroquedrama. Francescodi Marcodi GiacomoRaibolini knownasFrancesco (activeby 1482,d. I517/I8), waspatronized Francia, by GiovanniII firstas a goldsmithandthen,for increasingly important commissions,as a painter.His earliest paintingsdateto about1490,andin thatdecade themostsoughtandthenext,he wasprobably afterartistactivein the city. Enthusiasmfor his carefullycrafted,generallyplacidimages haswaxedandwanedovertime.The ambivalence of the reactionto his art is alreadyreof Franciaasit apflectedin Vasari's biography pearedmost fully in the editionof I568.On the one hand,VasariadmiresFrancia's painta of for and writes, example, Nativitythat ings "theinventionandthe coloringareworthyof nothingbut praise."Evenmoresignificantly, in the importanttheoreticalprefaceto the thirdpartof Vasari's Lives,the authorsingles out Francia,alongwith Perugino,as the importantbridgebetweenthe correctbut hard "secondstyle"of painting(exemplified by an artist like AndreaMantegna)and the profoundandfullymatureartof the "thirdstyle," thatof Leonardo,Raphael,andMichelangelo. workhad a "certainresForVasari,Francia's olutespirit"and"sweet harmonyof coloring.... at the sightof whichpeopleranlikemadmen to thisnewandmorelifelikebeauty...." life On theotherhand,VasariendsFrancia's limitations. his with a tale that emphasizes Raphael,with whomVasarisaysFranciahad asked the been in friendlycorrespondence, Bologneseartistto installhis greatpainting SaintCeciliain the churchof SanGiovanniin Monte.When the cratewas opened,Francia looked,"halfdeadwith terrorat the beautyof the picture,"and went home and died of grief, acknowledgingthat Raphael(and all he repre40o

him.This anecdote, sented)hadfarsurpassed almostcertainlyapocryphal-notleastbecause Franciahad seen other works by Raphael Vasari's already-nonetheless expresses opinion that Francia's style had indeedbeen quickly surpassed.Michelangelois said to have expresseda similaropinion,rathermoreharshly. To the modernviewer,Francia's approachto paintingdoes, in fact,representa fascinating momentjust at the crux of somethingnew andmoremodern. has an importantgroup The Metropolitan a of worksby Francia,includingan altarpiece, portrait,and some devotionalworks. Saint Roch(dated 15o2; fig. 27) is an imposing altar-

pieceon panelmadeforthe churchwithinthe ed Ospedale complexof the Arciconfraternita di SantaMariadellaMortein Bologna,an important confraternityand hospital.As the nameof theconfraternity implies,its members visitedprisonerscondemnedto death.Most which Italiancitieshad suchan organization, often commissionedappropriate-and intriguing-worksof art.Here,SaintRoch,the intercessor againstthe plague,is showntouching the soreon his thigh,with God the Father aboveandan extensivelandscape beyond.The paintinghung in the chapeldedicatedto the saint;thechurchalsohousedsomeof hisrelics. That there was a connectionperceivedberoleandthe intercestweenthe confraternity's is confirmedby a 1576 the saint sorypowerof the decreeof PopeGregoryXIII:he reiterated members'rightto releasea condemnedprisonereachyearon Rochssaintday,AugustI6. workin its SaintRochwasa highlyregarded owntime,asthenumberof paintingsbasedon it attests,andthenagainin thenineteenthcenturyin England,whereit wasincludedin the of I857Manchesterexhibition"ArtTreasures in the UnitedKingdom."Nonetheless, I905a criticcouldwriteof it thatalthoughtechnically 27. FrancescoFrancia(Francescodi Marcodi Giacomo Raibolini; Bolognese, active by 1482, d. I517/18). Saint Roch,1502. Oil on wood, 8514x 593/8 in. (z26.5 X I50.8 cm). Signed and dated (lower left): FRACIA AVRIFABER/ MCCCCII. Gift of George R. Hann, 1965 (65.220.I)

28. Perugino(Pietrodi Cristoforo Vannucci;Umbrian,activeby I469, d. 1523). Madonna in Glory with Saints, ca. I5oo. Oil on wood, I30 x I41/4 in. (330 x 265 cm). Pinacoteca Nazionale,

Bologna.Photograph:CopyrightScala/ Art Resource,N.Y.

29. FrancescoFrancia.FederigoGonzaga (I500-I540), 1510. Oil on wood, trans-

ferredfromwood to canvasand againto wood, overallI87/8x 4 in. (47.9x 35.6cm). Bequestof BenjaminAltman,1913

(I4.40.638). ^^f

'^~~~~~~-i Francia's FederigoGonzagamadea great when it reemergedfromobscurity splash andwas identified,in London,at the beginningof the twentiethcentury.It had been savedfromthe destructionby fireof much of the collectionof PrinceJerome Bonapartein Parisin I87I.Then, as one authorput it, "afterrusticatingin the WesternShires[of England],it finally emergedinto publicityand recognitionat an exhibitionat the BurlingtonFineArts Club."The paintingwas sold by Joseph Duveen to the greatNew Yorkcollector BenjaminAltmanand came to the MetropolitanMuseumfollowinghis death in I913.

impeccable,it waspocosimpatica,not very lik-

is inspiredby the saintsin Perugino'saltarpiece. in The deeplyrecedinglandscapemay also be, alable,becauseit wasbothoverlycomplicated itsformsandyetsomehowempty.It is interest- though Franciahas punctuatedhis with rock ing to observethe waysin whichFranciahad formationsand lively detailsof buildings,ridmovedawayfromthe styleof his ers, and fences.One can senseimmediatelythe deliberately earliestworks-linearand calligraphic, rather "sweetharmony"that Vasarifelt so charactertenselyexpressive,and clearlybasedon Fer- ized his pictures. Francia'ssuccess in the city rareseexamples-tothesmoother, blanderstyle with this stylewas considerable,but new com-

he developedaroundthe turnof the century and for which he becameknown.This shift musthavebeenmotivated,in part,by the exampleof the UmbrianartistPerugino,with whomVasarilinkshim andwho senta major altarpiece,Madonna in Glory with Saints (fig. 28), to Bolognaabout1499-1500. The figure of Saint Roch, with its gentle contrapposto, rathertimid gestures,and eyes rolled upward, 42 *

missions in Bologna about I500 were also ex-

tended to artistswhose work was considerably tougher and less suave. The great Florentine Filippino Lippi painted an altarpiecefor San Domenico, and artistsfleeing Milan after the arrivalof the Frenchalso brieflycontributedto the Bolognesescene. Boltraffiopaintedone of his most inventiveand Leonardesqueworksfor a Bolognese patron; the so-called Pala Casio

of the mostrenowned patronsof the time,had withartists in Bolognathrough longhaddealings tiesto hersisterLucrezia to Giod'Este,married vanniII'sson AnnibaleBentivoglio,andwith humanists suchas GirolamoCasio.Bothassist(I500-I540) as a boy is, for its historical resoone the in of most Renaissance her ed with Franciaas she first nance, interesting negotiations thepossibility thathe mightprovidea paintingsin the Metropolitan'scollection (fig. explored in 29). Painted 15I0, it depictsthe young son of paintingfor her splendidcamerino-literally FrancescoII Gonzagaand Isabellad'Este,rulers "smallroom"-in the ducalpalacein Mantua of the stateof Mantua.The marchesa andthencommissioned thisspecialportrait. Isabella,one

(Musee du Louvre, Paris)was commissioned by the poet GirolamoCasio and hung in the churchof SantaMariadellaMisericordia. Francia'sportrait of Federigo II Gonzaga

a 43

In the midst of the War of the League of Cambrai, in the summer of 15Io, the ten-year-

old Federigo was being sent to Rome as hostage for his father, who had been taken prisonerby the Venetians.Isabella,intent on securinga portraitof the boy to tide her over duringhis absence,askedFranciato do it during Federigo'sshort stay in Bologna. A sketch was made, about which Isabella'sagent wrote that "itwould be impossiblefor anythingto be more like him." But the completion of the portraitwas held up by Francia'scommitment to paint elaborate caparisons for Francesco Mariadella Rovere,duke of Urbino; the duke temporarilyreleasedhim from this obligation so that he might satisfy Isabella.This he did, sending the painting to Mantua on August Io -some twelvedaysafterit was begun. Isabella was delighted:she saidthat nothing finercould possiblyhave been done in such a short time, and she felt sure that in this portraitFrancia had been keen to "demonstratethe perfection of his art." Isabellafound one slight defect, however, and her finickinessabout it almostderailedher plan to havethe portraitby her side while Federigowas in Rome. She found the hairslightly too blond and sent the painting back from Mantua to Bologna for an adjustment.Gatheredthereon theirway to Rome, as luck would have it, were her husband-now liberatedthe pope, and numerous cardinals. Francia showedthem the painting,which they admired enormously. It was then taken to Romeratherthan returnedto Isabella-by a courtier in rathermysteriouscircumstances.Her friend Casiowrote a lettertryingto explainthe events to the marchesa, and reportedthat Francia,who had apparentlybeen askedto paint a replicato send to Mantua, would not do so for "allthe gold in the world."Finally,aftera furiousletter from Isabella,the portraitwas broughtback to Bologna and then sent on to Isabella.Isabella was so pleasedwith Francia'spaintingthat she had him paint her own portrait soon thereafter,while continuing to urge him to paint a narrativepicturefor her camerino.Correspondence from Francia,and between Isabellaand 44 *

Casio,showsthatthe artistmeantto beginon this moredemandingprojectsometimeafter Christmasof 1510,but it nevercameto fruition.

The objectof thesehigh-levelnegotiations is a jewel-likeportrayal of the youth.The format is one commonlyusedby the artist-the bust-lengthfigureis setbehinda parapet,with one handvisibleanda sweepinglandscapebehind.Giventhe timeconstraints underwhich he wasworking,Francia wiselykeptthedepiction rathersimple:thereareboldcontrastsbetweenthe boy'sdarkcostume,thegreenof the landscapeand foliage,and the blueof the far distance.The artist, originallytrainedas a goldsmith,hascapturedthe gleamof the boy's gold necklaceand the hilt of his sword.Most however,the artisthas captured remarkably, the tenderexpressiveness of the boy'sface. Franciawasjustlyfamousforhis devotional paintingsof the Madonnaand child, sometimes shownwith other saints-images that come close to those of GiovanniBellini in termsof sheerbeauty.Two examplesin the Museum'scollection(figs.30, 31) must have been much admired,as numerousotherversions and variantsof them are known.Althoughsuchdevotionalworksarerarelydated, theMadonnaandChildis generally thoughtto be of about I495-I500 and the Madonnaand

Child with SaintsFrancisand Jerometo be someyearslater.The formeris exceptionalfor its beautifulstateof preservation. This quality is particularly strikingin the modelingof the Christchild,whosesoft fleshis convincingly roundedandwhoseweightrestsfirmlyon the arethe shadows ledge.Equallywell preserved of the Madonna'sface-around her proper right cheek,underher lips, and aroundher

30. Francesco Francia. Madonna and Chil ca. I495-I5OO. Oil on wood, 24 x i8 /8 in. (6I x 46 cm). Gift of Lewis

C. LedyardIII, Mrs.VictorOnet, and Mrs.T. F Turner, in memory of Lewis C. Ledyard, 1982 (I982.448)

The popularityof the imageis reflectedin the numberof replicas-some of them of a high qualityand probablyby Francia-both with the Madonnaand child aloneand with the additionof a saintor of angelsto the side.

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eyes-and the deeplysaturatedcolorsof her of Fontanathat she was "painterto Pope Gregownandveil.The Madonnaand Childwith gory XIII, and the entire B[u]oncompagni Saintsis notableaswellforthesharplyobserved family, who honored her always, showered figureof SaintJeromeat the right(Berenson benefits on her, protected her." Fontanawas thoughtit mightbe a portraitof a contempo- also a greatfavoriteof the city'snoblewomen, withits who-Malvasia again tells us-respected and rary)andforthewonderfullandscape, line of treesreflectedin a lake.It seemsfitting loved her; they considered themselves fortuto end a discussionof Francia's workwith a nate to participatein social events with her from the quotation greatnineteenth-century and prized her portraits.Although the better connoisseursCrowe and Cavalcaselle,who part of her careerwas spent in Bologna, she deeplyadmiredthe Bologneseartist'spaint- also worked in Rome, firstduringthe pontifiings of about 5oo: "This...is also the time cate of SixtusV (r. 1585-90), and while there when Francia's impersonations displayaddi- she even received a commission from the tional reposeand noble sentiment,when to Spanishking, Philip II. The last years of her powerhe unitesexceedingharmony,whenhis life, from 1604 to 1614,were spent in Rome as handacquiresa cunninghithertounattained, well. During this period-when she continued especiallyin the skillwith which half-tintis to producemajoraltarpieces,not all of them, usedandsubtleglazesareapplied,whena bet- however,reviewedenthusiastically-she would ter sense of atmosphereis conveyed,when neverthelesshave been a great inspirationto modellingand contrastsof light and shade the youngArtemisiaGentileschi(I593-I65I/53), who began her careerin her father'sworkshop yieldtheirtruestandbestresults." about I6Io. The Metropolitan owns one of the most One of the finestwomenartistsof the Renais- refinedportraitsattributedto LaviniaFontana,a sance was Lavinia Fontana (I552-I614), the miniaturepaintedon copper(fig. 32).A seated of the daughter prominent Bolognese painter prelate,wearinga berrettaa corniand ecclesiastical robes, is shown half-length, holding an Prospero Fontana (1512-I597). Carefully educated and trained in her father's studio, open book. Although the identity of the sitter Lavinia Fontana enjoyed enormous success is unknown, many of Fontana'sother portraits both as a portraitist(a traditionalrole for a are documented, and she had numerousconwoman in the visual arts) and as a thoughtful nections with clerics and various humanists and authors. For example, she painted Carlo painterof altarpieces,which were much in demand. She worked for the great families of Sigonio, a historianfrom Modena, threetimes Bologna, especiallythat of Pope GregoryXIII in the late I57os;one of these workswas, like the Metropolitan'spainting, un ovatodi rame, (r. 1572-85), originally Ugo Boncompagni. In fact, Carlo CesareMalvasia,the seventeenth- a copper oval. She used the same specialized in a Studyof 1579 centurybiographerof Bologneseartists,wrote techniquefor her Self-Portrait (Galleriadegli Uffizi, Florence),at the request of the patron, the SpanishtheologianAlfonso Chac6n (or Ciaccono), resident in Rome. 3I. FrancescoFrancia.Madonnaand ChildwithSaints CorrespondencebetweenFontanaand Chac6n FrancisandJerome, ca. I50o-15Io. Oil on wood, overall showsthat he wished to havethis painting"ac291/2 x 223/8 in. (74.9 x 56.8 cm). Gift of George company that of Sophonisba,"referringto a Blumenthal, 1941 (4I.I00.3) work alreadyin his collection by the somewhat older and equally well-known woman This composition was also extremely popular: there artist from Cremona, Sofonisba Anguissola are five known replicas, as well as other paintings in which most of the composition is retained, with one (ca. 1532-1625), who did several self-portrait or two figuresmodified. miniatureson copper. * 47

Although undated, our portrait miniature appearsstylisticallyto be ratherlater than the portrait of Carlo Sigonio now in Modena (Museo Civico di Storiaed Arte Medioevalee Moderna), which has a rather hard, linear quality very like the work of Fontana'sfather and teacher.The softer,painterlyqualityof the Metropolitan's portraitminiature,with its subtle

was almostcertainlyinspiredby observation, theCarracci, whoburston thescenein Bologna in the I580s.This shift in Fontana'sstyleleadingto a greatersoavith,or delicacy,as it has been describedwith admiration-is seen in her paintingsbeginningin the later S80os andespeciallyinto the1590s.

32. Attributed to Lavinia Fontana (Bolognese, Portrait ofa

I552-I6I4).

la paine Ths Roberti.de' Ercole sixteenth 5into the century undr

weredeepy Both in 559).

possibly i8s.TuI580Prelate, possibly Oil on copper,diam. (A4

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cm).

Bequestof Millie Fredrick, I962

(62.I22.I4I)

An inscriptionin ink on the backof the copper almost certainly refers to the sitter, but now it is, unfortunately, abraded and indecipherable.

Ferrara The smallcity of Ferrara,in the low-lying,fertile plain of the Po Valley to the northeastof Bologna,was a crucibleof Renaissancethought and art. Throughout the fifteenth century,its rulers, the Este family, commissioned works from the greatest contemporary paintersJacopo Bellini, AndreaMantegna,Rogiervan der Weyden-and fostereda brilliantschool of 48 *

local painters, headed by Cosimo Tura and Ercole de' Roberti.This patronagecontinued into the sixteenthcenturyunderDukesAlfonsoI d'Este (I476-1534)and ErcoleII d'Este (I5o81559). Both weredeeplyinvolvedin the decoration of their private chambers in the great castellothat dominates the center of the city and in the building and decorationof beloved

villas in the countryside.Indeed, Alfonso (Isabellad'Este'sbrother)furnishedone of the his most famousrooms of the Renaissance, with greatpaintingsby camerinod'alabastro, Bellini and Giovanni Titian, including The Feastof the Gods(NationalGalleryof Art, Washington,D.C.) and BacchusandAriadne (TheNationalGallery,London). Manystoriesweretold of Alfonso'sloveof the arts(not to mentionhis loveof armsand armor:it is saidthatit washewhomelteddown bronzestatueof thehatedJulius Michelangelo's in BolognaandtransII,mentionedpreviously, formedit into a cannonnicknamed"LaGiuof these lia").Themostamusing,andrevealing, hisvisitto theSistineChapel, anecdotes regards in to he where, I512, climbedon thescaffolding at workandwouldnot leave seeMichelangelo untilhe hadforcedthe artistto promiseto do a paintingforhim:"TheLordDukeremained for he couldnot up therewith Michelangelo, see enoughof thosefigures,he flatteredhim copiously,andin theendhisLordship requested thathe shouldmakehima painting;andhe madehim discussit, he offeredmoney,and a promiseto do it." extracted Alfonso'scourt artist, who worked for him-and wasa cordialcompanionto himfromI514untilhis death,wasthe giftedGiovannide Lutero(I486?-I542), knownasDosso Dossi. AlthoughDosso paintedmany altarpieces and devotionalpictures,his role as court artistallowedhim to strayfrom the moretraditional sortsof Renaissance painting into a poeticworld.This worldwas inspired by, and ran parallelto, that of the Ferrarese poet LudovicoAriosto,whose Orlando furioso was one of the most (I516/32) widely read books of the century.In his biographyof Dosso,Vasarilinksthe painterand the poet: "Atalmost the same time that Heavenbestowedon Ferraraand the worldthe divine poet Ariosto,the painterDosso was born in the samecity."Ariosto'sepic poem is full of enchantmentand heroism, all set within suchas this, evocativelydescribedlandscapes, in cantoI: "Atlastshecameto a pleasantgrove

closeby so that two limpidbrooksmurmured the grasswas everfreshand tender;the quiet waters,breakingas theyflowedsoftlyoverthe little pebblessoundedmusically....Close by she noticed a beautifulthicketof flowering in thelimpid hawthornandredrosesmirrored from the sun by water sheltered and tippling tallshadyoaks"(I:35,37).The quotationfrom to Dosso's Ariostocanserveasan introduction one of the mostreThree AgesofMan(fig.33), markable of the earlycinquecento, landscapes in in Ferrara about I515. painted The actualsubjectof the paintinghasbeen a matterof somedebate,and its currenttitle derivesfrom the threepairsof figures-two children,two young adults,and two older men-which may be symbolicof the three is quesstagesof ourlives.This interpretation tionableon two counts.First,that the boys seem to be spying on the amorouscouple (whoalsomustcontendwith the goatspressunified ingin againstthem)impliesa narrative in time, ratherthan completelyseparatevignettes.Then, technicalevidenceshowsthat the old men were paintedover the already completedvegetationandthusmayhavebeen In any case,the subjectseems afterthoughts. incidental,as the thrust of the paintingis clearlyas a pastoralidyll,with the fashionably dressedloverssetwithina luxuriantlandscape, vibrantwith lightandfresh,greenfoliage.Alwasprobablyderived,in thoughthelandscape from Venetian part, examples,the painterliness and brilliantcoloring are unique to Dosso.The artistwas considereda masterat the evocativedepictionof nature,and Vasari wrotethathe wasthe greatestof all landscape paintersin northernItaly(VasariusedthetoptermLombardy). Anothercontemographical the historian Paolo Giovio,discussed porary, this aspectof Dosso'sworkevenmorespecifically,and within a classicalcontext.Giovio makesa distinctionbetweenDosso's"proper works"(justisoperibus)-thatis, those with serioussubjects-andhislandscapes, whichhe calledparerga, embellishments meantto delight and refresh,withoutany deeperpurpose.As

whose treesgentlyrustledin a deliciousbreeze;

Giovio knew, such an approachhad a direct 49

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33. Dosso Dossi (Giovannide Lutero; Ferrarese,active by 1512, d. 1542). The ThreeAges ofMan, ca. 1515. Oil on canvas, 301/2x 44 in.

(77.5x iii.8 cm). MariaDe Witt Jesup Fund, I926 (26. 83)

Becausethis image,with its prominent landscape,is so unusual,it has sometimesbeen suggestedthat the canvasis a fragmentof one thatwas originallylargerand would haveincluded more figures.However,careful examinationof the edgesof the canvashas shown that only the right edge has any significantloss, perhaps about 31/8inches (8 cm), and that

thereforethe paintingis basically completeand intactas it stands.

* 5I

34. Garofalo (Benvenuto Tisi; Ferrarese,1476 (?)-I559). Saint Nicholas of TolentinoReviving a Child. Oil on canvas, transferred from wood, I3 x 233/ in. (33 x 65.4 cm). Gift of

J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917 (I7.I90.24) 35. Garofalo. Saint Nicholas ofTolentino Reviving the Birds. Oil on canvas, transferredfrom wood, I27/8 X 233/in. (32.7 X 66 cm). Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917 (17.I90.23)

52 ?

precedent in the work of an ancient Roman artist, Studius, as described by Pliny, which addedto its cachet.Dosso and his patrons,Alfonso aboveall, would havebeen awareof, and have appreciated,this classical parallel;they turned to other classicaltexts when devising programsof paintingswithin the castello.The Metropolitancould scarcelyown a paintingby Dosso that better expressedthe classicallyinspired, but poetically shaped, art of Ferrara duringthe age of Alfonso I. Dosso workedalongsidea numberof gifted painters.From I513he collaboratedon a spectacularaltarpiecefor the high altarof the Ferraresechurch of Sant'Andreawith Benvenuto Tisi (I481-I559), known as Garofalo, a slightly

olderandmoreestablishedartist.UnlikeDosso's, Garofalo'spaintingwas ratherinsistentlyclassical; he was inspiredfirst by Franciaand other 36. Attributedto Alfonso Lombardi(Ferrarese, ca. I497-1537). Saint Nicholas

Marble.Casa of Tolentino. Romei,Ferrara

artistsin Bologna, and then by Raphael.His Saint Nicholas of TolentinoRevivinga Child and Saint Nicholas of TolentinoRevivingthe Birds(figs. 34, 35) were part of the decoration of a chapel dedicated to Saint Nicholas, the Cappella Muzzarelli,in the same church as Garofaloand Dosso'sgreatcollaborativealtarpiece.Joinedwith two others, TheMassofSaint Nicholas of Tolentino(Pinacoteca Nazionale, Ferrara)and The Miracleof Bread Converted intoRoses(lostand replacedwith a replicain the I8th century),they probablyformeda predella, the lowestelementof an altarpiece.Earlysources suggest that above them, in an arrangement sometimesto be found in northernItaly,were a statue of the saint and, to the left and right, paintingsof SaintJohn the Baptistand Michael the Archangel.The church was suppressedin the Napoleonic period, and the elements of the altarpiece were scattered. Metropolitan Museum curatorKeith Christiansenhas suggested that a marble sculpture, probably by Alfonso Lombardi (ca. 1497-I537), was its centerpiece(fig. 36). The narratives in the Metropolitan's collection two of miracles-three hundred depict many by some counts-said to havebeen performed by Saint Nicholas of Tolentino (I245-I306). These featswere firstcompiled in a life of the saint written by Pietro di Monterrubianoin about I326, long before Nicholas'scanonization in 1446 but during the preliminarygathering of relevantinformation about him. In one, Nicholas-shown in the black-beltedhabit worn by Augustinians-intercedes for a family whose child has died beforebeing baptized.In the other,he is shownlookingolderandwearing white, in bed with an illness.A strictvegetarian, Nicholas ponderswhat to do when a dish of cooked partridgesis sent to him by one of his followers.He makesa sign of the crossover the plate and the birds fly away, thus saving him fromoffendingthe manwho offeredthem. The subjectsof theseworkswereverycarefully selected to representthe saint'slife. Nicholas led an ascetic existencewith a group of strict Augustinians known as the Eremiti in the Marchigiancity of Tolentino.When testimony * 53

about him was being gathered in I325-26,

37. L'Ortolano(GiovanniBattistaBenvenuti;Ferrarese,

many eyewitnesses offered examples of his sanctity and self-purification.One, for example, told of how he had triedto get Nicholas to relaxhis strictfood restrictionswhile ill, probably the basis of the scene described above. Following Nicholas'sdeath, hundredsflocked to his tomb, and many posthumous miracles were recordedthere. The scenes of the predellareflectthe three most significantaspectsof Nicholas'sspirituality and powersas a thaumaturge.In the scene now in Ferrara,he is shown as a youth about to have a vision of Christ during mass-an expressionof his profoundand visionaryconnection with God. The scene with the partridges that miraculouslyfly from his plate reflectsinstead his enormous reputationfor asceticism and purity, as well as his strong aversion to giving offense.The thirdpainting,in which he intercedesfor an unbaptizedbaby,standsfor all those miracles that worshipers hoped saints

active by ISI2, d. after I527). TheAdoration of the Shep-

54 *

herds,beforeI572. Oil on canvas,transferredfromwood, (49.2 x 73 cm). TheodoreM. Davis Col-

I93/8 X 281/4in.

lection, Bequest of Theodore M. Davis, I9I5 (30.95.296)

might performfor them. Fivegeneralgroupsof such miracleshavebeen categorized,one being releasefrom the perilsof nature-of which infant mortalitywas an all too frequentexample. The beautyof these paintingsgrowson the viewer.RobertoLonghionce wrote (of another Ferrareseartist)that one is assistedin appreciating the classicismof his painting by the inclusion of many naturalisticdetails, and this observation is appropriatehere as well. In Saint Nicholasof TolentinoRevivingthe Birds, the spacious but sober room is described in considerabledetail: we see the bottle glass in the window; a window seat;simple stools and a table,with glasswareset on it; a heavycarved

wood bed. In both New York works, the idealizedfigures,with theircarefullyconceived gesturesand harmoniousarrangement,are indebted to central Italian art (Garofalomade two tripsto Rome).At the sametime, the lightfilledlandscapeat the left of the scenein which the saint revives the unbaptizedchild shows Garofalo'saffinities with Venetian painting and, especially,with Dosso Dossi. The altarpiece is undocumented,and the paintingsare sometimesdatedto about 1520,when Garofalo wasfirstinfluencedby Romanpainting,or some yearslater,to about I534. Anotherartistwho workedalongsideGarofalowas GiovanniBattistaBenvenuti(activeby Indeed, 1512,d. after1527),knownasL'Ortolano. the connectionbetweenthe two is so close that TheAdorationof the Shepherds(fig. 37), now universallyaccepted as a work by Ortolano,

anearlyworkby wasformanyyearsconsidered as connoisseurs Garofaloby suchdistinguished The principal GiovanniMorelliandBerenson. elementsof the compositionare identicalto thosefound,on a largerscale,in an altarpiece Ortolano painted in I527 for the church of

Santa Maria dei Servi, Ferrara,The Nativity with SaintsJohn the Baptist,Francis,and Mary Magdalen(GalleriaDoria Pamphilj,Rome). In that work, the saints that have been added to the composition are more monumental and classicalthan the original figures, suggesting that the altarpieceis the later in date. The and attractivework Adorationis a characteristic by the artist,with the brightcolorsand carefully spaced figureshe preferred.As in so many Ferraresepaintings, the landscapeis enchanting, with its mountains"risinglike teeth from the plain,"as they wereonce described.

Parma A small and somewhatsleepycity, Parmaleapt to artisticprominenceduring the lifetimes of Antonio Allegri(activeby 1514,d. 1534),called Correggio, and Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola (I503-I540), called Parmigianino. Indeed, Correggio transformed the very appearanceof the city with his astounding frescoesin the domes of the cathedraland the churchof San GiovanniEvangelista.His influence on his contemporariesand on laterpainting can scarcely be calculated. Vasari notes that a Ferrareseartist and near-contemporary of Correggio's,Girolamo da Carpi, traveled from town to town in the region because"he had heard that there were some works by... Correggio,"and manylaterartistswereto make similar pilgrimages-among them Ludovico and Annibale Carracci.Vasari even claimed that Correggio "wasthe first to work in the modern manner in Lombardy"(as he called this entire regionof Italy).However,his praise for northern Italian artistswas never wholehearted, and he also wrote (almost certainly mistakenly,and perhaps knowingly so) that

Correggio'seducationwas incompletebecause he had not traveledto Rome and thereforehad not seen "thebest of the modern." The MetropolitanMuseum'slargealtarpiece Saints Peter, Martha, Mary Magdalen, and Leonard(fig. 38) is an important example of the artist'searlywork. It was paintedwhile he was still living in his hometown of Correggio (from which his name, obviously,derives),to the east of Parma.The town'sculturallife was greatlyenlivened at this time by the presence of the notable poet VeronicaGambara,who was marriedto Prince Giberto da Correggio and whose small but sophisticatedcourt was linked to other, largercenters-for example, that of Isabella d'Este in Mantua (the two women correspondedabout Correggio'sart). This painting was made for a local patron, MelchioreFassi,and until 1690 it hung in his chapel in the hospital church of Santa Maria Verberator,usually known as Santa Maria dellaMisericordia,in Correggio. It is fascinatingto observe how the early history of the painting and its date have been 55

confused,ratherthanelucidated,by its rather abundantdocumentation.This confusionis the resultof the restlesstestamentary desiresof the patron,Fassi,who madethreewills-one in I517, one in I528, and one in 1538-each dif-

fering substantiallyfrom the one before,especially as regards bequests to churches for chapels and burial rights. In the first, he expresseda wish to be buried in the church of San Francesco,while making a gift of land to the Misericordia,earningsfrom which were to be used to maintain his altar in the latter church. In a note at the end of this will-the basis of much of the discussionof Correggio's altarpieceand its date-Fassi also names the churchof San Quirino as a legatee,askingthat a chapel with an altarpieceincluding Saints Martha, Leonard,Mary Magdalen, and Peter be granted to him in return for his bequest. We know that San Quirino was being renovated at the time, however,which may haveinfluenced his I528 decision to shift his legacy to San Domenico, with the same stipulationfor an altarpiecewith the four saints, but now including the Virgin as well. In neithercaseis an artistfor the altarpiecenamed.The Misericordia was still a recipientof a bequestin the I528 document, and masseswere to be said at his altar;Fassi demonstratedhis devotion to the church and hospital by directing severalpossible future gifts there as well. Finally,in 1538, he asked to be buried to the left of his own altardedicatedto Saint Marthain the Misericordia and made the church and hospital his residuarylegatee. These contradictorywishes lead to the following questions:Is the altarpieceby Correggio that is now in the MetropolitanMuseum the one that Fassiso ardentlyrequestedin his various wills? If so, when was it painted and for which church?Given the unique conjunction of these particularsaints in an altarpiece made for the small town of Correggio,it must have been commissioned by Fassi. However, upon reflection,it seems probablethat ours is not the painting being discussedin the wills. After all, the final testamentwas put into effect only upon Fassi'sdeath (and Correggio 56 -

predeceased him); neither the I517 nor the I528

version was legally binding. This realization lends weight to the suggestion made by a numberof past authorsthat Correggio'spainting alwayshung in Santa Maria della Misericordia (whereit was seen later in the century) at Fassi'saltardedicatedto Saint Martha.The painting that Fassiwished to have made upon his death, as stipulated in 1517 and

I528,

must

have been a second, separatealtarpiecededicated to the same saints. Indeed, once we are freed from the constraintsimposed by the dates of the wills, it is clear that The Four Saints (as it is sometimes called) was one of Correggio's first major works, in a careerthat began around 15Io. It cannot have been painted after I517,when he probably made a life-altering trip to Rome that was immediatelyreflectedin his art, and when he began to embarkon the great commissions in Parmathat made his reputation. Instead, it must have been painted sometime between 1514 and 1516, when he was digesting

and synthesizing his artistic experiences in northern Italy.This matter of dating is not a purely academic point, but rather one that bringsus up close to the creativedevelopment of a young genius, reachingout from his very small-townbeginnings. The painting is most closely relatedin style to anotheraltarpiece,the dazzlingMadonnaof Saint Francis(fig. 39), the contract for which dates to the summer of I514. Its Virgin, seated

on an elevated all'anticathrone with her arm outstretched and her hand sharply foreshortened, was manifestly influenced by one of Andrea Mantegna'sgreat altarpieces, The Madonna della Vittoria

(I495-96;

Musee du

38. Correggio (Antonio Allegri; Parmese, active by 1514, d. I534). Saints Peter,Martha, Mary Magdalen, and Leonard,ca. I514-I6. Oil on canvas, 87/4 x 63 3/4in. (221.6 x I61.9 cm). John Stewart Kennedy Fund, I9I2 (I2.211) The saints can be identified by their attributes: from the left, Saint Peter holding the keys; Saint Martha with the aspergillum used for sprinkling the dragon she tamed with holy water; Mary Magdalen with an ointment jar;

and Leonard,patronsaintof prisoners,with fetters.

39. Correggio.Madonnaand Child withSaintsFrancis,AnthonyofPadua, CatherineofSiena,andJohnthe Baptist, 1514. Oil on panel, II7.7 X 965/8 in. (299 x 245.5 cm). Gem'ilde-

galerie,Dresden.Photograph: CopyrightErichLessing/ Art Resource,N.Y.

Louvre, Paris), which Correggiowould have known in Mantua, due north of Correggio. The setting of Correggio'saltarpiece,however, with its recedingline of classicalcolumns and landscapevista beyond, probably reflects his familiarity with works by Venetian artists, such as GiovanniBellini.These elementscombined to produce an altarpiecethat is, in its composition, rathertraditional. TheFourSaints,on the other hand, is anything but traditional.Correggiostruggledwith his patron'swish to representthe four saints without any centralfigurearoundwhich to organize them. Standingloosely in a semicircle, 58 a

each is absorbedin his or her own thoughts; at the left, Peter'sand Marthas introspective qualitiesareespeciallycompelling.MaryMagdalen,with her shadowedeyesand slightsmile, is indebted to Leonardo,whose art Correggio also encounteredat this time. Indeed, in this painting, Correggiocast his eyeswestward,toward Milan and, above all, towardLeonardo. The saints'reflectiveattitudescome from this source, as does the very subtle play of light over the figures. So, too, I believe, does the extraordinarysetting of deep forestbehind the clearingin which the saintsstand. Perhapsbecause the greens and browns of the foliage

havedarkenedovertime, recentauthorshave not admiredthis highlyunusualsettingsufficiently.But earlierit wasdescribedas "oneof thosemiraclesof silverand greenand brown andthe whichCorreggio delightedto perform," in the branchesof a appearance woodpecker just its red plumagevisiblenow-was often noted.Leaves,branches,and rocksareclosely but they bond toobservedand naturalistic, architectural an almost to form setting. gether andunderlying of naturalism Thiscombination structurein landscapeis verylike Leonardo's in TheVirgin to therockformations of approach the Rocks;the rathermysteriousqualitythat sucha settingbringsto the paintingis equally Thus,in the conceptionof the Leonardesque. nowin NewYorkand twoworksby Correggio Dresden,whichareveryclosein date,weseethe artistscanninghis horizonto the eastandthe thebestin modernpainting. westto understand Whichwaspaintedfirst?There,disagreement runsdeep,andthe questionremainsopen. The New Yorkaltarpieceentereda private collectionin the late eighteenthcenturyand belongedto theAshburtonfamilyin England

in thispubThelastpaintingto be discussed attributed lication,a sketchof theAnnunciation is in manywaysalsothemost to Parmigianino, (knownbythis puzzling(fig.40). Parmigianino nameafterhe beganto workoutsidehis native artistic Parma)is oftenconsideredCorreggio's heir, althoughin his maturityhe movedin quite a differentdirection.Vasari,who was drawnto hiswork,saidthatit excelledhiscompatriot'sin "grace,adornment,and beautyof wasone of the manner." Indeed,Parmigianino of the styleknownas Mangreatpractitioners

in the nineteenth century (it is sometimes

town, in I52I-22, and Bedoli's style was strongly

In 1908 knownas the Ashburtonaltarpiece). RogerFrywroteto the curatorin the Metropolitan'sDepartmentof EuropeanPaintings aboutits possibleacquisition,in a letterthat both the brillianceand perfectlyencapsulates the weaknessof the painting."It is a great he wrote, "oneof the largesthe altarpiece," beautiful and everdid....Thecolourisextremely the handling has all Correggio'smystery and magic....On the otherhand, Correggio had here a problemwhichwas not perfectly suitedto his temperament, and a certaindiswhichoneexperiences atfirstsightof pleasure, the picture,is, I think,due to that.He hadto treat four saints in an altarpieceand was boundto keepsomethingof a hieraticsymmetry which was not naturalto his personal He hasmanaged to solve methodof conception. it with extraordinary so as to keep ingenuity the hieraticsymmetryand yet give to each figurea subtlemovementin keepingwith his

shapedby thatof his cousin.He evenwent so far as to use drawingsby Parmigianinoas the basis of his own work.About I539Bedolipaintedan Annunciation(fig. 41) for the church of Santa MariaAnnunciatain Viadana.This altarpiece directlyrelatesto the smallersketchthathad enteredthe SpencerCollectionat Althorpby 1742 and was purchasedby the MetropolitanMuseum in 1982. In both nocturnalscenes,the Virgin is shown kneeling before an unusual bronze lectern,shapedlikea boy andseenfromthe rear, with a canopiedbed behindher.The archangel Gabrielflies in from the left with a lily in his outstretchedright hand. The interioris fitfully lit by a candleand by sacredlight that seemsto emanatefromthe doveaboveGabriel'shead.

more emotionalfeeling for character."

nerism. In I524 he had embarked on a major ca-

reerin Romethatwas tragicallycut shortby the sack of the city by imperial troops in I527. From I527 to I539 he lived first in Bologna and then

againin Parma,leavingbehinda numberof altarpiecesand otherpaintings,as well as a great, unfinishedproject-the decorationof the apse and vault of the church of Santa Maria della Steccatain Parma. Parmigianinohad enormousinfluenceovera number of local artists,including his relative Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli (ca. I505-I569). The

two were togetherin Viadana,Bedoli'shome-

In the 1742 Althorp inventory, the sketch

was referredto as "The Salutationof Parmigianino." It escaped scholarlynotice for over two centuries; but in a 1974 publication about

the SpencerCollection, the authorrelatedit to Bedoli's altarpiece, and it was subsequently 59

0 7t

asa reducedreplicabythatartist.It catalogued was KeithChristiansen who seriouslyreconsideredthe sketch'seighteenth-century attributionto Parmigianino andsuggestedthatits character andqualityargueagainstitsbeingby Bedoliand insteadfor its beinga preparatory laterusedby Bedoli modelloby Parmigianino of the Viadanaaltarpiece. for the preparation Christiansen's argumentis builtarounda close the of discrepanciesbetween the reading sketchand the altarpieceand theirrespective X radiographs. The panelof the sketchwas andthroughoutit is mostly roughlyprepared, thinly painted, in swiftly applied,separate with greatverveand spontanebrushstrokes, ity. Someof the contours,suchas the fingers OPPOSITE

40. Attributedto Parmigianino (GirolamoFrancescoMariaMazzola; Parmese, I503-1540). TheAnnunciation. Oil on wood, 333/8 X 231/8 in.

(84.8x 58.7cm). Purchase,Gwynne AndrewsFund,JamesS. Deely Gift, specialfunds,and othergifts and bequests, by exchange,

I982

(1982.319)

41. Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli (Parmese, ca. o155-ca. I569). The Annunciation, ca. I539. Oil on canvas, 89 x 597/8 in. (226 x 152 cm).

MuseoNazionaledi Capodimonte, Naples

of theangel'slefthand,seemto havefirstbeen quicklydrawnor brushedin withblackinkor paint.Manysmallpentimenti,or changes,are visiblewith the nakedeye, andX radiographs have revealedothers,such as in the dove's wingsand the cloud behindthe angel'shead (see fig. 42).

As befitsa majorcommission,the altarpiece is far more finished and its surfaceless rough and spontaneous. However, its differences from the sketchmove well beyond those to be expectedbecauseof the differencein function of the two works.As Christiansenpointed out, the introduction of a tiled floor in the altarpiece has not resultedin a more persuasively suggestiveinteriorspace. Indeed, many of the

forms-notably, the dove and Gabriel'sleft arm-have been redrawnso that they seem parallelto the pictureplane, and numerous lesserelementsaresimilarlyplanarin appearance, leadingto an overallflatnessof effect. Beautifulelementspaintedwitha shimmering, loose touchin the sketch-above all, the sgabelloon whichtheVirgin'sworkbasket restsin the mostmundanefashion aretransformed in the possible altarpiece.Likewise,the Virgin's diaphanousgown becomesflatterand harderin Bedoli'sfinishedpainting.Finally, the vigorous,sureapplicationof paintseenin theX radiograph of thesketchis verydifferent indeedfromthe ratherdullhandlingvisiblein the Bedoli,where therewere no noticeable changesmadein theprocessof painting. These disparitiesin approachand facture stronglysuggestthatthe two paintingsareby differentartists.The questionremainswhether Annunciation the Metropolitan's is, in fact, a used by sketch by Parmigianino, preliminary Bedoliasthebasisof anotherwork;orwhether it is, rather,by a thirdartist,reactingto the altarpiece.Thereis eventhepossibilitythatboth sketchand altarpiecearebasedon a now lost workby Parmigianino. At the currentstagein ourknowledge,it is knot. difficultto cut throughthiscomplicated Severalfactorsareat workin favorof the attriThe brilliantlysure bution to Parmigianino. seenin the sketch, inventiveness and handling especiallyin details such as the unusual lectern,with its flickerof silhouettinglight, and the Virgin'shairornament,makeit clear the paintingis by a giftedartist.The waythat this artistwas thinkingas he workedon the panel-making changes,resolvingissues of space and light-suggests as well that the compositionwas beinginvented,ratherthan WeknowthatParmigianino painted replicated. to themin the modelli,as therearereferences inventoryof a collectionformedbyhispatron, a recentlypublished, Francesco Baiardo. Finally, monochromaticsketch of the Entombment withgoodreasonto Parmigianalsoattributed ino (JackS. BlantonMuseumof Art,Austin), principallydrawn with a brush in black ink 62 *

42. Attributedto Parmigianino.Annunciation.Detail of X radiograph,showingGabriel'storsoand head,and the dove above.The X radiographis notablefor the quickness and surenessof handlingof the paint that it reveals.A numberof changesbetweenthe underlayerand finallayer of the paint'ssurfacearevisiblein this detail:in the dove's left wing and in the swirling,cloudlikestrokesoverthe angel'shead.These passagesdemonstratethat the artist was changinghis mind aboutelementsof the pictureas he was paintingand makeit unlikelythat he was strictly copyingan existingwork.

with white heightening,resemblesthe visible Annunciation. drawnareasof theMetropolitan's Despitethis arrayof evidence,the attribuandsevertionhasnot gainedwideacceptance, al scholarshaveproposedartistsof subsequent andfromvariousplaces.Thoseprogenerations posedrangefromtheBologneseartistsProspero Fontana (I512-1597), Lavinia'sfather, and Giovanni AndreaDonducci (1575-I655), known as

artistsactive to northernEuropean Mastelletta, in Italy,such as the FlemishpainterJossvan Winghe (ca. I544-I603). The suggestions for a

laterdate areinspiredby elementsof the painting'sappearance:the elaborationof the surfaces and forms,Gabriel'sexceedinglyunrealproportions, and the awkwardarticulationof his body.

Thesecharacteristics couldpointto a latermomentin Mannerist painting.So farnoneof the otherproposedattributions has founda consensus,althoughthe ideathatthe sketchmay havebeenpaintedby a Flemishartistactivein Parmais a fascinating one. Thus, the author-

ship of this intriguingand quite beautiful sketchis stillunresolved. It remainsimportant as a testamentto the impactof Parmigianino's into the art,with its graziaandsophistication, nextgeneration andwellbeyondthebordersof hisnativeregion.*

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thankPhyllisMassarandAndaleebBantafor theirassistancewith the researchon this Bulletin,and EverettFahyfor his encouragement.KeithChristiansenreadthe manuscriptand mademanyvaluablesuggestions,includingadvisingme to readEdithWharton'stravelbook. Above all, I would like to acknowledgeCharlotteHale'sparticipationin this projectand her carefulstudy and interpretationof the technicalaspectsof the paintings.A.B.

NOTES

p. 9 wellintothenextcenturyForan introductionto the issueof copyingthe CambraiMadonnain Flemishart, see the entryon DiericBouts'sVirginand Childby M[ary]S[prinson]d[e]J[esus]in MaryanW.Ainsworth andKeithChristiansen,eds., FromVanEyckto Bruegel: Museum EarlyNetherlandish Paintingin TheMetropolitan exh. The Museum of New cat., Art, Metropolitan ofArt, York (New York, 1998), pp. 103-4. Keith Christiansen's

essayin the samecatalogue,"TheViewfromItaly"(pp. of Flemish 39-6I), providesan overviewof the importance Italianartists. paintingto fifteenth-century p. ii "repose of theVirginslife"RogerFry,"Exhibitionof Old Mastersat the GraftonGalleries,"TheBurlington 20 (1911-12), p. 77. MagazineforConnoisseurs p. 13 Godin humanform DavidAlanBrown,in hisAndrea Solario(Milan, 1987), p. 238, analyzesthe architectureof

ChristBlessing in termsof its funeraryassociations and comparesit withrelateddesignsby Bramantino. p. 14 Marco d'Oggionoand GiovanniAntonio Boltraffio

Leonardo's complaintaboutSalalis in MS C, fol. I5r,in the Institutde France,Paris. anatomist's touch"Foran Englishtranslap. 14 "miraculous tion of the Longhiquotation,see PietroMarani,"The Questionof Leonardo's Bottega:PracticesandtheTransmissionof Leonardo's Ideason ArtandPainting,"in The Legacyof Leonardo:Paintersin Lombardy,I490-1530, ed. Francesco Porzio (Milan, 1998), p. Io.

andcareThe elaboratejewelryof the p. I6 utmostprecision periodin Milanis discussedby PaolaVenturelliin several articlesandbooks,includingGioiellie Gioiellieri Milanesi: Storia, arte, moda, I450-1630 (Milan, 1996) and "I gioielli

di Salome," Achademia Leonardi Vinci10 (I997), pp. 202-7. p. i6 to theNew Testament ageofgraceA good introduction to the issuessurroundingthe figureof Salomecanbe foundin VictoriaS. Reed,"RogiervanderWeyden's SaintJohnTriptych forMirafloresanda Reconsideration of Salome,"Oud-HollandII5, no. I (200I-2), pp. 1-14, esp. pp. 6-8.

p. i6 duringtheseexactyearsPaolaVenturellinotesMaria TeresaBinaghiOlivari'srecognitionof a connectionbetweentheAmboisefamilyandits rolein the orderof the with the popularityof Knightsof SaintJohnof Jerusalem the themeof Salomeandthe headof Johnthe Baptistin "I gioielli di Salome," p. 204, n. 25.

p. 16 currentin his milieu For the "laughing Pomona" described by Lomazza, see Angela Ottino della Chiesa, The CompletePaintings ofLeonardoda Vinci (New York, 1967), p. 112,no. 65. p. 19 mythology and Roman historySee Pietro Marani, "Giovan Pietro Rizzoli, called Giampietrino," in The LegacyofLeonardo,pp. 275-30I; and Franco Moro, "Divinita femminili del Giampietrino," Achademia LeonardiVinci 6 (1993), pp. 90-94. p. 23 iprecedenti di Caravaggio(Caravaggio'spredecessors) Roberto Longhi discussed the influence of Brescianpainting on later Lombard art, and on Caravaggioin particular, in a number of articles, most importantly "Cose bresciane del Cinquecento," LArte 20 (I917), pp. 99-114, reprinted in Operecompletedi RobertoLonghi,vol. I, Scrittigiovanili, 1912-I922, pt. I (Florence, 1961), pp. 327-43; and "Quesiti caravaggeschi,"pt. 2, "I precedenti," Pinacotheca5-6 (1928-29), pp. 258-320, reprinted in Opere 1928-I934 complete,vol. 4, Mepinxit e quesiticaravaggeschi, (Florence,1968),pp. 82-143. p. 26 city of Bresciaor its territoryAlessandro Nova, GirolamoRomanino(Turin, 1994), pp. 308-9. p. 26 churchof San Domenico Maggiore Keith Christiansen in TheMetropolitanMuseum ofArt. RecentAcquisitions:A Selection,189-1990, p. 37 p. 27 contrastoflight and shadow J[oseph] A[rcher] Crowe and G [iovanni] B[attista] Cavalcaselle,A Historyof Painting in North Italy: Venice,Padua, Vicenza, Verona,Ferrara, Milan, Friuli, Brescia,from the Fourteenthto the Sixteenth Century,ed. TancredBorenius(London, 1912), vol. 3, p. 300. p. 30 one of itsprincipal contributionsThe development of religious reform groups in Brescia, and Moretto's affiliation with them, has been explored in detail by Valerio Guazzoni in Moretto:II tema sacro(Brescia, 1981);in "De potestate Pontificis: Riflessi tridentini nell'opera tarda del Moretto," in AlessandroBonvicino:II Moretto, exh. cat., Monastero di Santa Giulia, Brescia (Brescia, 1988), pp. 264-73; and in "Temi religiosi e contenuti devozionali," in Pittura del Cinquecentoa Brescia(Milan, 1986), pp. 21-31.

p. 30 decidedagainstthepurchase Charles Eastlake'scomments are from his unpublished notebook for 1862, photocopied in the archivesof the Department of European Paintings,The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

- 63

p. 34 complimentfromthe Venetian Carlo Ridolfi, Delle Maraviglie delleArte.... (Venice, I648), p. I3I.

p. 36 "Convent of St.AnnaatAlbino...." LionelloVenturi, Italian Paintings in America, trans. Countess van den Heuvel and Charles Marriott, vol. 3 (New York, I933), plate 537. p. 36 whereBonghi servedas rectorfromI552 to I553 The early literature, in which the sitter and the author of the book were identified, is summarized in Federico Zeri, with Elizabeth E. Gardner, Italian Paintings:A Catalogue

MuseumofArt,vol. 4, of theCollection of TheMetropolitan North Italian School(New York, 1986), pp. 46-47.

thatmomentSee PeterHumfrey, p. 36 datedpaintingsfrom GiovanniBattistaMoroni,Renaissance exh. Portraitist, cat., Kimbell Art Museum (Forth Worth, 2002), cat. no. 8, p. 69. p. 40 emphasizeshis limitations For Vasari'sbiography of Francia, see Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Painters,Sculptors andArchitects,trans. Gaston du C. de Vere (New York, I996), vol. I, pp. 578, 582, 620. p. 40 rathermoreharshly For Michelangelo'scriticalremarks about Francia,see Vasari'sbiography of the former in Lives of the Painters,vol. 2, p. 664. p. 42 yet somehowempty See Arduino Colasanti, "Una tavola di Francesco Francia,"RassegnadArte 5 (I905), p. I89. p. 43 commissionedthis specialportrait For Isabella'scommission, see especially the remarkablebook by Julia

ofMantua, Cartwright,Isabellad'Este,Marchioness i474-i539: A Study of the Renaissance(New York, I915),

pp. 379-81. The letters are published in full in Emilio Negro and Nicosetta Roio, FrancescoFranciae la sua scuola (Mantua, 1998), pp. II6-I8. p. 47 "theirtruestand bestresults"Crowe and Cavalcaselle, A HistoryofPainting in North Italy,vol. 2, p. 279.

p. 47 'showered benefitson her,protectedher"Forthe 1678 quotation from Carlo Cesare Malvasia, see Vera Fortunati, ed., Lavinia Fontana, 1552-1614, exh. cat. (Bologna, 1994), p. 32. For the various portraits on copper, see Vera Fortunati Pietrantonio, "LaviniaFontana," in Pittura bolognesedel 00o,vol. 2 (Bologna, I986), p. 728. p. 49 a promise to do it" For Alfonso's patronage of the arts, see Andrea Bayer, "Dosso's Public: The Este Court

in DossoDossi:CourtPainterin Renaissance at Ferrara," Ferrara,exh. cat. (Ferraraand New York, I998-99), pp. 27-49. In the same catalogue, Dosso Dossi's Three AgesofMan is catalogued by Peter Humfrey on pp. 110-I3.

p. 53 paintingsof Saint ohn theBaptistandMichaelthe ArchangelSeeZeri,ItalianPaintings,NorthItalian School,pp.

for information on the altarpiece.

23-25,

p. 54 all toofrequentexampleForinformationon Saint Nicholasof Tolentinoandhis miracles,see RobertoTollo andElenaBisacci,eds., SanNicolada Tolentino e le Marche:Cultoe arte(Tolentino,I999). Vasari's remarks on Girolamo p. 55 "thebestofthemodern" da Carpiarein thatartist'sLife,vol. 2, p. 452; his discussion of Correggioand Romein his Lifeof Correggio,vol. i, p. 646.

p. 56 hisresiduary legateeMelchiorFassi'swillsarepublishedin CecilGould, ThePaintingsofCorreggio (London, 1976), pp. I77-80, and their implications are discussed by

the sameauthorin TheAgeof Correggio and theCarracci: EmilianPaintingof theSixteenthandSeventeenth Century, exh. cat. (Washington,D.C., New York,and Bologna, (London 1986),p. 98. SeealsoDavidEkserdjian, Correggio and New York, 1997), pp. 52-57.

toperform" A. EdithHewett,"TwoPictures p. 59 "delighted fromtheAshburtonCollection;A Portraitof Eleonora of Spainattributedto JeanClouet,"TheBurlington Magazine 12, no. 59 (FebruaryI908), p. 303.

character" p. 59 "emotionalfeelingfor RogerFry'sletterto BrysonBurroughsis in DenysSutton,ed., Lettersof Roger Fry (New York, 1972), vol. I, pp. 295-96. p. 6I preparation oftheViadana altarpieceKeithChristiansen

in TheAgeof Correggio and theCarracci, pp. I74-76; the Bedolialtarpieceappearsin the sameexhibitionwith an entryby LuciaFornariSchianchi,pp. 70-72. p. 63 quitebeautifulsketchis stillunresolved Dissenting viewsaboutthe attributionto Parmigianino includeS. J. in the exhibition problems Freedberg,"Parmigianino (andrelatedmatters)"in EmilianPaintingof thei6th and A Symposium i7th Centuries: [CASVA,Washington, D.C.] (Bologna, 1987), pp. 44-46 (as by Bedoli); Nicole

Dacos,"Latappaemilianadei pittorifiamminghie qualcheineditodi JossvanWinghe,"in LelioOrsie la Bentini(Bologna, culturadelsuotempo,ed. Jadranka 1990),pp. 35-40 (asby the FlemishartistJossvan Winghe);AnnaColiva,"Gliaffreschidei palazzidi Polie di Bolsena:ProsperoFontananell'ambitodellecommittenzefarnesiane," Bollettinod5Arte, nos. 80-8I (JulyOctoberI993),pp. 52-53(asby the BologneseProspero Fontana);andMariaCristinaChiusa,Parmigianino (Milan, 200I), p. 212 (as possibly by the Bolognese artist

AndreaDonducci,"IIMastelletta").

64 *

Infraredphotographyof reveals Solario'sChristBlessing a networkof drawnlinesin the architectural portionof the image;otherlineswere incisedinto the gessoand can be seenin a rakinglight. Together,they indicatethe perspectival gridof orthogonals,andof linesparallelto the pictureplane,thatthe artistdrewin orderto createa convincingpictorialspaceand to measurethe positionsof the elements. architectural

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