Chapter 1 Introduction

I shall examine actually came from Carona. In fact, on one occasion an associate is said to be from Campione on the opposite shore of Lake Lugano. In the event, the number of stonecarvers who emigrated chiefly to Milan in the first half of the fifteenth century from the shores of Lake Lugano was legion; indeed, for centuries no equally circumscribed a zone was as productive of major architects and sculptors as this one. It is therefore not unlikely that many of the sculptors with whom we shall deal and who found employment in the shop widely known as having been run by Andrea da Giona and Filippo Solari da Carona did come from the Luganese, if not precisely from Carona.

Carona is found at approximately the center of the peninsula that descends from the north into Lake Lugano, closed off on the northeast by Lugano and on the northwest by Agno; at the southern tip is Morcote. At an altitude of 599 meters and about a kilometer from the peninsula’s eastern shore, with a view of the lake, Carona sits on a ridge that connects Mt. San Salvatore in the north and the western slope of Mt. Arbostora in the south. A visitation of the parish church of Carona in 1591 counted 125 households containing 600 inhabitants, of which 300 communicated. At a distance of 1.2 kilometers to the north – a quarter of an hour by foot - was the hamlet of Giona with its five households, 20 inhabitants, and 12 communicants.2 Already at the beginning of the Quattrocento, Caronese documents record the surnames of families who eventually would gain renown as sculptors: Aprile, Della Scala, Solari, Casella.3 In the Middle Ages Carona, together with Giona, formed a castellano of the Bishop of Como; 4 it was the main city of its circolo of thirteen communes, which included Melide and Morcote5 and in 1427, SS. Giorgio e Andrea in Carona was designated a parish church.6 While internecine hostilities raged between Guelfs (sustained by the pope and allied with the dukedom of Milan) and Ghibellines (sustained by the Holy roman emperor) in the Tre- and Quattrocento, Carona remained loyal to the Guelfs, thereby obtaining from Duke Filippo Maria Visconti in 1414 recognition of Carona’s separation from Lugano, along with a proper coat of arms and a seal, and exemption from customs duties and excise taxes as well as the maintenance of Como’s state roads.7

Carona was heavily forested with beeches, which provided both wood and charcoal. The cultivation of chestnuts for food and animal feed and for posts to support vines, also contributed importantly to the economy of the Luganese. Most unforested land was pasture used for animal husbandry; crops, vineyards, and orchards occupied the small amount of arable land.8 Close by, were quarries

2. Atti della Visita Pastorale di F. Feliciano Ninguarda, (1589-1898)1903/1992, II, pp. 411-413. A visitation of Carona made in the same year by SS. Giorgio e Andrea’s vice-curate also counted 125 hearths, more than 500 inhabitants and 300 communicants: ibid., p. 412, n. 1. 3. Cotti, Boll. stor. della Svizzera italiana, 1967, pp. 60-61. 4. The castellanza denoted a community of several towns, sometimes widely dispersed, which looked to a castle for protection. The castle, therefore, was maintained by its subject towns, for which see O. Camponovo, Arch. stor. ticinese, 1960, p. 108. 5. Zuccagni-Orlandini, VII, 1840, pp. 287-288, no. 12. 6. Bianchi in Bianchi and Agustoni, 2002, p.55. 7. Schaefer, 1954, pp. 8, 319-320, 347; Bianchi in Bianchi and Agustoni, 2002, p. 5. 8. Vismara et. al., 1990, pp. 31, 204.

CATALOGUE

1. Àvesa (VR), San Martino, cappella invernale: crowning of a triptych;

Verona, Museo di Castelvecchio:

St. Martin and the Beggar

Plates 1-8

The crowning of the triptych in San Martino, Àvesa (Pls. 1-5), consists of three mixtilineal gables embellished with wind-blown acanthus and surmounting segmental arches enclosing scallop shells. The central gable is considerably larger than the lateral gables and contains a representation of the Crucifixion in high relief (Pl. 5). Christ’s cross is flanked by two Angels; the one on the right is mourning, while the one on the left extends a chalice towards the wound in Christ’s chest. “Y H S” (Jesus) is inscribed in a cartello at the top of the cross. The Virgin Mary and St. John the Evangelist sit on the rocky ground beneath the cross. Rising from the foliated pinnacle of the central gable is a halflength, freestanding figure of God the Father (Pl. 4). With his left hand he presses a large volume to his body; before its loss, his right hand was raised in blessing. His eye sockets are now filled with stucco. In the right gable is a relief of the Prophet Isaiah in half-length (Pl. 3), holding a cartello on which “ECCE VIRGO CO/NCIPIET ET PARIE[t filium]” (Isaiah 7, 14) is inscribed in Gothic majuscules. On the left is a relief of two superimposed kneeling women wearing cloaks that cover their heads (Pl. 2). Unfurled against the background in front of them is a cartello inscribed: “STATVIT hOC D(omi)NA BEA/TRIX P(riorissa); LOCI hVIVS”. The crowning measures 204 cm in height by 220 cm in width. The lateral panels measure 86 cm by 58.5 - 59 cm and the Crucifixion is 103 cm in width. All pinnacles, as well as lateral finials are missing. The crowning is carved from tufo veronese - a calcareous limestone relatively light in weight and easy to carve - quarried not far from Àvesa;1 seams divide the central Crucifixion from the lateral panels with their traceried lesenes. The entire surface is badly cracked, chipped and abraded. Disfiguring traces of polychromy and gilding cover nearly the entire surface.

The high relief of St. Martin and the Beggar (Pls. 6-8) is found on the ground floor of the Museo di Castelvecchio at Verona (inv. 678/4B55). An extremely youthful St. Martin at the center of the square relief is mounted on a stationary horse. Over a long-sleeved shirt, the bareheaded Saint wears a short tunic whose one visible sleeve is rolled above his elbow, while a sword hangs from his belt; his perfectly centered and unforeshortened halo emerges from the background in low relief. (Its upper quarter is found at the base of the scallop shell beneath the Àvesa Crucifixion.) His cloak, which falls over the neck and shoulder of the horse, was originally grasped by the beggar, naked but for underpants. Intended as St. Martin’s attribute, he is considerably smaller in scale than the protagonist. Horse and beggar stand on a narrow ledge formed by the bottom of the relief. There is no setting, but the background, which curves forward very slightly at right and left edges, was painted. Between the legs of the horse, a cartello, outlined in the painted background, is incised “Mo . CCCCo . XXXo VI .” in Gothic majuscules. The rear of the relief has not been smoothed. The forward leg of the beggar and the forward left leg of the horse, as well as the reins, are freestanding. There is finely incised decoration on the cuffs of St. Martin’s shirt, his belt and the border of his tunic, the mane and tail of the horse, the saddle cloth and the horse’s harness. The beggar has lost most of his outer foot, most of his left forearm and hand, and all of his right arm, although a fragment of his right hand remains attached to the cloak. St. Martin’s nose is chipped and he is missing his right hand, his left index finger and his foot along with his stirrup. The surface is chipped throughout - most seriously in the borders - and the stone is fissured in the horse’s rear leg, rump and tail and in the background on the upper right. Many remains of polychromy survive.2 The relief measures 102.5 cm by 102.5 cm. Gaetano Peretti’s 1979 history of these two reliefs was turned to account by Tiziana Franco in 2007.3 On the basis of the inscriptions, both historians traced the triptych’s patronage in or around 1436 to Beatrice di Bartolomeo

da Bussolengo, prioress of the convent of San Martino at Àvesa from 1423 to 1453.4 A breve apostolica of Pope Eugene IV appointed Beatrice abbess in 1441 or 1442.5 Before San Martino was razed by the Venetians in 1518, our triptych presumably occupied the high altar. The location of the triptych in the new church, built between 1523 and 1530,6 is unknown, but in 1909 Luigi Simeoni saw the crowning immured in the campanile.7 In 1898 the relief of St. Martin was removed from the façade of the church at Àvesa8 and by 1903 was installed in the Museo di Castelvecchio.9 In 2018 Aldo Galli convincingly identified the relief of St. Jerome as Father of the Church in the Bode Museum, Berlin (Pl. 18), as belonging to the Àvesa altarpiece.10 In fact, St. Jerome must have constituted the altarpiece’s left wing.

Venturi thought the author of San Martino was Veronese; Simeoni and Magagnato, Tuscan.11 Peretti assigned the triptych in Àvesa to Nanni di Bartolo.12 Although he did not know the sculpture in Àvesa, Gentilini listed the relief of San Martino as a product of the Solari shop in an unpublished lecture presented in mid-June 1994 at Villa Spelman in Florence and included it in his published essay on the Borromeo Tomb on Isola Bella.13 His attribution persuaded Franco,14 Vinco,15 Rovetta,16 and Galli;17 clearly, it applies equally to all components of the altarpiece. Beuing, on the other hand, pointed out the great differences between St. Martin’s horse and the horse of the Spinola Monument in Genoa and was therefore unwilling to count the relief within the group of works that included the Tomb of Giovanni Borromeo.18 In view of my attribution of the Spinola horse (Pl. 207) to a Genoese sculptor, I have no difficulty locating the Àvesa altarpiece within the canon of the maestri caronesi. Bibl.: Àvesa, San Martino: Simeoni, 1909, p. 367; Peretti in Àvesa, 1979, pp. 154, 158; Rognini in ibid., p. 243; Marchini in Chiese e monasteri, 1981, fig. on p. 544.; Franco in Il cielo…Mariusz, 2007, pp. 41-45; Vinco, Prospettiva, Apr. 2010, p. 24 n. 13; Galli in I monumenti Spinola, 2018, pp. 90, 99 n. 40; Galli in DBI, XCIII, 2018, pp. 136-137 Bibl.: Verona, Museo di Castelvecchio: Toesca, L’arte, 1903, p. 231; Venturi, Storia, VI, 1908, p. 97; Simeoni, 1909, p. 367; Magagnato, (1962)1991, p. 85; Cuppini in Verona e il suo territorio, III, pt. 2, 1969, p. 285; Peretti in Àvesa, 1979, pp. 154, 158; Rognini in ibid., p. 243; Marinelli, (1983)1991, pp. 20/25; Ericani in Pisanello, exh. cat., 1996, p. 348; Gentilini in Scultura lombarda, 1996, pp. 73, 74, 76; Francesca Rossi in Pisanello. I luoghi, 1996, p. 113; Franco in Medioevo: arte lombarda, 2001/2004, p. 306; Franco in Il cielo…Mariusz, 2007, pp. 41-45; Beuing, 2010, pp. 95-96, n. 283; Rovetta in Storia dell’arte a Varese, II, pt. 1, 2011, p. 337; Galli in DBI, XCIII, 2018, pp. 136-137; Galli in I monumenti Spinola, 2018, pp. 90, 99 n. 40

1. Rodolico, 21965, p, 114. 2. Marinelli, 1991, p. 25, gives an ample description of the polychromy, which has faded a good deal since he wrote. 3. Peretti in Àvesa, 1979, pp. 154, 158; Franco in Il cielo… Mariusz, 2007, pp. 39-45. 4. Carrara in Àvesa, 1979, pp. 192-193. In 1429 Beatrice was named priora perpetua. I do not know what order the convent belonged to in 1436; at the behest of Ermolao Barbaro (Bishop of Verona, 1453-1471), its rule was changed to that of St. Augustine by Pope Paul II (1464-1471), for which see Peretti in Àvesa, 1979, p. 158. 5. Peretti in Àvesa, p. 158, gives the year as 1441; Carrara in ibid., pp. 192-193, as 1442. 6. Peretti in Àvesa, 1979, p. 159. 7. Simeoni, 1909, p. 367. 8. Rognini in Àvesa, 1979, p. 243, n. 7. 9. Toesca, L’arte, 1903, p. 231. 10. Galli in I monumenti Spinola, 2018, p. 99 n. 40. For the relief, see below cat. 3. 11. Venturi, Storia, VI, 1908, p. 977; Simeoni, 1909, p. 367; Magagnato, (1962)1991, p. 85. 12. Peretti in Àvesa, 1979, p. 154. 13. Gentilini, “Tra le Alpi e il mare: un’ipotesi sui percorsi e l’identità del ‘Maestro dei Mascoli’”, Convegno di studi Quattrocento adriatico, Florence, The Johns Hopkins Center for Italian Studies. 16-17 June 1994; Gentilini in Scultura lombarda, 1996, pp. 73, 74. 14. Franco in Il cielo…Mariusz, 2007, pp. 39-44. 15. Vinco, Prospettiva, Apr. 2010, p. 24 n. 13. 16. Rovetta in Storia dell’arte a Varese, II, pt. 1, 2011, p. 337. 17. Galli in I monumenti Spinola, 2018, p. 99 n. 40. 18. Beuing, 2010, p. 96, n. 283.

2. Bergamo, Palazzo Bellosguardo-

Pellicioli: Madonna and Child

Enthroned between SS. Peter and

Paul

Pls. 9-17

The Madonna and Child Enthroned between SS. Peter and Paul is immured on the façade of Palazzo Bellosguardo-Pellicioli at Via Dipinta 29 in the upper town of Bergamo. Carved in high relief from Istrian limestone, the relief, without its frame, measures 123.5 cm in height by 146.5 cm in width. Although the square billet molding of the frame and the style of the relief agree, the frame is much better preserved than the relief itself. As it happens, a photograph taken in Venice by the Ditta Carlo Naya between 1860 and 1918 (no. 2421) shows the relief without any frame at all.1 The relief depicts the Madonna seated on a slightly elevated throne whose shallowly curved backrest is crowned by a semicircular scallop shell contained within a rectangle (Pl. 11). Vertical supports consist of lesenes with recessed panels; the seat slopes down and each lateral face of the base beneath the footrest (not visible in the illustration) is decorated with a tablet flower. Along the front of the base there unfurls a scroll on which is inscribed in Gothic minuscules: “Hec cappella cum suo alta/ri est S. petri francho . q[uon] da[m] / Ser Nicholai: 1ccccxl9” (Pl. 10). The Madonna wears a long mantle that covers her head and a dress belted beneath her breasts. The Christ Child, dressed in an ankle-length tunic, stands on her proper left thigh. Both figures are turned very slightly to their right as the Madonna extends her arm towards St. Peter kneeling in the place of honor on her right (Pl. 12). Ostensibly ignored, St. Paul kneels on her left (Pl. 13). Both Saints are garbed in long tunics and mantles and St. Paul is barefoot. St. Peter’s key dangles from a cord around his left upper arm. The sword with which St. Paul was martyred stands without support on the far right. Both figures gaze upward and raise their arms in wonder, as though at a divine apparition above the Madonna’s head. But there is no reason to think that anything is missing: probably the Saints were intended to be focusing on the Madonna’s face. Above the Saints two Angels in smaller scale hover in attitudes of devotion (Pls. 16, 17).

The Christ Child’s head is probably original, although the Naya photograph shows it missing. When I photographed the relief in 1995 its condition was as follows. The throne’s upper right corner was the result of restoration and the decoration of the left spandrel was gone. The nose of the Madonna and the arms of the Christ Child were pieced at some point, but by then were missing. The border of the Madonna’s cloak was chipped above the head of the Christ Child and her right thumb was lost. St. Peter’s nose was cracked through, while the lock of hair over his right eye was badly chipped and most of the last four fingers of his right hand were missing. His right foot was lost and his base was badly mutilated. St. Paul’s nose was also cracked through and the tip of his beard was chipped. He had lost the thumb of his right hand and the last toe of his left foot. The nose of the angel above St. Peter was chipped and its tip was badly fissured. The nose of the other angel was also in a precarious state and it had lost all the fingers of both hands. Vertical seams made, I assumed, when the relief was moved, ran down the sides of the throne dividing into three what was initially probably a single slab. The surface was badly abraded and nicked throughout.

The contract, in fulfillment of which our relief was made, was quoted by Bartolomeo Cecchetti and published by Pietro Paoletti in the late nineteenth century,2 but the sculpture itself entered the art historical literature only in 1992 in the dissertation of Richard Stemp who, ignorant of its history, nevertheless assigned it to the workshop of Filippo Solari and Andrea da Carona.3 In 1997 I elucidated its provenance on the basis of its inscription, archival documents, and pastoral visitations.4 At the time, the relief was immured on the façade of the Pellicioli-Bellosguardo Palace, whose restoration by the well-known restorer, Mauro Pellicioli (1887-1974), was completed in 1947.5 The existence of the Naya photograph makes it likely that the relief was acquired in Venice where, in fact, Pellicioli worked for over thirty years. The inscription states that the chapel with its altar (for which, obviously, the altarpiece was made) belonged to Pietro di Nicolò Franco and dated from 1449. A member of a minor Venetian patriciate family, Pietro di Nicolò Franco (d. 7 October 14516) made provision for his burial on the façade of S. Pietro di Castello, the cathedral church of Venice, in his testa-

Late Gothic Sculpture in Northern Italy: Andrea Da Giona and i Maestri Caronesi:

an addition to tHe PantHeon of venetian sculPtors

anne markHam scHulz

volume two • illustrations

HarveY miller PuBlisHers

PLATES

7. Detail, St. Martin, St. Martin and the Beggar, Museo di Castelvecchio, Verona

8. Detail, St. Martin, St. Martin and the Beggar, Museo di Castelvecchio, Verona

14. Detail, St. Peter, Madonna and Child Enthroned…, Palazzo Bellosguardo-Pellicioli, Bergamo