Monografie & Curatele by Francesco Ceretti
Seemingly antithetical, wonder, reality, and enigma are in fact distinctive and deeply interconne... more Seemingly antithetical, wonder, reality, and enigma are in fact distinctive and deeply interconnected traits within the prismatic expressive universe that defines the artistic experience of Pietro Bellotti (1625-1700). An eccentric and nonconformist painter unlike most of his contemporaries, Bellotti succeeded in astonishing and distinguishing himself within the competitive Venetian art scene of the mid-seventeenth century. His style was marked by a strong commitment to rendering the real, sometimes verging on a kind of hyperrealism ante litteram.
The pronounced naturalistic tendency of his works - whose protagonists are often elderly men and women - initially merged with fascinating allegorical and esoteric subjects, highly appreciated by his contemporaries and celebrated in literary sources. After his travels to Munich (1668-1669) and Milan (c. 1673-1675), and during his prestigious tenure as superintendent of the Gonzaga galleries in Mantua (1681-1691), the painter turned increasingly toward genre themes. The works from the latter part of his career thus center on representations of beggars, pilgrims, and common folk - the “least” of society - depicted with striking optical truth and, above all, with dignity and empathy, as if to ennoble their condition. In this sense, these works acquire profound human and moral resonance, allowing us, in many respects, to link Pietro Bellotti to the so-called “painting of reality,” viewing him as a precursor to the memorable artistic current that would later find one of its greatest exponents in Lombardy in Giacomo Ceruti.
Retracing the trajectory of this master - and addressing some of the interpretative enigmas that still surround his life and career - the exhibition organized at the Gallerie dell’Accademia, along with its accompanying catalogue, offers an unmissable opportunity to explore the vibrant and multifaceted figurative culture of seventeenth-century Venice. The show brings together masterpieces from prestigious national and international museums, alongside recent acquisitions by the Italian Ministero della Cultura.
In addition to essays by the curators, which chart the artist’s career, the volume features contributions by leading scholars examining Bellotti’s critical and collecting fortune, as well as the deeper meanings of his works. The book concludes with detailed catalogue entries for over fifty exhibited works, an extraordinary visual atlas, and a documentary register that together aim to become an essential reference for understanding the oeuvre of this fascinating yet still underexplored artist.
Throughout the twentieth century, many scholars have focused on the figure of the Cremonese paint... more Throughout the twentieth century, many scholars have focused on the figure of the Cremonese painter Altobello Melone in an effort to define his artistic identity. With his anti-classical, eccentric, and “Ponentine” temperament, Altobello played a central role in the artistic landscape of early sixteenth-century northern Italy, so much so that his contemporary Marcantonio Michiel described him as a “young man of good instinct and disposition in painting.”
Following in the footsteps of Roberto Longhi’s seminal 1917 essay “Cose bresciane del Cinquecento,” Altobello soon became a testing ground for the keen eye of the connoisseurs active in the latter half of the twentieth century. Through their efforts, a corpus gradually took shape: one that still recognizes as its cornerstone the frescoes executed in the Cathedral of Cremona between 1517 and 1518. Yet, despite his acknowledged centrality within the panorama of Po Valley Renaissance painting - and beyond - the divergence of opinions among art historians has led, even recently, to viewpoints so radically different as to hinder the realization of a comprehensive monograph capable of capturing the full arc of the master’s career. In short, the debate needed to pause until the time was ripe to once again cast light on Altobello and finally assemble the first monographic catalogue of his oeuvre.
This volume - born of many years of research devoted to gathering new information about the painter and revising earlier findings - includes an essay on his biography and stylistic evolution, a study of his critical reception, and a register of documents, some previously unpublished. All works attributable to the artist and his circle, about fifty in total and preserved in major museums worldwide, have been catalogued, arranged chronologically, and illustrated in color photographs.
The Old Commoner Woman was long one of the “mysteries” of attribution within seventeenth-century ... more The Old Commoner Woman was long one of the “mysteries” of attribution within seventeenth-century genre painting. Never publicly exhibited before entering the Sorlini Collection, it comes from the collection of the Marquis of Casa Torres in Madrid, where it was traditionally attributed to the Spanish painter Diego Velázquez. Following the studies of Francesco Ceretti, the work is now definitively attributed to Pietro Bellotti. The painting represents a key episode in understanding the extraordinary achievements reached by Giacomo Ceruti, author of the Old Peasant Woman in the Sorlini Collection, the highest expression of eighteenth-century European pauperist painting.
The dossier is dedicated to one of the most important masters of sixteenth-century Brescia: Girol... more The dossier is dedicated to one of the most important masters of sixteenth-century Brescia: Girolamo Romani, known as Romanino (Brescia, c. 1485–1560). His artistic journey - among the most fascinating and compelling in the history of Italian art - begins under the influence of the artistic centers of Milan and Venice, and of painters such as Bramantino and Titian, whose lessons Romanino absorbed and transformed through the naturalistic sensibility typical of the Brescian school. An anti-classical verve distinguishes the artist from his earliest works, setting him in competition with another great Brescian painter of the time, Moretto. The two were engaged for over twenty years in decorating the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament in the church of San Giovanni Evangelista in Brescia.
Within the volume, special attention is devoted to Romanino’s most authentic vocation, that of a fresco painter. It was during the 1530s, through a succession of fresco cycles in Trento, Rodengo, and Val Camonica, that the painter fully expressed his “dialectal” and anti-classical style, defiantly in “revolt” against the ideals of the Italian Renaissance.
The final phase of his career is marked by his professional relationship with the Brescian painter Lattanzio Gambara, a leading exponent of Mannerism in the city and heir to Romanino’s workshop following his marriage to Romanino’s daughter, Margherita.
Completing the dossier is a detailed analysis of the rediscovery and critical appreciation of Romanino in the second half of the twentieth century, when the artist became the focus of major exhibitions and debates involving some of the most authoritative voices in Italian art criticism and literature, Giovanni Testori and Pier Paolo Pasolini.
The volume explores the works of the Lombard painter Giacomo Ceruti held in the Luciano Sorlini c... more The volume explores the works of the Lombard painter Giacomo Ceruti held in the Luciano Sorlini collection: The Old Peasant Woman, The Bravo, and Diana and the Nymphs Surprised by Actaeon. These works bear witness to the artist’s early Brescian production and his mature Milanese phase. The analysis will focus on Ceruti’s stylistic evolution during his transition from Lombardy to the Veneto, from the “beggar” period to the luminous Venetian phase.
Dare vita ad una nuova avventura editoriale è sempre stimolante; in questo caso la nostra Galleri... more Dare vita ad una nuova avventura editoriale è sempre stimolante; in questo caso la nostra Galleria esplora il complesso e appassionante tema dell’approfondimento monografico iniziando dai Nuvolone, famiglia di pittori di origine cremonese, ma milanese de facto, estremamente rappresentativa per la nostra storia.
Curiosamente, fu infatti con l’acquisto di un dipinto di Carlo Francesco Nuvolone che nostro padre iniziò a coltivare, più di cinquant’anni fa, la sua passione per la pittura antica, che poi ci trasmise e divenne in seguito il fulcro della nostra professione.
Da sempre riconosciuti ed apprezzati, anche grazie ad una prolificità che li ha resi in media facilmente intercettabili sul mercato dell’arte, i Nuvolone - Panfilo, il padre e Carlo Francesco e Giuseppe i figli più noti - rappresentano non soltanto un esempio di eccellente talento artistico unito ad un concetto di bottega quasi «artigiana», precorritrice della notoria laboriosità meneghina, ma anche la fotografia di un momento storico della Lombardia e in particolare di Milano, avvolta dalla cortina della controriforma e ancora assoggettata alla Spagna. Solo Giuseppe riuscirà ad assistere all’alba della Milano dei Savoia, dato che morirà nel 1703, tre anni dopo Carlo II di Spagna.
L’evoluzione di questi artisti contestualizzata nel momento storico è ben descritta nel prezioso saggio di Francesco Ceretti, giovane e preparato studioso, che va ad analizzare e confrontare gli scritti precedentemente dedicati agli artisti, andando a mettere a fuoco le problematiche principali e scioglierne i nodi in maniera analitica, evitando di cadere nella tentazione della supposizione, sempre in agguato del mondo della storia dell’arte. A tal proposito si aggiunge un interessante e chiarificante capitolo sulla natura morta di area nuvoloniana, argomento complesso e discusso, basato più su sensazioni che su documentazione o confronti, venendo qui a proporre le opere che nel corso degli anni sono state attribuite ai figli più celebri di Panfilo da pur eccellenti studiosi. Come spiega Ceretti, non vi sono ad oggi prove documentali di opere del genere da parte di Carlo Francesco e di Giuseppe, ma appare evidente la correlazione con l’ambiente nuvoloniano e l’area di provenienza milanese - lombarda delle opere presentate, che pure mostrano discrepanze stilistiche fra loro; ma la natura morta, come ben sanno i suoi estimatori, prima di essere accettata come vero e proprio genere fu pittura minore e quasi clandestina, che godeva di assoluto anonimato da parte dei suoi esecutori, che mai avrebbero desiderato essere accostati ad un tale sottogenere decorativo. Se da un lato questo mortifica le aspettative di chiarimenti documentali in merito, dall’altro ci permette di continuare a sperare in un significativo elemento di confronto che possa considerarsi decisivo per l’assegnazione delle opere alla mano di un Maestro a noi noto.
Forty years have passed since Mina Gregori, Giacomo Ceruti's most renowned scholar, first noted t... more Forty years have passed since Mina Gregori, Giacomo Ceruti's most renowned scholar, first noted that some of the artist's paintings, particularly scenes of popular life, conceal several meticulous and effortless references to prints by the celebrated painter of the "pitocchi." Despite its early and frequently cited relevance, this fascinating and unique chapter in pauperistic painting had never been systematically addressed before this publication. Like many artists of the time, Giacomo Ceruti studied the engravings and prints of the old masters and his contemporaries to compose his brilliant paintings, especially those depicting backgrounds, landscapes, and animal figures. Drawing on a vast graphic repertoire, which included works by French, Dutch, and Italian artists, the celebrated painter of the humble perfected his art, entering a cultural climate of international scope. Defining the role of prints in Ceruti's creative laboratory is therefore crucial to understanding the extent to which the inseparable relationship between reality and tradition extended in the artist's work. Immaginario Ceruti has followed the painter's working method in detail, illustrating the reasons that led him to frequently draw on a vast chalcographic repertoire spanning the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, from Jacques Callot to Dutch etchers, Pietro Testa, and the more modern French etchers. By uncovering in Ceruti's works the citations and references to the most common prints in eighteenth-century European workshops, we are now able to reconstruct a fundamental part of his creative process.
Following the studies promoted by the recent monographic exhibitions in Cremona (Museo Civico “Al... more Following the studies promoted by the recent monographic exhibitions in Cremona (Museo Civico “Ala Ponzone,” 6 October 2017-6 January 2018) and Piacenza (Palazzo Galli, 4 March-10 June 2018), this volume aims to explore in depth the special relationship that links Luigi Miradori, known as Il Genovesino, to the “printed papers” - that is, the vast repertoire of Northern and Mediterranean engravings from which the artist constantly drew inspiration, reinterpreting these models with imagination and ease throughout his oeuvre.
The criteria, motives, and methods underlying what can rightly be defined as a Miradorian methodus become the object of a systematic investigation, which begins with the lively Genoese context, the place of Genovesino’s early and still obscure training.
This extensive reliance on engraved models offers an opportunity for a series of unexpected reflections on the working and workshop practices of painters, not only in the specific case of Miradori. The occasion is also propitious for presenting two other previously unpublished paintings by the artist, both of which derive their iconography directly from well-known prints: a Circumcision, recently resurfaced on the Genoese art market, and a Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew, which appeared nearly thirty years ago in Vienna with an erroneous attribution to Francesco Cairo. These works, representing opposite poles of Miradori’s production, provide further valuable evidence of the decisive role that prints played in Genovesino’s creative process.
The volume then moves beyond the Cremonese context to broaden its scope toward various Italian artistic centers, offering a first comprehensive overview of the use of printed prototypes in seventeenth-century painting. What emerges is, in many respects, surprising: from the Venetian mainland to the Duchy of Milan, from the Emilian territories to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, and from the central Italian, Marche, and Roman areas to the Kingdom of Naples, the study and use of engraved sources was a widespread and well-documented practice, shared by major masters of realism as well as leading exponents of classicism and the Baroque.
Articoli, saggi & atti by Francesco Ceretti
Based on the reappearance of a canvas depicting Three Male Heads in a private collection, this pa... more Based on the reappearance of a canvas depicting Three Male Heads in a private collection, this paper explores the vicissitudes of the painted panels created by Callisto Piazza for the Chapel of the Holy Rosary in the Church of San Domenico in Brescia. Through stylistic analysis and the virtual recomposition of various scattered fragments preserved between the Museo Camuno in Breno and another private collection, the study demonstrates the formal coherence among the three fragments, confirming their common provenance from the Church of San Domenico and their common attribution to Callisto Piazza’s Brescian period.
The article focuses on the youthful period of Luigi Miradori, known as Genovesino (1605-1656), wi... more The article focuses on the youthful period of Luigi Miradori, known as Genovesino (1605-1656), with a focus on the hitherto nebulous phase of the painter’s training in Genoa, where he is documented until 1630. Starting with the Saint Sebastian healed by Irene in the convent of the Santissima Annunciata in Portoria, the author presents a series of unpublished works, offering secure points of reference for this uncertain moment in the artist’s career. After a Conversion of Saul and a Saint John the Baptist, both privately owned, the survey concludes with a discussion of a stylistically multifaceted canvas with the Youth of Bacchus, in which one can recognize Genovesino’s first steps in the Ligurian capital. The article also explores the dialectical relationship with works of the painter’s maturity, represented by the attribution of an expressive and macabre image of a Dying Seneca.
The paper reconstructs the biographical profile and catalog of works of Sebastiano Giuliense, kno... more The paper reconstructs the biographical profile and catalog of works of Sebastiano Giuliense, known as “il Sebastianone” (1600-1689), one of the main protagonists of poverty-themed painting in Lombardy before the rise of Giacomo Ceruti in the eighteenth century. Based on some significant documentary discoveries and the identification of a substantial number of previously unknown paintings, the article traces the entire career of Sebastianone, who can now finally be identified as Sebastiano de’ Giuli, also known as Giuliense, Giuliente, or Giulietto. Each painting is examined in detail, starting with a series of already known portraits, enriched for the occasion by the “Portrait of Vincenzo Silva” (private collection). By comparing his works with those established on the Milanese scene of the mid-seventeenth century by the painter’s contemporaries, it is possible to set the artist’s trajectory more clearly. Before concluding with the controversial series of “Views of Milan”, the focus shifts to his poverty-themed production, namely those paintings with popular subjects such as common people, beggars, porters, maids, cooks, and drinkers. These paintings were executed by the artist with an ever-smiling spirit, yet always striving for a realistic depiction of reality. It is at the end of this sequence that we can place the “Peasants’ Meal” (current location unknown), a collective work that astonishes for its monumental rendering of real-life events.
The article presents two unpublished documents preserved at the Fondazione Ugo Da Como in Lonato ... more The article presents two unpublished documents preserved at the Fondazione Ugo Da Como in Lonato del Garda, which allow a more precise dating of Girolamo Romanino’s frescoes in the church of San Francesco in Brescia. The parchments, drawn up by Galeazzo Melone in 1524, record a payment made to the painter for the pictura in capella magna and for the panels of the altarpiece in the same church.
From the analysis of these documents, it emerges that the frescoes on the choir vault - depicting Christ in Glory, the Evangelists, and the Doctors of the Church - were already completed by 25 January 1523, which therefore serves as a new terminus ante quem for their execution. The article places the cycle immediately after 1520, highlighting its connections with Pordenone’s decoration of the Cremona Cathedral and with the broader anticlassical movement in the Po Valley.
The article thus revises the traditional chronology of Romanino’s mural works, clarifying their role as a key link between the Stories of the Passion in Cremona (1519) and the frescoes on the organ base in Asola (1526).
In the first part of the paper, analysing the production of the so-called Maestro V di Nave, the ... more In the first part of the paper, analysing the production of the so-called Maestro V di Nave, the author tries to find out the identity of this mysterious painter, deeply influenced by Girolamo Romanino, coming up with an addition to his catalogue. On the basis of some stylistic considerations supported by some archival deductions, the research leads to the recognition of the painter Giovan Giacomo Romani, Romanino’s brother, as a possible candidate. The second part focuses on a rediscovered panel with a Virgin with Child between the Saints Blaise and Roch (location unknown), exhibited at the Esposizione d’arte sacra held in 1899 in Cremona, and here referred to the hand of Giovan Pietro Melone, nephew of the more famous Altobello, at a date close to the beginning of 1530s. Moreover, the occasion allows the author to analyse some documentarial and genealogical aspects relating to Altobello that have so far remained unsolved, such as the date of his death and relations with some other Melones attested between Cremona and Brescia.
The paper examines the relationship between Pietro Vannucci, known as the Perugino, and Cremona, ... more The paper examines the relationship between Pietro Vannucci, known as the Perugino, and Cremona, putting the focus on the so-called Roncadelli altarpiece executed in 1494 for the church of Sant'Agostino. The study delves into the patronage context and the impact of the altarpiece on the contemporary figurative context in Cremona. This occasion, indeed, provides an opportunity to examine a portion of the works by Tommaso Aleni, Galeazzo Campi, and Francesco Casella, all of whom were influenced in various ways by the language of the Perugino.
This paper examines the cycle of frescoes executed by Girolamo Romanino (1508-1509) in the destro... more This paper examines the cycle of frescoes executed by Girolamo Romanino (1508-1509) in the destroyed palace of Niccolò Orsini in Ghedi. Today, after the Nineteenth Century detachment operations, the cycle is largely lost and the survived frescoes are preserved among the collections of the Szépművészeti Múzeum in Budapest, the Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo in Brescia, and the Fondazione Ugo Da Como in Lonato del Garda. The occasion for this study arises from the recent restoration of the so-called “Uomini d'arme” (Men-at-arms) currently housed in the Casa del Podestà in Lonato, to which a new fragment, previously unknown, has been closely associated.
The article examines the Cremonese figurative culture during the Venetian domination of Cremona (... more The article examines the Cremonese figurative culture during the Venetian domination of Cremona (1499-1509). In particular, the study focuses on the production of Marco Marziale, author of a series of paintings created for the city between 1500 and 1507, commissioned by the Raimondi and Magio families. In addition, an unpublished document is discussed here, providing the important information that in 1505 Marziale was in the Lombard city. The article also invites to reflect on the enigmatic figure of Bartolomeo Veneto, who in the signature on the famous Virgin with Child, formerly in the Donà dalle Rose Collection in Venice, claims to be «mezo venizian e mezo cremonexe» (half-Venetian and half-Cremonese).
A hitherto unpublished painting of a Woman Potting a Sapling, recently acquired by the Pinacoteca... more A hitherto unpublished painting of a Woman Potting a Sapling, recently acquired by the Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo in Brescia, is here attributed to the Danish artist Eberhard Keilhau (1624-1687), better known in Italy as Monsù Bernardo. In addition to discussing the style of the canvas in order to establish its likely date in the mid-1650s, the author focuses on its iconography, identifying a pendant image in another work already ascribed to Monsù Bernardo, a Woman Holding a Sapling.
The paper is divided in two different sections. Starting from the "Vecchia contadina" and the "Br... more The paper is divided in two different sections. Starting from the "Vecchia contadina" and the "Bravo" (Old peasant woman and Bravo) in the Sorlini collection, this study analyzes the stylistic evolution in the works of Giacomo Ceruti at the end of hi Brescian stay, with particular emphasis on the influence exerted by the legacy of the so called "pittura della realtà" in Lombardy between the 17th and 18th centuries. An undisputed protagonist of this situation has been Pietro Bellotti and for this reason this section is focused on revisit and reevaluate his work, highlighting the role played by Bellotti in this context. The second part, on the other hand, addresses a pivotal work from Giacomo Ceruti's mature period, "Diana and the Nymphs Surprised by Actaeon." Starting from this painting, the study provides an opportunity to revisit the artist's secular-themed works and the influences he encountered during his stay in the Veneto region, between Venice and Padua, from the mid-1730s to 1738. In this regard will be examined the cycle executed by Ceruti for Palazzo Calderara in Milan, from which the large Sorlini canvas originates, identifying the occasion for the commission in the marriage between Antonio Calderara Junior and Margherita Litta Visconti.
The paper examines the relationship between Boccaccio Boccaccino and the figurative culture of th... more The paper examines the relationship between Boccaccio Boccaccino and the figurative culture of the Venetian Renaissance at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Starting with two panels in the Museo Correr (Virgin with Child; Virgin with Child between St. John the Baptist and St. Catherine of Alexandria), the study focuses on two successful iconographic themes in the painter's work, namely the more canonical devotional image of the Virgin with Child and the so-called "sacra conversazione" in half-length figures. It emerges that the painter, drawing on explicit Bellinian tradition, approaches these two themes by reinterpreting them in light of the innovations of Giorgione, whom he became acquainted with during his long stay in Venice from 1500 to 1506.
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Monografie & Curatele by Francesco Ceretti
The pronounced naturalistic tendency of his works - whose protagonists are often elderly men and women - initially merged with fascinating allegorical and esoteric subjects, highly appreciated by his contemporaries and celebrated in literary sources. After his travels to Munich (1668-1669) and Milan (c. 1673-1675), and during his prestigious tenure as superintendent of the Gonzaga galleries in Mantua (1681-1691), the painter turned increasingly toward genre themes. The works from the latter part of his career thus center on representations of beggars, pilgrims, and common folk - the “least” of society - depicted with striking optical truth and, above all, with dignity and empathy, as if to ennoble their condition. In this sense, these works acquire profound human and moral resonance, allowing us, in many respects, to link Pietro Bellotti to the so-called “painting of reality,” viewing him as a precursor to the memorable artistic current that would later find one of its greatest exponents in Lombardy in Giacomo Ceruti.
Retracing the trajectory of this master - and addressing some of the interpretative enigmas that still surround his life and career - the exhibition organized at the Gallerie dell’Accademia, along with its accompanying catalogue, offers an unmissable opportunity to explore the vibrant and multifaceted figurative culture of seventeenth-century Venice. The show brings together masterpieces from prestigious national and international museums, alongside recent acquisitions by the Italian Ministero della Cultura.
In addition to essays by the curators, which chart the artist’s career, the volume features contributions by leading scholars examining Bellotti’s critical and collecting fortune, as well as the deeper meanings of his works. The book concludes with detailed catalogue entries for over fifty exhibited works, an extraordinary visual atlas, and a documentary register that together aim to become an essential reference for understanding the oeuvre of this fascinating yet still underexplored artist.
Following in the footsteps of Roberto Longhi’s seminal 1917 essay “Cose bresciane del Cinquecento,” Altobello soon became a testing ground for the keen eye of the connoisseurs active in the latter half of the twentieth century. Through their efforts, a corpus gradually took shape: one that still recognizes as its cornerstone the frescoes executed in the Cathedral of Cremona between 1517 and 1518. Yet, despite his acknowledged centrality within the panorama of Po Valley Renaissance painting - and beyond - the divergence of opinions among art historians has led, even recently, to viewpoints so radically different as to hinder the realization of a comprehensive monograph capable of capturing the full arc of the master’s career. In short, the debate needed to pause until the time was ripe to once again cast light on Altobello and finally assemble the first monographic catalogue of his oeuvre.
This volume - born of many years of research devoted to gathering new information about the painter and revising earlier findings - includes an essay on his biography and stylistic evolution, a study of his critical reception, and a register of documents, some previously unpublished. All works attributable to the artist and his circle, about fifty in total and preserved in major museums worldwide, have been catalogued, arranged chronologically, and illustrated in color photographs.
Within the volume, special attention is devoted to Romanino’s most authentic vocation, that of a fresco painter. It was during the 1530s, through a succession of fresco cycles in Trento, Rodengo, and Val Camonica, that the painter fully expressed his “dialectal” and anti-classical style, defiantly in “revolt” against the ideals of the Italian Renaissance.
The final phase of his career is marked by his professional relationship with the Brescian painter Lattanzio Gambara, a leading exponent of Mannerism in the city and heir to Romanino’s workshop following his marriage to Romanino’s daughter, Margherita.
Completing the dossier is a detailed analysis of the rediscovery and critical appreciation of Romanino in the second half of the twentieth century, when the artist became the focus of major exhibitions and debates involving some of the most authoritative voices in Italian art criticism and literature, Giovanni Testori and Pier Paolo Pasolini.
Curiosamente, fu infatti con l’acquisto di un dipinto di Carlo Francesco Nuvolone che nostro padre iniziò a coltivare, più di cinquant’anni fa, la sua passione per la pittura antica, che poi ci trasmise e divenne in seguito il fulcro della nostra professione.
Da sempre riconosciuti ed apprezzati, anche grazie ad una prolificità che li ha resi in media facilmente intercettabili sul mercato dell’arte, i Nuvolone - Panfilo, il padre e Carlo Francesco e Giuseppe i figli più noti - rappresentano non soltanto un esempio di eccellente talento artistico unito ad un concetto di bottega quasi «artigiana», precorritrice della notoria laboriosità meneghina, ma anche la fotografia di un momento storico della Lombardia e in particolare di Milano, avvolta dalla cortina della controriforma e ancora assoggettata alla Spagna. Solo Giuseppe riuscirà ad assistere all’alba della Milano dei Savoia, dato che morirà nel 1703, tre anni dopo Carlo II di Spagna.
L’evoluzione di questi artisti contestualizzata nel momento storico è ben descritta nel prezioso saggio di Francesco Ceretti, giovane e preparato studioso, che va ad analizzare e confrontare gli scritti precedentemente dedicati agli artisti, andando a mettere a fuoco le problematiche principali e scioglierne i nodi in maniera analitica, evitando di cadere nella tentazione della supposizione, sempre in agguato del mondo della storia dell’arte. A tal proposito si aggiunge un interessante e chiarificante capitolo sulla natura morta di area nuvoloniana, argomento complesso e discusso, basato più su sensazioni che su documentazione o confronti, venendo qui a proporre le opere che nel corso degli anni sono state attribuite ai figli più celebri di Panfilo da pur eccellenti studiosi. Come spiega Ceretti, non vi sono ad oggi prove documentali di opere del genere da parte di Carlo Francesco e di Giuseppe, ma appare evidente la correlazione con l’ambiente nuvoloniano e l’area di provenienza milanese - lombarda delle opere presentate, che pure mostrano discrepanze stilistiche fra loro; ma la natura morta, come ben sanno i suoi estimatori, prima di essere accettata come vero e proprio genere fu pittura minore e quasi clandestina, che godeva di assoluto anonimato da parte dei suoi esecutori, che mai avrebbero desiderato essere accostati ad un tale sottogenere decorativo. Se da un lato questo mortifica le aspettative di chiarimenti documentali in merito, dall’altro ci permette di continuare a sperare in un significativo elemento di confronto che possa considerarsi decisivo per l’assegnazione delle opere alla mano di un Maestro a noi noto.
The criteria, motives, and methods underlying what can rightly be defined as a Miradorian methodus become the object of a systematic investigation, which begins with the lively Genoese context, the place of Genovesino’s early and still obscure training.
This extensive reliance on engraved models offers an opportunity for a series of unexpected reflections on the working and workshop practices of painters, not only in the specific case of Miradori. The occasion is also propitious for presenting two other previously unpublished paintings by the artist, both of which derive their iconography directly from well-known prints: a Circumcision, recently resurfaced on the Genoese art market, and a Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew, which appeared nearly thirty years ago in Vienna with an erroneous attribution to Francesco Cairo. These works, representing opposite poles of Miradori’s production, provide further valuable evidence of the decisive role that prints played in Genovesino’s creative process.
The volume then moves beyond the Cremonese context to broaden its scope toward various Italian artistic centers, offering a first comprehensive overview of the use of printed prototypes in seventeenth-century painting. What emerges is, in many respects, surprising: from the Venetian mainland to the Duchy of Milan, from the Emilian territories to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, and from the central Italian, Marche, and Roman areas to the Kingdom of Naples, the study and use of engraved sources was a widespread and well-documented practice, shared by major masters of realism as well as leading exponents of classicism and the Baroque.
Articoli, saggi & atti by Francesco Ceretti
From the analysis of these documents, it emerges that the frescoes on the choir vault - depicting Christ in Glory, the Evangelists, and the Doctors of the Church - were already completed by 25 January 1523, which therefore serves as a new terminus ante quem for their execution. The article places the cycle immediately after 1520, highlighting its connections with Pordenone’s decoration of the Cremona Cathedral and with the broader anticlassical movement in the Po Valley.
The article thus revises the traditional chronology of Romanino’s mural works, clarifying their role as a key link between the Stories of the Passion in Cremona (1519) and the frescoes on the organ base in Asola (1526).