A Private Collection: from 14th century to Contemporarity
Leombruno, Magnasco, Tanzio da Varallo, Hayez, Mosè BIanchi... A journey into Italian art, in search of its shining glares
Preaching saint
The saint in question is probably Saint Anthony the Abbot, who chose solitary existence and in fact created the fundamental model of monastic life. Born in Egypt in the 3rd century AD, he is the protector of animals and was celebrated for resisting the temptations that the devil intended to distract him from religious meditation. Here, in the surviving part of a larger painting, we can grasp the elements of a bare and rocky landscape behind it. With his head surrounded by a radiant halo, he turns his eyes to a point that we do not see, while his tapered fingers are extended in the act of prayer. Beautiful is the white beard, chiseled with a curvilinear stroke that shows the almost rebellious curls. Certainly it is a splendid work of Italian art, which still echoes the style of Giotto and probably dates to the second part of the fourteenth century, made by the hand of an unknown author of northern-central Italy. Some details vaguely recall some works of Tommaso da Modena. Interesting is the union between the search for realism and precision in the details, which are never ornamental but, on the contrary, are used to make this fragment of the scene its very best. We can see, for example, the thin wrinkles under the eye, which accentuate the consumption of the body and the unshakable dedication of the soul facing God.
Jesus' Resurrection
The generic title of the School of Frankfurt can be used to describe the anonymous painter who, likely working in the second half of the fifteenth century, has a way of creating a bizarre fantasy around the figure of the Risen Christ. The sleeping soldiers have rich clothes, so much so that the one lying on the left looks more like a courtier in arms. The author has probably found an outlet for his decorative ability, which clashes with the physical descriptions of the soldiers, collapsed in a deep sleep or otherwise stupid. In the center, the sepulcher from which Jesus, blessing, emerges is a large rectangular tomb, whose open lid traces a diagonal on which stands an angel with orange wings and fluttering robes, absorbed in prayer, regardless of the nakedness of their legs. The most captivating detail of the composition consists in the painter's ability to create a kind of vortex around the now free figure of the Redeemer, endowed with considerable expressive power. For the rest, the world appears as complete chaos, immersed in sin and buried by the failure to recognize its own ills.
Madonna with Child
In his long life that covered the Florentine fifteenth century, Neri di Bicci was a figure far away from the extraordinary flourishing of the great geniuses of the Italian Renaissance. However, in his quiet career as a son and grandson of artists, he performed real miracles of graceful compositions that still remain close to the gothic style, but which nevertheless present the ineffable grace of the wonderful fifteenth-century Tuscany. Thus, the imperfections of this work, which is almost certainly ascribed to him, become signs of a chromatic balance and a freshness of tones that transform the subject from normal to sublime. The large legs of the Child, the background wall which divides the picture somewhat unevenly, and the almost naive taste of the decorations on the wall on which stands the little Jesus may at first appear to be defects, but instead they give an overall aura of metaphysical suspension, though recreating an almost common scene between a mother and a little boy. Thus, the great golden disks of the haloes are curious ornaments for two faces that take strength and life from the redness of the cheeks, hinting to the shyness of the protagonists as well as to their common nature .
San Girolamo
Leombruno is an important figure, but one of ambiguous categorization.We do not know as many main features about his life, as much as for the outcomes of his art, that destiny chose for him the Gonzaga court of Mantua between the masterpieces of Mantegna and those of Giulio Romano. Thus, Lorenzo Leombruno, the most important Renaissance author to be actually born in this city of Virgil, left behind him a series of works often difficult to classify and situate. In fact, he was less inspired by Mantegna than he was by Perugino or Lorenzo Costa the Elder, giving his paintings a grace that is echoed by the exquisite life led by the figure of Isabella d'Este, wife of Francesco Gonzaga. Thus, many works attributed to Leombruno over time have been later expunged from his ever-smaller catalog, which now has very unreliable characteristics. The Saint Jerome here present is one of the few paintings actually completed by the Mantuan, due both to the presence of a signature and to the solidity of the general composition, which can be dated to the sixteenth century. Saint Jerome, with powerful arms, observes with intensity and passion the crucifix in his hand, which seems almost planted in the book of Ancient Scriptures, written in Hebrew characters and bearing on the thread of its pages the inscription: "LAV. LEOMBRUNUS MANTUANUS". It is an effective and intermediate art among the many presences of the Po Valley, including Dosso Dossi. It is also a fundamental starting point to recount with new spirit the personality of a painter with undoubted talent and many acquaintances.
San Giovanni Battista
Antonio d'Enrico, known as Tanzio da Varallo, was born in a village at the foot of Monte Rosa. Perhaps he derived his characteristic painting from the proximity of the great Alpine peaks, as it is marked by transcendence: by the verticality of the figures, the intense colors used, and the silvery and almost livid light that is shown everywhere. After 1600, the artist left for Rome, and there he was shocked by his encounter with the works of Caravaggio. Interpreting in a very personal way the great luminist contrasts of the Lombard, he returned to the north and worked in particular at the Sacred Mountain, where he succeeded in deeply innovating the art of the time, reaching accents of dramatic splendor that partially approach the magisterium of El Greco. Famous are his youths, used to depict sacred characters: beautiful adolescents, who are muscular and modern in their expressive power. This is also the case of the John the Baptist who appears here. Tanzio addresses several times this theme of contrast between the dazzling physicality of the young man and the great mystical mission that awaits him. Here is the lamb, here is the cross, here is an almost licentious nudity. The painter describes with strong chiaroscuro the slightest folds of the body, as he draws an almost human face on the symbolic animal. An eternal wind shakes the saint's hair, whose gaze seems absorbed in a marvelous ecstasy.
Angel
The real name of the artist is Pietro Berrettini. His important career makes him one of the exponents of the Baroque school, whose spectacular and pompous style are expressed without exaggeration. He was also an architect, as evidenced, for example, by the beautiful façade of Santa Maria della Pace in Rome. He is famous for having made the decorations of Palazzo Pitti in Florence, as well as the frescoes for Palazzo Barberini in Rome. In the work that we see here, a great angel carrying lilies in its hand appears imperiously in the act of the Annunciation. Its sturdy body and its mighty wings still bear witness to Mannerist origins. The theme of the angel or of the guardian angel appears frequently in his works, as he intends to reinforce the real presence of these creatures, invisible guardians of our salvation.
Meeting toward Emmaus
Magnasco is a painter of extraordinary talent. Son of an artist, he transitions between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by dissolving the baroque splendor in a restless art, moved by an irresistible thrill, as if reality were unraveled before the eyes of the spectators, at the same time appearing as other, as vertiginous and fantastic. This canvas is a good example of his supreme synthetic capacity. The disciples who encounter Christ on their way to Emmaus seem overwhelmed by a presence that they had believed to be ordinary, yet instead is divine. Their bodies, their clothes, and their faces are deconstructed, only appearing to us as very rapid and nonlinear brushstrokes. More defined is the figure of Jesus, who points to himself with a roughly sketched hand, as he stretches towards the men, declaring his own resurrection, accentuated by the brief radiance of his halo. Superb is his willingness to push forward, creating a diagonal that underlines an invincible otherness. Behind the group, a landscape of ruins and ravines further testifies to the fragile yet enchanted bizarreness of the scene.
Enthroned Madonna with saints
This work, which depicts the Madonna adored by Saints Dominic and Catherine of Siena, once belonged to the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest. It was considered a youthful work of the author, but today it is more precisely attributed to the years between 1747 and 1750. Giuseppe Bazzani, besides being the greatest painter born in the city of Mantua, is an extraordinary figure of the Italian eighteenth century. Highly skilled in tracing frayed and exhausted yet brilliant colors on the canvas, Bazzani creates a largely sacred world with a quivering and lively intention, yet one that is traversed by a perennial restlessness. His extensive opus oscillates between the lightest and darkest tones, which draw shapes from almost nothing, while accurately delineating the motions of the soul of the characters. In this painting, the monumentality of the enthroned Madonna is achieved by a river of colors rising upwards and composing it. Saint Clare angles toward the slender and adorable Infant Jesus, almost wringing herself with love, and kisses his little foot while she holds her left hand over her heart. Meanwhile, a splendid Saint Dominic seems to gather in the shadows, from which the white glares of his garments emerge, as if to represent an autonomous intelligence, pulsating with vitality.
Noblewoman
Hayez is a key artist in the transition from Neoclassicism to Italian Romanticism. A very solid painter, endowed with a masterly technique, he was unjustly overlooked by twentieth century criticism, and his greatness was only recently rediscovered. Venetian by birth, and thus able to absorb the influences of the eighteenth century lagoon masters, Hayez was also Milanese by adoption, coinciding with the formation of the national identity of the Risorgimento by completing works that represent the realism suffered by many generations of artists. He is particularly effective in portraiture, and in fact we must at least remember the famous painting of Alessandro Manzoni. But his romantic sensibility is combined with an honest and indefatigable attention to the most meticulous details of life. In the work that we admire here, the unknown noblewoman, wrapped in her cap and lace, seems to stand in a conventional position. But the intensity of the face, with the big eyes full of goodness, combined with her complexion and feminine and contrite mouth, gives the character who returns to us from the past a sensitive effectiveness worthy of an excellent painter.
Elegant lady
Lino Selvatico was the son of Riccardo, who was mayor of Venice at the head of a progressive council. It was he, in his short term, who envisioned the institution of a great periodic art exhibition, which in 1895 would become the famous Biennale. As for the painter, he was one of many Venetian artists of the late nineteenth century, but he distinguished himself with his refinement and mastery of composition that led him to create countless portraits, especially of attractive girls. This is the case here, where we meet a young lady with impeccable elegance. The author insists on the details of clothing: the large hat with sparkling decorations, the long white gloves, the black fur shawl. Everything is made with a deliberately imprecise brushstroke, which hints at each area of the figure and simultaneously describes it effectively. Thus, the face seems to become lost behind a glass, revealing an expression that oscillates between melancholy, vanity and boredom.
Young woman
A nineteenth-century master of color and of a distinctive mark, Mosè Bianchi fell into unjustified oblivion in the twentieth century. Today, however, his ability to translate the modern flow of reality into passionate panoramas or similar scenes is widely recognized. With origins in Monza, he never renounced his own land; indeed, in the course of his many experiences, he also became a city councillor in Milan. But he made numerous trips to Venice, where he was able to assimilate with critical intelligence the lessons of the great lagoon painters of the eighteenth-century; from them, a little like Boldini, he borrowed the jagged and jittery trait that, unlike the Ferrarese artist, is always composed in a peaceful context, passing from romanticism to realism, to pre-impressionism. The work that we admire here shows sensitivity and delicacy in its tones, and in the portrait of a young, still adolescent girl. In its quiet sadness we see the ancient wisdom of the Lombard authors. They have often been able to capture in everyday life that stretch of intense introspection that, despite the confines of a humble life, shows a spark of genius and a hope of life.
Irolli's portrait
Alessio Issupoff, a Russian naturalized as Italian, was born in the current city of Kirov, just in northeastern Russia. But he spent most of his youth in the Asian provinces: in Turkestan, in Tashkent, and Samarkand. From this experience came his love for exoticism, which he obviously translates into a purely Slavic pictorial figure, made of mellow shades that combine to outline figures and landscapes. His life then pushed him to Italy, in Rome precisely, where he decidedly made his career as an artist, expressing his emotions through his memory of the homeland, which now assumed a mythical dimension. Thus, each of his themes became a unique mixture of Italian suggestions and Russian memories. This work, which bears a dedication to the dear master Irolli, presents the portrait of this very artist. The Neapolitan painter was famous for building works of strong pathos and intense drama, using bright colors that join together to form figures of thunderous impact. The painting portrays him while old, adding brushstrokes that constitute an effective synthesis of both of their styles. Hence, the no-longer young Issupoff salutes, in his own way, a character of supreme connection, to whom he gives the semblance of an old man, as if to indicate a protector. The robust trait of the whole is beautiful, and the quick touches are particularly happy.
Woman's portrait
An artist close to the Scapigliatura, Emilio Gola is distinguished by a vigorous brushstroke that remains functional for a realistic representation of characters or landscapes. A sincere artist, he indifferently paints common people and noblewomen, seeking in the female aspect that countenance that justifies the creation of a work. In this context, for example, the unknown protagonist seems to rise from a cloud of dark colors that converge on the face, showing a sensitive face full of poignant and vaguely dramatic resonance. In this case, the influence of the Scapigliatura movement, which attempted to break down the quiet Italian academy, reveals itself in the manner of painting. Without reaching impressionist outcomes, however, the artist seeks the effects of light, while resolving them in the calm tones of a Milanese fog that seems to enter even inside the homes.
Naked boy and lion
Lanfranco Frigeri, this is the full name of the artist, is a painter with a very long life. Equipped with an acute surrealist perception, he was influenced in his youth by the pages of the first comics he could read. In the 1960s he began to perform a series of works that brought him closer to some of the themes dear to Salvador Dali. Women and other characters located in metaphysical landscapes, in which the perfection of the pictorial stroke tends to describe not reality, but the idea of reality itself. An absolutely unique figure in the Mantuan landscape, and rightly a champion of the enchanted world of the Po Valley that escapes the conventions of twentieth-century art, Lanfranco also shows his imagination and his sense of color in this canvas. A young, almost completely naked, blond man stands in front of an intensely blue sky, while a roaring lion joins him. On the right appears a face of a woman whose face is identical in appearance to the young man's. Blue tones dominate, counterpointed by the golden yellow of the lion and the hair of the two characters. An aura of waiting surrounds the scene, which also draws its strength from the incisive representation of physical details, while the couple's eyes remain turned to our left, to plumb the depths of an unfathomable infinity.
Ideato e promosso da / Founded and Promoted by: Mattia Palazzi (Sindaco del Comune di Mantova) con Lorenza Baroncelli (Assessore alla rigenerazione urbana e del territorio, marketing urbano, progetti e relazioni internazionali del Comune di Mantova) Coordinamento Scientifico / Scientific Coordinator: Sebastiano Sali Curatore testi e immagini / Superintendent texts and images: Giovanni Pasetti Foto di / Photo by: Art Camera Redazione / Editor: Erica Beccalossi Assistente / Assistant: Fabrizio Foresio
