Carlo Francesco NUVOLONE (Milan, 1609 - 1662)... Lot 40

Carlo Francesco NUVOLONE (Milan, 1609 - 1662) Virgin and Child Canvas. Height. 114, Width. 93 cm. (ancient restorations). In a rich gilded wood frame. Provenance : private collection of the Vienne. Virgin and Child, canvas painted by Carlo Francesco Nuvolone, a Milanese artist of the 17th century. Belonging to a dynasty of artists, Carlo Francesco Nuvolone studied with his father Panfilo before being a pupil of Cerano at the Accademia Ambrosiana in Milan. He was then influenced by Giulio Cesare Procaccini and the Genoese School, whose delicate colours, light shadows - sfumato - and the softness of the characters' expressions he retains. Carlo Francesco Nuvolone became one of the most sought-after painters in Lombardy in the mid-17th century, producing altarpieces, devotional paintings for private individuals and portraits. For religious buildings, he painted complete cycles, for example the frescoes in the chapel of San Michele in the Carthusian monastery of Pavia or the decoration of the Sacro Monte in Varese (chapels III and V) and Orta (chapels 10 and 17) in the 1650's. In these great works, Carlo Francesco was very often assisted by his younger brother Giuseppe Nuvolone. Both spread the Baroque style in the Lombardy region and beyond. When realism went out of fashion in the middle of the 17th century, our painter was inspired by the classicism of Guido Reni and the Emilian painters who were very successful at the time. This renewal of his art owes him many commissions. In our painting, the positions of the five figures are taken from the central part of the "Madonna with the long neck" of Parmesan (Florence, Uffizi Gallery), but the whole is completely rethought and the costumes updated, the painter having removed the mannerist character and the elongation of the original composition. The turban recalls the oriental exoticism of certain paintings of Parmesan - the Turkish Slave - and many other Bolognese paintings, such as Guido Reni's Salome or work