Andrea Solari (school of) (Milan 1460-Milan 1524)... Lot 15

Andrea Solari (school of) (Milan 1460-Milan 1524) - Mater dolorosa H cm 40x28.8 - in frame H cm 75x65 Oil on canvas Expertise of Professor Claudio Strinati: "The work placed to my attention can be framed without any doubt qualereplica certainly ancient of a famous prototype by Andrea Solari (Milan1465 ca.-1524). Solari was one of Lombardy's leading Leonardesque painters, highly influential in his own time and throughout the sixteenth century, and today reevaluated among the greatest masters of the period. Solari, therefore, created this interestingand suggestive prototype, and he himself executed several paintings of this same subject,now preserved in public collections (e.g., at the Pinacoteca di Brera) and private collections. The pictorial drafting of our painting under consideration here is undoubtedly ancient, but it is not, in my opinion, an autograph of Solario but rather a later derivation but still executed within the scope of his direct legacy and in the 16th century. In particular, I believe that this version of ours, which is of remarkable quality and good preservation, accentuates the religious character of the imagesthrough two peculiar aspects: the very intense expression of the Virgin,and the large hands that look like those of a peasant woman who posed for the figure in order to accentuate its humble and popular character. I believe that the work under consideration was executed in the strict sphere of the direct descent of the artist, who was particularly appreciated in the Lombard circle of Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo and Giuseppe Arcimboldi. In this sphere I believe that I recognize the hand that concretely executed the work in that of the eminent Giuseppe Meda (1534-1599) painter and The workmanship of our painting induces me to date it, in fact, toward the end of the sixteenth century, precisely at the time of GiuseppeMeda's greatest splendor, in ancient times famous for distinguished works, among which worthy of mention is the grandiose fresco of the Tree of Jesse in the cathedral of Monza,painted in the 1560s. A reasoned comparison between the figures precisely of the fresco of the Tree of Jesse and our painting leads me to conclude that we are in the presence of the same hand."