Andrea Mantegna (1431 - 1506) , circle of, or... Lot 282

Andrea Mantegna (1431 - 1506) , circle of, or Gentile Bellini (14291507), circle of Federico I Gonzaga (?), 1475-1525 Oil on panel 57.5 x 41.5 cm Distinguishing elements: on verso on two crosspieces of the parchettatura, in black marker, "LK 115"; on back of frame, at top in white chalk "483," on right axis in yellow chalk "OMP/1036139" in relation to auction passages Provenance: Bruno Lorenzelli, Bergamo; Carlo Orsi Collection, Milan Conservation status. Support: 70% (thinned and parqueted board). Conservation status. Surface: 70% (numerous color falls, abrasions and retouches also in face and cap, also with excess matter; lifts) Direct and enormous was the influence of Andrea Mantegna (1431-1506) in the cities of central and northern Italy where he worked in the second half of the 15th century, spreading the "archaeological" taste through the recovery of classical culture and artistic motifs, together with the Renaissance passion for meticulous and at the same time idealized rendering of reality. Particularly close to him, also for family reasons (Mantegna married his sister Nicolosia), is Gentile Bellini (1429-1507), a painter and medallist of the Venetian Republic, eldest son of Jacopo (1396?-1470?) and brother of Giovanni (c. 1427/1430 - 1516) who renewed Venetian portraiture, reducing the weight of plastic relief in favor of flat images described with incised contour lines, within which colors are set in soft chiaroscuro: with results of a distant and timeless elegance that in short made him the most sought-after portrait painter by the lagoon aristocracy. The panel in the auction is quite fascinating, shrouded in two interconnected mysteries, the author and the subject. On the level of autography, it has so far been attributed to the Veronese Francesco Bonsignori (1455-1519), who in 1487 moved from Venice to Mantua, in 1490 entered Mantegna's workshop and between 1491 and 1492 assisted him in the decoration of the palace at Marmirolo, becoming increasingly linked to the ruling family, the Gonzagas, who gave him, alongside the master, the position of court painter until 1505. A child of art-his father Alberto was an amateur painter-and brother of Bernardino and Girolamo, also painters, Bonsignori perfected his skills in Verona under Francesco Benaglio (c. 1430-1492) until 1480, and then in Venice, where he was influenced by the Bellinis. One work, dated by Bonsignori's own hand "1487," assures us about his style on arrival in the city, the famous "Portrait of an Elderly Man" preserved at the National Gallery in London (NG736). The impact with Mantegna can be read in the strong three-dimensionality and the attention to drawing, elements that would be greatly attenuated over time, in favor of a greater "softness" of volumes, entrusted mainly to shades of color, following the lesson of Gentile Bellini. Bonsignori thus achieves his own representative canon of the human figure, which can be fathomed with a "Morellian" approach: morphological details - nose, mouth, eyes etc - are standardized by modeling and form, allowing important indications for our painting as well. See, for example, the different figures of the "Madonna with Four Saints" (c. 1490-1510, National Gallery, London, inv. NG3091): the second one in particular for the soft modeling, for the workmanship of the eyes - pupils and orbits - of the lips; the leftmost saint, facing the viewer, on the other hand, for the graphically realized hair. Similarly, the "Head of a Saint," preserved at the Poldi-Pezzoli Museum, Milan, and also datable to the discipleship with Mantegna, shows Bonsignori's interest in decorative details: the embroidery on the saint's robe can in fact be easily compared, both for the rapid construction of the forms and for the luministic effects, all obtained with dense and confident brushstrokes, to the collar worn by the character portrayed in our panel. (... continued: complete sheet in the catalog pdf at the link https://goforarts.com/doc/VB_IT_2_2/Meraviglie_Atto_II_HR.pdf . The catalog also includes lots not available on online platforms, including many of the most prestigious).