PITTORE ATTIVO A BOLOGNA NEL XVI-XVII SECOLO Lot n° 50

Judith and Holofernes Oil on panel, 86.5X69.5 cm Provenance: Rome, private collection The panel shows late 16th-century Emilian characters, affinities with the creations of Lavinia Fontana (Bologna, 1552 ; Rome, 1614), but also a singular Nordic suggestion. Indeed, the metallic tenor of the drafts, the expressive energy and the stubborn attention to describing the jewels and embroidery of the robes, suggest comparison with the creations of Denys Calvaert (Antwerp, c. 1540 ; Bologna, 1619). A valuable parallel is offered by the Judith from the Pinacoteca Stuard in Parma, in which we observe a resembling face with the same gaze, the indisposed shape of the lips and a similar design of hands and gestures (fig. 1). Equally useful is the comparison with the St. Cecilia in the National Gallery in Parma, in which similar sartorial solutions with the use of brooch-like jewelry are subdued. Therefore, the work in spite of a necessary fine-tuning of the surface, reveals a high quality of execution, in turn corroborated by the preciousness of the pigments and the pictorial conduction, marked by skillful glazing passages and iridescent chromatics according to the best Flemish art of Italianizing taste. As we know, Calvaert left Antwerp at a young age to travel to Italy and, upon reaching Bologna, was a pupil of Prospero Fontana and Lorenzo Sabatini, then stayed in Rome from 1570 to 1572 to study the works of Renaissance artists. He returned to Bologna and successfully opened his own workshop, creating works in which the powerful colorism of the Flemish Mannerists is combined with the best Italian tradition.