MASTERPIECES & MASTERMINDS
Excerpts from "Masterpieces & Masterminds" From Winter 2025
"A Masterpiece of the Lombard Renaissance" Arte Lombarda on the Zenale Polyptich, Trevaglia. Nuovo Serie 2010
The Zenale Polyptych ca 1500. Trevaglia, Lombardy.
“The artistic personality of Butinone is now fairly defined; that of his collaborator Zenale has been, and still is, a vexed question...” 
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"The Lombard Renaissance painters before Leonardo--Foppa, the founder of the school and his followers; Bernardino Butinonet, Bernardo Zenale, Civerchio Bramatino, Borgognone are not well known, where they are sparsely present at all, in the United States. Zenale and Butinone shared a workshop together and collaborated on a number of works together so their respective works are not easy to distinguish. The Detroit Institute of Arts has a very beautiful Zenale dating from about 1500, Two Saints, attributed to the artist by the famous early 20th century art critic Lionello Venturi. The work depicts Saint Louis of Toulouse in splendid robes and frosty white mitre and gloves, with an unidentified deacon standing slightly behind him holding a model 15th century castellated town, a work described by E. P Richardson in the October 1934 Bulletin of that great museum "as rich, intricate, cool, restrained and surprisingly or slightly fantastic". Though Leonardo was already in Milan by that time--readers must keep in mind that he worked for the Sforzas for 25 years there-- Zenale was not under the great master's influence, his "clearly blocked-out forms and calm mood", as the Bulletin states, showing no such perceptible influence. The National Gallery in Washington is home to a central panel of an altarpiece by Zenale.
But the most important example of his work, a masterpiece completed with the assistance of Butinone, is the great altarpiece in the cathedral of their shared birthplace, Treviglio. It is a polyptych consisting of several panels, which are separated by thick frames that form an arcade. Through these arches one's observation is immediately attracted to figures in elaborate costumes, standing beneath a marble portico not unlike the one featured in the Two Saints at the Detroit Institute of Arts. There are shimmering patterns of mosaics and groups of saints who are the attendants of the Virgin and Child, seated on a marble throne as angels flutter adoringly around them, musical instruments at the ready. Zenale was also an architect and "in extreme old age" was a supervising architect of the Duomo in Milan"[...] --Please see our print edition for the complete article |
Andrea da Solario (1460-1524) Portrait of Charles II d’Amboise, Governor of Milan ca 1500
"We have before us a typical work of the greatest and most independent among Milanese painters affected by Leonardo”-Sir Claude Phillips on a portrait considered to be that of Giovanni Bentivoglio, by Andrea da Solario. Quote excerpted from Phillips, “An Uncatalogued Solario”, The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, vol 19, no. 101, May 1911 -
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"Here is how to lead a life surrounded by great people doing great work devoted to great things. It takes a king, a court, a commission and a culture of rational ambition and aesthetic ideals in age of spectacular personalities--to wit: the foreign policy of Louis XII of France was wholly directed towards forwarding his ambitions in Italy, a mission that was ably seconded by his trusted prime minister, Cardinal d’Amboise, “who coveted the Papal throne”, in the words of the April 1928 issue of the Bulletin of the City of St. Louis Art Museum. That museum is home to Solario’s portrait of Louis XII, the “good and fatherly king” admired by Machiavelli and who was conferred with the surname Pere du Peuple at Tours in 1506, and portrayed by Solario a few years later by way of a stellar recommendation by the gentleman here opposite, the outstanding nephew of the enlightened Cardinal. For, the prime minister was a learned was an man of arts and letters and sought to have the chapel of the new Chateau Gaillon at Rouen done by Leonardo da Vinci. In failing to secure that, he gave the commission to Solario at the urging of the Cardinal’s brother, Charles II d’Amboise, Marcheal de Chaumont, Governor of Paris, of the Duchy of Milan, of the seignory of Genoa and of the province of Normandie; admiral of France, Grand Master of France and friend of Leonardo, shown here in all his resplendent regality. The Marcheal sat for the artist when the latter took up residence at the Chateau during the chapel commission of 1507 through 1509. The decorations of the chapel were destroyed during the French Revolution. But the beautiful portraits remain, as does the story of the life of an artist who was everywhere at the right place at the right time, Andrea da Solario"[....] --Please see our print edition for the complete article
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