Jacobello del Fiore: A Transitional Painter

Jacobello del Fiore - Madonna and Child - n.d. - Tempera on panel, gold ground - 88 x 62 cm - Private collection (click photo for larger image)Jacobello del Fiore (1370-1439) was a Venetian painter, who broke away from the Byzantine tradition that dominated Venetian art until the end of the 14th century. Rather, he was influenced by the International Gothic style of the early 15th century, that took place between the Proto-Renaissance and Early Renaissance. Most of Jacobello’s works are in Venice. 

Jacobello was known for images of Madonnas, such as the Madonna of Humility featured here. In this work, he has imbued the composition with a sense of softness and tenderness rarely seen in Byzantine iconography. The formal eastern iconography of this subject, depicting the Madonna facing the viewer, holding a stiffly posed and fully clothed child, has been slightly modified by Jacobello. Here, the Madonna, seated on a grassy patch, is slightly turned towards the child with her head inclined to the right. The child, while still fully clothed, reaches out to his mother in a somewhat playful gesture.

Prospero Fontana: A Mannerist

Prospero Fontana - Portrait of a Cardinal - Oil on canvas - 48-1/2 x 43 in. (123.2 x 109.2 cm) - The Norton Simon Museum - Pasadena, CAMannerism refers to an artistic style that gained popularity following the High Renaissance. It is considered to be a period of technical accomplishment but also of formulaic, theatrical and overly stylized work. It was initially inspired by a fascination—almost an obsession—with Michelangelo.

Mannerist Art is characterized by somewhat incomprehensible compositions, featuring muscular and elongated figures in complex poses. It is regarded by many scholars to be the first modern art movement. However, although it was very much liked by the public, it was not appreciated by the Church. Because the Counter-Reformation was heavily patronized by the Church, Mannerism was replaced by the Baroque, which represented a return to standards set in the Renaissance.

By the 1540s, Italian painter Prospero Fontana (1512-1597) was an established artist and worked frequently in Rome, often with Giorgio Vasari.

“In 1550 Pope Julius III formally recognized Fontana’s privileged position at the papal court. The Pope commissioned a portrait from the artist and extended him a principal role in the development of artistic policies. As a portraitist, Fontana favored the formal traditions of this genre as practiced in Florence over the naturalistic representations of Northern Italy.

The unidentified cardinal featured in the painting here sits in a room of indeterminate space with a view beyond into a series of salons. His large body boldly occupies the foreground. The cardinal’s relationship to the room and the connection between the foreground and background is ambiguous, a stylistic convention popular among Mannerist painters.” (Norton Simon Museum)

Pontormo: Melancholy and Introspective

Jacopo Pontormo - Alessandro de' Medici - 1534-35 - Oil on panel - 101 x 82 cm - Museum of Art, Philadelphia (click photo for larger image)Jacopo Pontormo (1494-1557) was a Florentine painter (originally named Jacopo Carrucci), who broke away from High Renaissance classicism to create a more personal, anti-traditional style. He is among the most important figures of the first generation of Mannerists. “Mannerism launched a highly imaginative period in art following the climax of perfection that naturalistic painting had reached in Renaissance Italy. Artists in 16th century Florence and Rome started to veer from classical influences and move toward a more intellectual and expressive approach.” (The Art Story)

In the portrait featured here, Duke Alessandro de' Medici is shown making a drawing in metal point of a woman in profile. In the latter part of the fifteenth century artists such as Verrocchio (Leonardo’s teacher) and Leonardo began to draw idealized female heads, often in profile. Michelangelo continued this practice, Alessandro's drawing seems to relate to it. It’s possible that Pontormo was teaching the duke to draw.

The melancholy that saturates this portrait is characteristic of much of Pontormo's paintings.

Amico Aspertini; A “Half-Insane Master”

Amico Aspertini - Nude Male Figure Seated on the Ground - ca. 1535-40 - Black chalk, brush and brown wash, highlighted with white gouache, on brown-washed paper - 9 3/4 x 14 5/16in. (24.8 x 36.4cm) - Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY (click photo for larger image)Italian Mannerist Painter Amico Aspertini (ca. 1474-1552) was a forerunner of Mannerism from the Bolognese School of Painting. He was described by the biographer of the Italian Renaissance, Giorgio Vasari, “as a half-insane master who produced works rapidly in an eccentric style. Vasari had said he produced so quickly that Chiaroscuro, a bold contrast between light and dark, was spilt with chiaro (clear) in one hand and scuro (dark) in the other.” (Uffizi Gallery)

In the work featured here,“[t]he figure, posed on a shelf like projection ornamented with a scalloped valance, may be studied for one of the many monochrome façade decorations that Aspertini is said to have executed, above all in Bologna (Vasari 1568, vol. 5, pp. 179-180). The reeds or long grasses indicated in the background are possibly intended to identify the figure as a river god.” (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Michelino da Besozzo: A Captivator

Michelino da Besozzo - The Marriage of the Virgin - c. 1430 - Tempera and gold paint on wood - 25 5/8 x 18 3/4 in. (65.1 x 47.6 cm) - Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (click photo for larger image)Among the most celebrated painters of his day, Michelino de Mulinari (1370 - c. 1456) worked for the ruler of Milan as well as in Venice. This is one of only two panel paintings most certainly completed by him. The surface is damaged. The packed composition is laid out much like his work in illuminated manuscripts, and the comical reactions of the rejected suitors reveal the humorous vein of his art that captivated contemporaries.

The artist was also an accomplished miniaturist (painter of illuminated manuscripts). He was very well known and highly regarded in his day. Michelino belongs to the tradition of the Early Renaissance, which covers a period of approximately one-hundred years (from c. 1400 - c. 1500). It was during this period that painting (in particular) evolved from a distinctly medieval style to a classically influenced one. The Early Renaissance was a period of experimentation, whereas the twenty-year-long High Renaissance was a culmination of all of the Early Renaissance developments.