.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
This is probably the painting described by Masini in 1666 as hanging on the wall to the right of the high altar of the Bolognese Church of Corpus Domini: ‘…sopra la medesima porta e una tavola con la Madonna in piedi, che adora il Bambino Gesù giacente in terra, di mano di Ippolito Scarsellini’ ('over said door is a painting of the Madonna who stands and gives adoration to the Christ child who lies on the ground, by the hand of Ippolito Scarsellini'). The unusual composition, and the Christ Child’s Mannerist pose which echoes the works of Parmigianino, seem to support the supposition that the painting was conceived to be viewed from beneath as Masini describes.
Although it is difficult to date this painting with precision, the extremely refined figures, their delicate gestures and subtly related glances – coupled with the superb landscape background – indicate that it is a mature work. The face of the Madonna recalls that of the Magdalen in a Noli mi Tangere in a Ferrarese private collection (see M.A. Novelli, La Scarsellino, Bologna, 1955, plate 30).
Scarsellino studied under his father, Sigismondo. His earliest works combine Mannerist elements from both the Ferrara and Parma Schools, probably influenced by the manner of Girolamo da Carpi. An early visit to Venice introduced him to the great Venetian colorists, Titian and Veronese, as well as Tintoretto, Bassano and Schiavone. Upon his return to Ferrara, Scarsellino was commissioned to provide a considerable number of church altarpieces, such as the present work, as well as cabinet pictures and small, elegant scenes of courtly life. In the works that the artist made after 1600, Emilian influences are more clearly evident. As Carlo Volpe has written, 'Scarsellino’s contribution to the Emilian pictorial tradition is due firstly to his complete assimilation of his Venetian experience, and secondly to the influence of those neo-Dossi elements which the early seventeenth-century painters found to be of such vital importance to their art.'
Although it is difficult to date this painting with precision, the extremely refined figures, their delicate gestures and subtly related glances – coupled with the superb landscape background – indicate that it is a mature work. The face of the Madonna recalls that of the Magdalen in a Noli mi Tangere in a Ferrarese private collection (see M.A. Novelli, La Scarsellino, Bologna, 1955, plate 30).
Scarsellino studied under his father, Sigismondo. His earliest works combine Mannerist elements from both the Ferrara and Parma Schools, probably influenced by the manner of Girolamo da Carpi. An early visit to Venice introduced him to the great Venetian colorists, Titian and Veronese, as well as Tintoretto, Bassano and Schiavone. Upon his return to Ferrara, Scarsellino was commissioned to provide a considerable number of church altarpieces, such as the present work, as well as cabinet pictures and small, elegant scenes of courtly life. In the works that the artist made after 1600, Emilian influences are more clearly evident. As Carlo Volpe has written, 'Scarsellino’s contribution to the Emilian pictorial tradition is due firstly to his complete assimilation of his Venetian experience, and secondly to the influence of those neo-Dossi elements which the early seventeenth-century painters found to be of such vital importance to their art.'