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Lot Essay
Giovanni Pietro Rizzoli, better known as Giampietrino, is recorded in documents of Leonardo da Vinci's Milanese workshop between 1497 and 1500 simply as 'gian pietro'. Indeed, Giampietrino was among the most faithful and celebrated disciples of Leonardo, renowned during his lifetime for images characterized by their accentuated physicality and expressiveness. His paintings strike a fine balance between the devotional and the sensual, pairing bold colors and strong physiognomies with highly refined, softly illuminated features and virtuoso effects of pictorial delicacy, as evident in the present Madonna's shimmering locks, which tumble down beside her cheeks. Previously unpublished, the present Madonna Nursing is an exciting addition to Giampietrino's oeuvre, and will be included in Cristina Geddo's forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's paintings.
As in many of Giampietrino's paintings, Leonardo's influence is manifesto. The posture of the Madonna may have been inspired by Mary's elegant contrapposto in the widely influential Madonna of the Yarnwinder, which was copied extensively by Leonardo's assistants and contemporaries (fig. 1). Similarly, the motif of the Christ Child nursing at his mother's breast while twisting his head to meet the viewer's gaze was almost certainly an invention of Leonardo's, repeated by his workshop assistants in paintings such as the Madonna Litta of the early 1490s (Hermitage, St. Petersburg). This novel concept of arranging the holy figures in a devotional image such that they interact with elements outside the picture field was also Leonardo's innovation. While in this image the Christ Child looks out of the painting with unabashed directness to draw the viewer in, the Madonna and Saint Anne gaze off to the right at some implied presence, which we can speculate is that of Saint John the Baptist. Indeed the gesture of Saint Anne mimics that often associated with the Baptist, who is frequently depicted pointing upwards in proclamation of Christ's divine nature. The apple in the Child's hand, too, is a reference to the Baptist's prophecy that Christ would return to redeem mankind from the Original Sin committed by Adam and Eve, reinforcing this interpretation.
The technique Giampietrino has used in the present picture also harkens back to Leonardo: in particular, numerous thumbprints are visible in the paint surface at the top of the Madonna's forehead, neck, bosom, hair, temples, and along the left side of her veil. They also appear on the hairline, chest, and upper thigh of the Christ Child, and in the shaded area of the face, neck, and wrist of Saint Anne. Giampietrino learned this technique from Leonardo but applied it so extensively throughout his work that it became his hallmark. By pressing his fingers into the paint in these areas and thereby revealing some of the underlying preparatory layer of color underneath, he was able to achieve a more complex gradation of light and shade and a more illusionary chiaroscuro effect.
With its striking yet restrained palette of oranges, blues and greens, and its monumental figures whose fleshtones are modeled in ashy grey and soft pink, this elegant Nursing Madonna is a typical work of Giampietrino's full maturity, datable to the late 1530s. The composition of the central figural group is repeated in another work by Giampietrino, known as the Castel Vitoni Madonna. In the present painting, however, the figure of Joseph from the right of the Castel Vitoni Madonna has been replaced with that of Saint Anne at left, who leans in over Mary's shoulder protectively. Her presence enhances the pyramidal effect of the composition, which is lacking from the Castel Vitoni Madonna. While in that work the figures are elongated and “nervous”, as Cristina Geddo points out, here they have acquired a newfound solidity and presence, giving the image a more “relaxed, serene” character (see C. Geddo, 'Le pale d'altare di Giampietrino: ipotesi per un percorso stilistico', Arte Lombarda, CI, 1992). This effect is typical of Giampietrino's works from the late 1530s, when the artist was exposed to the influence of Bernardino Luini and Gaudenzio Ferrari, who had moved to Milan in 1537. In the few years that intervened between the painting of the Castel Vitoni Madonna and the present Madonna Nursing the Christ Child with Saint Anne, Giampietrino had clearly remained unwavering in his search for new forms of expression and embraced a new, more modern approach as tastes began to shift away from Leonardo's mannered and already somewhat old-fashioned style. Indeed, the present work must have enjoyed success and popularity in the years immediately after its creation, as the existence of at least four contemporary copies attests.
As in many of Giampietrino's paintings, Leonardo's influence is manifesto. The posture of the Madonna may have been inspired by Mary's elegant contrapposto in the widely influential Madonna of the Yarnwinder, which was copied extensively by Leonardo's assistants and contemporaries (fig. 1). Similarly, the motif of the Christ Child nursing at his mother's breast while twisting his head to meet the viewer's gaze was almost certainly an invention of Leonardo's, repeated by his workshop assistants in paintings such as the Madonna Litta of the early 1490s (Hermitage, St. Petersburg). This novel concept of arranging the holy figures in a devotional image such that they interact with elements outside the picture field was also Leonardo's innovation. While in this image the Christ Child looks out of the painting with unabashed directness to draw the viewer in, the Madonna and Saint Anne gaze off to the right at some implied presence, which we can speculate is that of Saint John the Baptist. Indeed the gesture of Saint Anne mimics that often associated with the Baptist, who is frequently depicted pointing upwards in proclamation of Christ's divine nature. The apple in the Child's hand, too, is a reference to the Baptist's prophecy that Christ would return to redeem mankind from the Original Sin committed by Adam and Eve, reinforcing this interpretation.
The technique Giampietrino has used in the present picture also harkens back to Leonardo: in particular, numerous thumbprints are visible in the paint surface at the top of the Madonna's forehead, neck, bosom, hair, temples, and along the left side of her veil. They also appear on the hairline, chest, and upper thigh of the Christ Child, and in the shaded area of the face, neck, and wrist of Saint Anne. Giampietrino learned this technique from Leonardo but applied it so extensively throughout his work that it became his hallmark. By pressing his fingers into the paint in these areas and thereby revealing some of the underlying preparatory layer of color underneath, he was able to achieve a more complex gradation of light and shade and a more illusionary chiaroscuro effect.
With its striking yet restrained palette of oranges, blues and greens, and its monumental figures whose fleshtones are modeled in ashy grey and soft pink, this elegant Nursing Madonna is a typical work of Giampietrino's full maturity, datable to the late 1530s. The composition of the central figural group is repeated in another work by Giampietrino, known as the Castel Vitoni Madonna. In the present painting, however, the figure of Joseph from the right of the Castel Vitoni Madonna has been replaced with that of Saint Anne at left, who leans in over Mary's shoulder protectively. Her presence enhances the pyramidal effect of the composition, which is lacking from the Castel Vitoni Madonna. While in that work the figures are elongated and “nervous”, as Cristina Geddo points out, here they have acquired a newfound solidity and presence, giving the image a more “relaxed, serene” character (see C. Geddo, 'Le pale d'altare di Giampietrino: ipotesi per un percorso stilistico', Arte Lombarda, CI, 1992). This effect is typical of Giampietrino's works from the late 1530s, when the artist was exposed to the influence of Bernardino Luini and Gaudenzio Ferrari, who had moved to Milan in 1537. In the few years that intervened between the painting of the Castel Vitoni Madonna and the present Madonna Nursing the Christ Child with Saint Anne, Giampietrino had clearly remained unwavering in his search for new forms of expression and embraced a new, more modern approach as tastes began to shift away from Leonardo's mannered and already somewhat old-fashioned style. Indeed, the present work must have enjoyed success and popularity in the years immediately after its creation, as the existence of at least four contemporary copies attests.