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Lot Essay
Among the most faithful and celebrated of Leonardo da Vinci’s disciples, Giampietrino has been identified as Giovanni Pietro Rizzoli, an artist who appears in documents of Leonardo's Milanese workshop between 1497 and 1500 as '[g]ioanpietro'. A gifted painter of altarpieces and devotional works, Giampietrino also became known for his depictions of classical and biblical heroines, which are often imbued with erotic overtones. Giampietrino's pictures were renowned during his lifetime, and would reverberate in the work of his contemporary, Correggio, and in that of Giulio Cesare Procaccini and Daniele Crespi in the 17th century.
Giampietrino’s Madonna and Child with a pomegranate is deeply indebted to Leonardo’s Virgin of the Rocks of 1483-1486, most notably in the position and physiognomy of the Virgin’s tilted head. The direct source of inspiration, however, was likely Leonardo’s lost Leda and the Swan, known today through copies. The Madonna’s elegant, twisting torso and spiraling contours are nearly direct quotations of Leonardo’s celebrated work, and the smoky modeling, known as 'sfumato', is similarly inspired by his master, reflecting the considerable impact Leonardo had on the generation of painters active in Milan in the early 16th century. Giampietrino places his Virgin and Child at the edge of a wood with a sweeping, mountainous landscape visible in the distance, suggesting that the viewer is witnessing an intimate moment of rest during the Flight into Egypt. Christ holds against his mother’s chest a pomegranate, a symbol of the Resurrection due to its association with the ancient myth of Proserpina, who returns from Hades every spring to regenerate the Earth’s crops. The numerous thumbprints that are visible in the paint surface, for example on Christ’s chest and on the Virgin’s robes, are strategically placed to achieve a more complex gradation of light and shade. Giampietrino learned this technique from Leonardo and used it so frequently throughout his career that it is now recognized as one of the hallmarks of his style.
We are grateful to Dott.ssa Cristina Geddo, who is inclined to accept the present work as autograph, on the basis of a photograph, notwithstanding the old restorations (written communication, 15 March 2017).
Giampietrino’s Madonna and Child with a pomegranate is deeply indebted to Leonardo’s Virgin of the Rocks of 1483-1486, most notably in the position and physiognomy of the Virgin’s tilted head. The direct source of inspiration, however, was likely Leonardo’s lost Leda and the Swan, known today through copies. The Madonna’s elegant, twisting torso and spiraling contours are nearly direct quotations of Leonardo’s celebrated work, and the smoky modeling, known as 'sfumato', is similarly inspired by his master, reflecting the considerable impact Leonardo had on the generation of painters active in Milan in the early 16th century. Giampietrino places his Virgin and Child at the edge of a wood with a sweeping, mountainous landscape visible in the distance, suggesting that the viewer is witnessing an intimate moment of rest during the Flight into Egypt. Christ holds against his mother’s chest a pomegranate, a symbol of the Resurrection due to its association with the ancient myth of Proserpina, who returns from Hades every spring to regenerate the Earth’s crops. The numerous thumbprints that are visible in the paint surface, for example on Christ’s chest and on the Virgin’s robes, are strategically placed to achieve a more complex gradation of light and shade. Giampietrino learned this technique from Leonardo and used it so frequently throughout his career that it is now recognized as one of the hallmarks of his style.
We are grateful to Dott.ssa Cristina Geddo, who is inclined to accept the present work as autograph, on the basis of a photograph, notwithstanding the old restorations (written communication, 15 March 2017).