Alessandro Moretto

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Moretto da Brescia: The . St. Justina With The Unicorn, worshiped by a donor , 1530-34, Kunsthistorisches Museum , Vienna

Alessandro Bonvicino , called il Moretto or Moretto da Brescia (also Alessandro Moretto ; * around 1498 in Brescia ; † December 1554 there ) was an Italian painter and fresco artist .

Life

Alessandro Bonvicino was born in Brescia around 1498. The year of his birth comes from a document from 1548, when he was "about 50" years old. His paternal family came from Ardesio , Alessandro's nickname " il Moretto " or " Moretto da Brescia " comes from his grandfather, Moretto . His father Pietro (died before 1515) and his brother Alessandro (died before 1484) were already painters, but almost nothing of their work has survived. Apart from the fact that Moretto must have learned the basics of painting from his father, nothing is known about his training.

St. Nicholas of Bari introduces the students of Galeazzo Rovelli to the Madonna ( Pala Rovelli ), 1539, Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo , Brescia

Alessandro Moretto spent most of his life in Brescia, primarily creating religious images . As early as 1514 he received an order for the decoration of a chapel in the monastery church of Santa Croce in his hometown, which he painted with depictions from the life of St. Mary Magdalene , which are now lost. Between August 1515 and September 1518 he worked with Floriano Ferramola on pictures for the organ wings in the Old Cathedral ( Duomo Vecchio ) in Brescia. Alessandro painted the inner depictions of Saints Faustinus and Giovita (today in Santa Maria in Valvendra, Lovere ). The high painterly quality of these pictures has occasionally led to doubts about his age and year of birth in the past.

Between 1517 and 1522 he regularly performed various tasks for the cathedral school of Brescia. A first surviving dated work is Christ on the cross with a donor from 1518 in the Accademia Carrara (Bergamo); however, the date is no longer recognizable due to an unskillful restoration .

Together with Romanino he worked on the decoration of the sacrament chapel in the church of San Giovanni Evangelista in Brescia from 1521 to 1524 . The Mannalese , the Last Supper , Elias and the angel , St. Mark and Luke and six half-length figures of prophets .
He created the Assumption of Mary in the Duomo Vecchio between 1524 and 1526.

Portrait of a Nobleman , 1526, National Gallery, London

Although he primarily created religious images, Moretto's portraits are also of great interest: his portrait of a nobleman from 1526 in the National Gallery ( London ) is the first full-length portrait ever, according to Begni Redona. His pupil Giovanni Battista Moroni particularly benefited from his role model as a portraitist .

Lorenzo Lotto invited Moretto to the decoration in a letter dated December 8, 1528, a Santa Maria Maggiore of Bergamo participate. On January 16, 1529 he received payment for the trip from Brescia to Bergamo and for various work in the choir of the church, which, however, are not identified.

The painter worked several times with the important organ builder Gian Giacomo Antegnati , with whom, according to a letter from December 1530, he had met in Milan about the restoration of the organ in the cathedral of Salò . In 1536, paintings for the new organ in the Duomo Vecchio of Brescia followed.

In the early 1530s, important altarpieces were created for the churches of San Francesco , Santa Maria Calchera and San Giovanni Evangelista in Brescia, and a Madonna for Sant 'Alessandro in Bergamo. The famous St. Justina with the unicorn and a donor , which is now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna , dates from around the same period .

Since Moretto's works show some Venetian influences, a stay in Padua - where he could have seen works by Titian - or in Venice , together with Romanino, was accepted.

The Eucharistic Christ appears to Saints Andrew and Rochus , 1545, San Bartolomeo, Casteneledo

In 1533 he was wealthy enough to buy a house in San Clemente. After the Virgin Mary appeared to a shepherd boy during a plague epidemic in Paitone in the same year , Moretto painted the picture Madonna for the Santuario della Madonna in Paitone. According to Fenaroli, he is said to have prepared himself for this work with prayers and fasting .

In addition, from 1531 he was busy decorating the sacrament chapel in the Duomo Vecchio, for which he painted The Sleeping Elijah , the Sacrifice of Isaac and Saints until 1534 . Mark and Luke created; it was not until 1553–54 that he painted the Easter Supper .

In 1535 he accepted an invitation from Isabella d'Este , Duchess of Mantua , to Solarolo .

He completed the so-called Pala Rovelli in 1539, with a depiction of St. Nicholas of Bari, who introduced Galeazzo Rovelli's pupils to the Madonna (today: Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo , Brescia; see picture above). The following year the Madonna in Glory followed with five saints for the Church of San Giorgio in Braida in Verona .

In the period from 1535 to 1547 he has demonstrably attended meetings in the cathedral school of Brescia, and between 1541 and 1552 he was involved in various financial transactions.

1541 completed the Assumption of Mary in Santi Nazaro e Celso (Brescia). In the same year he created an altarpiece for Bartolomeo Averoldi and his nephew Aurelio, Madonna in Glory with St. Elisabeth and the donors for the Church of Santa Maria della Ghiara in Verona; this picture was later moved to the (former) Kaiser Friedrich Museum (No. 197) in Berlin and was destroyed in the Second World War.

Supper in Simon's house , 1550–54, Santa Maria in Calchera, Brescia

A portrait of Pietro Aretino from 1544 (according to Fenaroli, 1877, p. 267 f) is also missing today.

In the 1540s he also painted several altarpieces for the Church of San Clemente, including the Madonna di San Clemente (1548), where “Saints Clement, Dominicus and Florian, Katharina and Magdalena, above them in the midst of a choir of angels Mary with the child “Represented.

Maria Moreschini, over 50 years old, married around 1550 and gave birth to three children, daughters Caterina and Isabella and son Pietro Vincenzo, who later entered a Jesuit monastery.

His last masterpieces include the crib for Santa Maria delle Grazie and the painting Christ with the Angel , both of which are now in the Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo in Brescia.

He made his will on November 9, 1554 , and since his executors sold one of his houses on December 22, it can be assumed that he died during this period. Among his unfinished works was the painting Melchizedek and Abraham for the Sacrament Chapel in the Duomo Vecchio of Brescia, completed in 1555 by Luca Mombello.

Moretto's most famous student was Giovanni Battista Moroni .

Appreciation

Madonna Enthroned with Child and Saints , 1545, Städel , Frankfurt a. M.

Alessandro Bonvicino, known as il Moretto , is one of the most important painters of the Veneto - Lombard school of Brescia, which was under Venetian rule at the time , together with Romanino and Gerolamo Savoldo . He left behind an extensive, sometimes somewhat unbalanced, oeuvre of almost 200 documented works, a large number of which are still in the churches of his hometown and its surroundings; there are also numerous attributions.

Moretto grew up in the tradition of Vincenzo Foppa , but already as a young man processed diverse influences into his own distinctive and painterly virtuoso style, including being open to the Venetian innovations of Giovanni Bellini , and later also of Lorenzo Lotto and Tizian . He also seems to have known works by Raphael through engravings (e.g. visible in St. Justina of Vienna). His keenly observing realism also shows parallels to Hans Holbein . Typical of Moretto - and typically Lombard - is a somewhat cool atmosphere, which is referred to in literature as a "silvery gray" or "silvery" color. His religious works are often marked by a clear tendency towards mysticism . He achieves this effect not least through a characteristic mixing of the real level with religious and spiritual experience.

“In his works he unites soulful expression, free and graceful demeanor with great freshness and delicacy of the flesh tone, a silver color and a graceful play of light and dark. His pictures are particularly characterized by bright backgrounds, from which the figures face the viewer with full life, and the skilful imitation of atlas, velvet , gold and silver fabrics . His numerous church images testify to a deeply religious feeling. ... M. also painted portraits of the same size of conception and strength of color . "

- Meyers Konversationslexikon , Vol. 11, 1885-1892

Picture gallery

Works (selection)

  • The St. Faustinus and Giovita , 1515-18, (inner organ wing, once in the Duomo vecchio in Brescia) Santa Maria in Valvendra, Lovere (together with Ferramola)
  • Christ on the cross with a donor , Accademia Carrara, Bergamo, 1518 (formerly dated),
  • Portrait of a monk , Museo Civico, Verona, 1519
  • The Manna miracle , Last Supper , Elias and the angel , St. Mark and Luke and six prophets , 1521–24, frescoes in the Cappella del Sacramento by San Giovanni Evangelista, Brescia (together with Romanino)
  • Assumption of the Virgin , 1524–1526, Old Cathedral (Duomo vecchio), Brescia
  • Portrait of a Nobleman , 1526, National Gallery, London
  • Man of 36 years , 1527, Leuchtenberg Collection, St. Petersburg
  • Pentecost , birth of Christ , feast in Emmaus , before 1530, Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo, Brescia,
  • Madonna della Misericordia , before 1530, Accademia, Venice,
  • Pala von Manerbio (Madonna in Glory with Saints and Donors), before 1530, parish church, Manerbio
  • Pala von Pozzano ( Madonna and Child and Saints Martin and Catherine ), before 1530, parish church, Pozzano
  • St. Margherita da Cortona between St. Jerome and Francis of Assisi , 1530, San Francesco, Brescia
  • Bethlehemite Child Murder , 1530–32, San Giovanni Evangelista, Brescia
  • Christ in the Desert , Metropolitan Museum, New York
  • Christ and the Samaritan Woman , Accademia Carrara, Bergamo
  • The dead Christ with St. Jerome and Dorothea , Santa Maria Calchera, Brescia
  • Coronation of Mary , San Giovanni Evangelista, Brescia,
  • "Madonna", Sant 'Alessandro, Bergamo
  • St. Justina with the unicorn and a donor , Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
  • Madonna , Santuario della Madonna, Paitone
  • The sleeping Elias , the sacrifice of Isaac and St. Markus and Lukas , 1531–34, Cappella del Sacramento in the Duomo vecchio, Brescia
  • Coronation of Mary with saints (Archangels Michael, Joseph, Francis of Assisi, Nicholas of Bari), 1530–40, Santi Nazzaro e Celso, Brescia
  • Pala von Marmentino ( Pietà with St. Cosmas and Damian ), 1530–40, parish church, Marmentino
  • Madonna in Glory with Saints and Cardinal U. Gambara and Madonna Enthroned with Saints Rochus and Sebastian , 1530–40, parish church, Pralboino
  • Pala Rovelli ( Madonna and Child and St. Nicholas of Bari ), 1539, Pinacoteca Civica Tosio Martinengo, Brescia,
  • Madonna in Glory with Five Saints , 1540, San Giorgio in Braida, Verona
  • Adoration of the Shepherds , 1541, (originally for Santa Maria della Ghiara, Verona) Staatliche Gemäldegalerie, Kassel
  • Assumption , 1541, Santi Nazaro e Celso, Brescia
  • Pala Luzzago ( Madonna in Glory and St. Michael, Francis of Assisi and Founder ), 1542, (originally for San Giuseppe, Brescia), Pinacoteca Civica Tosio Martinengo, Brescia
  • Frescoes in the Palazzo Salvadego, 1543, Brescia (Lovarini),
  • Mystical wedding of St. Katharina with the St. Jerome and Paul , 1543, San Clemente, Brescia
  • Pala di San Francesco (for San Francesco, Brescia), 1543:
    • Assumption of Mary and St. Clara, Catherine, Hieronymus and Paul , Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan (Brera),
    • St. Bonaventure and Antoniua of Padua , Louvre, Paris.
  • Christ in the House of Levi , 1544, (originally for San Giacomo, Monselice) Chiesa della Pietà, Venice
  • Madonna di San Clemente , 1548, San Clemente, Brescia
  • Salomè , after 1540, Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo, Brescia
  • Portrait of a Young Man (Sciarra Martinengo ??), after 1540, National Gallery, London
  • Five Saints (Caecilia, Lucia, Barbara, Agnes and Agathe), after 1540, San Clemente, Brescia
  • Wedding at Cana , after 1540, SS. Fermo e Rustico, Lonigo,
  • Adoration of the Shepherds , after 1540, Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo, Brescia
  • Madonna with Child and Saints , after 1540, Städel Institute, Frankfurt
  • Banquet in the Pharisee's house , after 1540, Santa Maria in Calchera, Brescia
  • Christ in Passion with Angels , after 1540, Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo, Brescia
  • Ecce homo , after 1540, Galleria nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples
  • The Easter Supper and Melchizedek and Abraham , 1553–55, Cappella del Sacramento in the Duomo Vecchio, Brescia (completed by Luca Mombello)
  • Entombment , 1554, Metropolitan Museum, New York

literature

Web links

Commons : Moretto da Brescia  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah Angela Ottino Della Chiesa: Bonvicino (Buonvicino, Bonvicini), Alessandro, detto il Moretto da Brescia , in: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani , Volume 12, 1971, online on "Treccani" (Italian; viewed May 20, 2020)
  2. ↑ Moretto (actually Alessandro Bonvicino) , in: Lexikon der Kunst , Vol. 8, Karl Müller Verlag, Erlangen, 1994, p. 237
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g See the summary for: Pier Virgilio Begni Redona: Alessandro Bonvicino il Moretto da Brescia , Editrice La Scuola, Brescia, 1988. (Italian; seen on May 20, 2020)
  4. ↑ Nadia Righi, Lorenza Targetti, Luisa Arrigoni: Brera - Guida completa alle opere della Pinacoteca , Scala, Antella / Florenz, 1997, p. 53
  5. ↑ a b Federico Bernardelli Curuz: Le radici bergamasche di Moretto da Brescia, i documenti sulla sua origine, online at Stilearte.it , May 30, 2018 (Italian; viewed May 20, 2020)
  6. ↑ Moretto da Brescia , in: Meyers Konversationslexikon , Vol. 11, Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig and Vienna, Fourth Edition, 1885–1892, p. 802, online , viewed on March 28, 2020
  7. ↑ Moretto (actually Alessandro Bonvicino) , in: Lexikon der Kunst , Vol. 8, Karl Müller Verlag, Erlangen, 1994, p. 237
  8. ↑ Moretto da Brescia , in: Meyers Konversationslexikon , Vol. 11, Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig and Vienna, Fourth Edition, 1885-1892, p. 802, online , viewed on March 28, 2020
personal data
SURNAME Moretto, Alessandro
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bonvicino, Alessandro
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian painter and fresco artist
DATE OF BIRTH around 1490 or 1498
PLACE OF BIRTH Brescia
DATE OF DEATH December 1554
Place of death Brescia