Giovanni Battista Belmonte

Giovanni Battista Belmonte , (documented 1509), was a painter from the Leonardo circle who worked in Lombardy .

Little known painter whose origins and life are completely in the dark. The only evidence of its existence is a signed and dated picture of the Madonna, in Milan , Pinacoteca di Brera , which bears the following inscription: Ioanes Bapta / bel monte pinxit 1509 . The picture is a copy of a picture painted several times by the so-called Giampietrino . It can therefore be assumed that Giovanni Battista Belmonte was active in its immediate vicinity. Maybe he was even a student. Since the picture hardly differs from the works of Giampietrino, there could well be other works by Belmonte among his ascribed works.

Due to small details, it is suspected that Giovann Battista Belmonte might not be a Lombard, not even an Italian master. More recent attempts to ascribe the work to a French master working in Italy by dissolving the signature as “Jean-Baptist Beaumont” must remain speculation until new discoveries are made.

Works

• Maria with the child (Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera)

literature

• Francesco Porzio (ed.): The legacy of Leonardo. Painters in Lombardy 1490-1530 , Skira, Milan 1998, ISBN 88-8118-463-X
• Wilhelm Suida : Leonardo and his circle , Bruckmann, Munich 1929
• Wilhelm Suida: Leonardo e leonardeschi , Ed. Pozza, Vicenza 2001, ISBN 88-7305-816-7 (Italian edition of the above title)