Vita e Pensiero

The article connects a drawing from Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan (F 251 inf. D 310) to the portal of Palazzo Vidoni in Cremona, thus making it the only sheet linked to the palace, which was built in the 1560s. The analysis of similarities and differences between the drawing and the actual portal – together with an inquiry about the new information deducible from the sheet and its possible formal references – clearly identifies the former as a project for the latter. After taking stock of the scholars’ different opinions on the authorship of Palazzo Vidoni, the article suggests the possibility – supported by the drawing – of a possible collaboration between the brothers Giulio and Antonio Campi: as a matter of fact, they were the only architects of the time in Cremona who had the up-to-date, innovative culture inferable from the formal and stylistic components of the building. More specifically, thanks to a number of graphic and formal elements, Giulio is proposed as the possible author of the drawing.

A rather neglected small panel with the Stigmata of St. Francis, previously attributed to Girolamo Muziano and his circle (or dubiously associated with Marcello Venusti), actually shows decisive formal similarities to Antonio Campi’s production. The piece is currently displayed in room XI in the Pinacoteca Vaticana (inv. 40370). Its intense pathetism and striking realism, very far from Muziano’s elegant mannerism, were probably the causes of its little appreciation among critics; if properly considered, these characters, together with the peculiar pre-Caravaggian side lighting, support the attribution to the painter from Cremona. Several stylistic elements allow us to situate it in the time-span between the Beheading of St. John the Baptist for San Paolo Converso in Milan (1571) and the Prayer in the Garden for Santa Maria della Noce in Inverigo (1577). Those were years of hectic activity for the artist, who was well integrated in the local milieu of religious and secular patrons, and engaged in a fruitful confrontation with the Leonardesque tradition, as demonstrated by the formal reference to Cesare da Sesto’s Salome in the altarpiece with the Beheading of St. John the Baptist in San Sigismondo in Cremona.

The article traces the origins of Salvator Rosa’s Milanese commissions through an ordinal alaysis of visual and archive documents, including published sources of the time, so far never connected to a study of this kind. Such discoveries allow to narrow down the context of the commission to Rosa and Francesco Cairo for the church of San Giovanni Decollato, known as «alle Case Rotte» («by the Dismantled Houses»), but also to establish June 21, 1658 as the exact date when the altarpiece with St. Aloysius Gonzaga Receiving Communion From St. Charles Borromeo – painted by Cairo for the Jesuits of Santa Maria in Brera – was publicly displayed.

The exhibition plan for the Ancient Art Museum at Castello Sforzesco, developed by BBPR between 1947 and 1956, is part of a general process of re-organization and renewal of museums carried out in Italy after World War II, in order to educate a larger and more varied public in the values of art and history. Ernesto Nathan Rogers, who had been reflecting theoretically on those values since the Thirties, finally had a chance to pass them on to visitors through specifically dedicated planning solutions elaborated with BBPR. The task presented a number of stiff challenges: how could the architectural firm combine the modernity of their shapes, materials and technical solutions with those of Castello Sforzesco, inherited from Beltrami, and correspondingly present the public with history’s continuous journey from past to present? How could they establish a continuity among collections made up of fragments, putting them into a lively, comprehensible narrative? And finally – a problem concerning Rogers more than anyone else – how could they capitalize on this occasion to test the effectiveness of many theoretical assumptions, and perhaps to formulate new ones ‘on the field’? A comparative study of Rogers’ writings and the most significant solutions for the museum allows to analyze the strategies adopted by BBPR to meet those challenges, while at the same time casting some light on the importance of Castello Sforzesco in the context of Italian museography.

Among the historic Italian design factories, Danese stood out for being, more than others, an experimental laboratory for design projecting. Bruno Danese and his wife Jacqueline Vodoz gave life not just to a business, but more importantly to an "editor" which interpreted the production of objects as a cultural operation. Even if such a story would be impossible today, Danese provided us with an original operational model, several aspects of which make it as lively as it has ever been: for instance, the determination in pursuing an integration of art and design, and the opening of new possibilities of development for contemporary crafts. These choices anticipated tendencies such as the "New Handicraft" as it has emerged since the Eighties, or the very recent phenomenon of the Small Editions and other industrial design companies that frequently use craftsman-like system of production, or even the modern object galleries interested in limited edition series and unique articles of design.

«Magister Duxamo pictor de Papia»: a painter from Pavia in Piedmont (facts from 1417 to 1444) CLAUDIO BERTOLOTTO - NICOLETTA GARAVELLI - BERNARDO O. GABRIELI The article analyzed the personality of painter Dux Aymo from Pavia, focusing particularly on important facts from his years in Piedmont between the 1410s and the 1440s, seen in relation with recent diagnostic studies and documentary research that allowed to clarify his relationship with patrons and to better understand his painting technique. Claudio Bertolotto presents the outcome of the recent works of restoration of the most important fresco cycle by Dux Aymo, in the Mission Chapel in Villafranca Piemonte, including the discovery of new figures of Saints and the renovated beauty of the extraordinary Lamentation of Christ and the charming cycle of the Vices and Virtues, the oldest in all Piedmont. Other significant discoveries concern the Duomo of Ivrea and the church of the Cemetery of Pancalieri, where a dramatic Mass of St. Gregory, showing the unmistakable mark of Dux Aymo, was brought to light. Nicoletta Garavelli analyzes Dux Aymo’s style, from the study of specific early-15th Century figurative models from Pavia used in the frescoes made in the Pinerolo area, to the evolution of the artist’s language as he could confront with Jaquerio when the master from Pavia worked for the court of Ludovico d’Acaia in Pinerolo. Bernardo O. Gabrieli finally analyzes the works by Dux Aymo, focusing on their peculiar technical execution: the artist masterfully and experimentally alternated a base of fresco and various secco touches, with refined metal-foil decorations, deep reliefs and intricate stencil works; this technique is compared with the known modus operandi of 15th-Century fresco painters in Piedmont and Lombardy, such as Jaquerio, the Master of the Brave Men and Heroines of the Manta and Guglielmetto Fantini, but also Michelino da Besozzo, the Maser of the Borromeo Games and Bonifacio Bembo.

Tanzio and the portraits of clients: Novara and Valsesia FILIPPO MARIA...

A clarification on Palma il Giovane in Brescia FILIPPO PIAZZA The article presents an unpublished record, dated May 12, 1623, in which the patrons of the Duomo Nuovo in Brescia approve the allotment of a sum of one hundred sequins to painter Jacopo Palma il Giovane, upon accepting his drawing for the altarpiece to be placed on the high altar of the cathedral. The painting depicting Our Lady of the Assumption with Sts Charles, Francis and Bishop Marino Giorgi, regularly delivered from the artist’s atelier, was eventually placed not on the presbytery – still unfinished at the time – but on the altar of a chapel on the left side, the first one to be consecrated in 1627. This clarification offers a satisfying explanation of the reason behind the portrait of Bishop Giorgi, the main sponsor of the chapel.