DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.52600#0212
i6o GIOVANNI BUONCONSIGLIO
us in the work of the master of the wonderful Pietd
from San Bartolomeo at Vicenza. The emaciated
frame of the Saviour is much the same in both these
paintings and so too are the feeling and the gestures :
the pathetic one of St. John the Evangelist in the
Crucifixion corresponds to that of the Virgin in the
Pietd, while that of the Madonna in the fresco is
paralleled by that of the Magdalen in the 'paid. I
think it therefore a very reasonable supposition that
we are here concerned with a work by Buonconsiglio ;
and seeing the affinities it has with the Pietd, the
circumstance that it naturally must have been painted
at Vicenza, and its strong Montagnesque character,
we may readily ascribe it to an early phase of his
career.1
Authenticated by a signature, but not dated, is the
picture of the Pietd which originally had its place over
an altar in San Bartolomeo at Vicenza and now is one
of the chief ornaments of the Museo Civico of that
town. Painted in tempera, it does not display the
technical notions which the artist shows himself to
possess in 1497. The forms in it are coarser, less
full than in the works of Buonconsiglio’s later years
(although no doubt akin to those of the fragmentary
picture of 1497). It is altogether a very remarkable
phenomenon this Pietd, created—to use the words of
a recent Italian critic—by “ an artist of genius, with
1 Vicenza, San Lorenzo, right transept, end wall, Altare della
Trinita. The Virgin is in green tunic and reddish violet mantle ; St.
John, in vermilion tunic and green mantle. Behind them, two parapets
covered with squares of porfido and serpentina. The Virgin and St.
John are about three-quarter lengths. It is apparently this work Ridolfi
alludes to when saying (op. cit. i. 141) that there is a picture of the
Crucifixion by Bart. Montagna in San Lorenzo. Boschini does not
notice the fresco; and Mosca has no name for the author of it (ops.cit.
i. 56). Crowe and Cavalcaselle, A History of Painting in North Italy,
437, n. 1. A reproduction of the whole altar is in Pettina, Vicenza, p.27.
us in the work of the master of the wonderful Pietd
from San Bartolomeo at Vicenza. The emaciated
frame of the Saviour is much the same in both these
paintings and so too are the feeling and the gestures :
the pathetic one of St. John the Evangelist in the
Crucifixion corresponds to that of the Virgin in the
Pietd, while that of the Madonna in the fresco is
paralleled by that of the Magdalen in the 'paid. I
think it therefore a very reasonable supposition that
we are here concerned with a work by Buonconsiglio ;
and seeing the affinities it has with the Pietd, the
circumstance that it naturally must have been painted
at Vicenza, and its strong Montagnesque character,
we may readily ascribe it to an early phase of his
career.1
Authenticated by a signature, but not dated, is the
picture of the Pietd which originally had its place over
an altar in San Bartolomeo at Vicenza and now is one
of the chief ornaments of the Museo Civico of that
town. Painted in tempera, it does not display the
technical notions which the artist shows himself to
possess in 1497. The forms in it are coarser, less
full than in the works of Buonconsiglio’s later years
(although no doubt akin to those of the fragmentary
picture of 1497). It is altogether a very remarkable
phenomenon this Pietd, created—to use the words of
a recent Italian critic—by “ an artist of genius, with
1 Vicenza, San Lorenzo, right transept, end wall, Altare della
Trinita. The Virgin is in green tunic and reddish violet mantle ; St.
John, in vermilion tunic and green mantle. Behind them, two parapets
covered with squares of porfido and serpentina. The Virgin and St.
John are about three-quarter lengths. It is apparently this work Ridolfi
alludes to when saying (op. cit. i. 141) that there is a picture of the
Crucifixion by Bart. Montagna in San Lorenzo. Boschini does not
notice the fresco; and Mosca has no name for the author of it (ops.cit.
i. 56). Crowe and Cavalcaselle, A History of Painting in North Italy,
437, n. 1. A reproduction of the whole altar is in Pettina, Vicenza, p.27.