DOI Heft:
Część III. Badania atrybucyjne i technologiczne nad dawnym malarstwem i rysunkiem / Part III. Attribution and Technological Research on Old Master Paintings and Drawings
DOI Artikel:Love, David: Gianfrancesco Penni - wprowadzenie biograficzno-ikonograficzne do jego dwóch wersji Świętej Rodziny ze świetym Janem Chrzcicielem i świętą Katarzyną Aleksandryjską
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45362#0232
David Love Gianfrancesco Penni: A Biographical and Iconographie Introduction...
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and flattened by discoloured varnish when exhibited in 2012-13 but the colouring of its spot-lit
figures now has more of its original sophistication, subtly matched and cangiante, drenched in
a quiet, silvery glow. It is more solidly structured, its palette equally rich but cooler, its antiquar-
ian details plainer and more sculptural, the wild wood largely replaced by massive bare walls
and arches.83 Both paintings ignore the dynamic plasticity responding to Michelangelo with
which Rosso and Parmigianino wrestled in their journeymen years in Rome, while Penni was
a senior figure there. Had he lived, whether resettled in Rome like Perino or building a new
practice in Naples, presumably he would have again tried to incorporate current orthodoxies
within his own restrained manner. On the evidence of these pictures, his ethereally pictur-
esque landscapes and subtly rich colours would probably have evolved further. But creating
principal figures from scratch would have remained a challenge, perhaps managed, as here,
by combining material inherited from Raphael with ancient types sympathetic to his own
taste and his patron’s purpose.84
83 It is difficult to determine all his intentions for tone and colour in paintings which have suffered five
centuries of abrasion, chromatic change and repair. Recent cleaning revealed that Boston too has strong tonal
contrasts, its landscape blues, in photographs, starker and less silvery-grey than previously.
84 A same-size copy on panel of the Warsaw composition, much repainted (Christies, London, King
Street, sale 1165, 4 December 2013, lot 151 (fig.), as “Circle of Penni”), suggests that it could have enjoyed some
limited popularity outside his control or, perhaps more likely, was thought worth replicating before being sold on.
Penni’s manner inspired a considered though somewhat crude pastiche. Despite weaknesses in execution (altar,
faces, colours, cangiante), it approximates such characteristic small-scale details as his golden highlights in hair
and vegetation, and silvery, Grotto-esque boats, river, buildings and wraith-like figures, showing that the copyist
worked closely from the original.
231
and flattened by discoloured varnish when exhibited in 2012-13 but the colouring of its spot-lit
figures now has more of its original sophistication, subtly matched and cangiante, drenched in
a quiet, silvery glow. It is more solidly structured, its palette equally rich but cooler, its antiquar-
ian details plainer and more sculptural, the wild wood largely replaced by massive bare walls
and arches.83 Both paintings ignore the dynamic plasticity responding to Michelangelo with
which Rosso and Parmigianino wrestled in their journeymen years in Rome, while Penni was
a senior figure there. Had he lived, whether resettled in Rome like Perino or building a new
practice in Naples, presumably he would have again tried to incorporate current orthodoxies
within his own restrained manner. On the evidence of these pictures, his ethereally pictur-
esque landscapes and subtly rich colours would probably have evolved further. But creating
principal figures from scratch would have remained a challenge, perhaps managed, as here,
by combining material inherited from Raphael with ancient types sympathetic to his own
taste and his patron’s purpose.84
83 It is difficult to determine all his intentions for tone and colour in paintings which have suffered five
centuries of abrasion, chromatic change and repair. Recent cleaning revealed that Boston too has strong tonal
contrasts, its landscape blues, in photographs, starker and less silvery-grey than previously.
84 A same-size copy on panel of the Warsaw composition, much repainted (Christies, London, King
Street, sale 1165, 4 December 2013, lot 151 (fig.), as “Circle of Penni”), suggests that it could have enjoyed some
limited popularity outside his control or, perhaps more likely, was thought worth replicating before being sold on.
Penni’s manner inspired a considered though somewhat crude pastiche. Despite weaknesses in execution (altar,
faces, colours, cangiante), it approximates such characteristic small-scale details as his golden highlights in hair
and vegetation, and silvery, Grotto-esque boats, river, buildings and wraith-like figures, showing that the copyist
worked closely from the original.