Altarpiece Madonna with Child and Saints 17th century circle of Tanzio da Varallo

WORK: ALTARPIECE, OIL ON CANVAS

SUBJECT: MADONNA WITH CHILD AND SAINTS

PERIOD: 17TH CENTURY.

AUTHOR: PAINTER FROM THE CIRCLE OF TANZIO DA VARALLO

DIMENSIONS: 208 x 138 cm

 

 

The painting in question, a theatrical altarpiece, constitutes a significant testimony to the pictorial legacy of the artist known as Tanzio da Varallo, a leading exponent of late Piedmontese - Lombard Mannerism.

The characters' thin and hooked hands, hollow faces, emphatic gestures to the point of formal paroxysm are notable characteristics that suggest a direct comparison between our painter and the "manner" of Tanzio da Varallo, whose pictorial lesson was characterised by an undisputed originality, both in form and colour, worthy of being able to compete, in terms of innovation, with his Lombard contemporaries Cerano, Morazzone and Procaccini.

Testori drew attention to this undisputed originality in Tanzio's work on the occasion of the Turin exhibition dedicated to the master in 1959-1960 ( Giovanni Testori, Piedmontese and Lombard mannerism of the seventeenth century, 1955, Exhibition catalogue, Turin-Ivrea; Tanzio da Varallo, Exhibition catalogue, Turin 1959 ).

Although Longhi had already mentioned his production several times, it was Testori who brought the attention of critics to the extraordinary novelty introduced into the Italian panorama by Tanzio's painting: a difficult synthesis that Tanzio had to continually pursue between Caravaggio's realism (which, however, disappeared in the painter of our altarpiece) and Piedmontese-Lombard mannerism (a fundamental element of reference, a true compass, which the anonymous painter of our hagiographic composition looks at, instead, with observant reverence), all invested with a vibrant pathos, above all in the human anatomies, a direct consequence of the tormented local Counter-Reformation spirituality inaugurated by San Carlo Borromeo.

The saint is, not by chance, also the protagonist of a work by Tanzio, the Domodossola Altarpiece (“Saint Charles Borromeo Communicates to the Plague Victims”) which marks the watershed between the Caravaggio-style training (see Achille della Ragione, Tanzio da Varallo meets Caravaggio . From 24 October at Palazzo Zevallos , Naples 2014) , completed in Rome and of which there are traces in works preserved in Abruzzo and datable around 1610 (Circumcision, parish church of Fara San Martino; Madonna of the Quenched Fire, collegiate church of Pescocostanzo) and a whole series of religious commissions in remote parish churches (Lumellogno, a hamlet of Novara, Madonna with Child and Saints Francis and Dominic ; Vagna, a hamlet of Domodossola, Visitation; Fontaneto d'Agogna, Saints in Adoration of the Trinity ) , in which the artist's style evolves towards the synthesis between the two experiences, Caravaggism and Mannerism, experiencing something equalled in the European panorama by the only Spanish artist Luis Tristán (Toledo, 1586-1624 ).

As mentioned, in the case of the painter of our altarpiece , if the Caravaggio legacy is now absent, there remains the weight of the tribute to Piedmontese- Lombard mannerism, with which Tanzio continues to measure himself, in full stylistic continuity with the Domodossola altarpiece until arriving at the masterpieces of the chapels of the Sacro Monte di Varallo, from 1616 to 1628 (chapel XXVII, Christ led for the first time before Pilate's tribunal; chapel XXXIV, Pilate washes his hands; chapel XXVIII, Jesus before Herod), the artist's involvement encouraged by his brother Giovanni, architect and sculptor , who from 1586 began to work on the large construction site of the "Jerusalem of the Alps " .

A further element of Tanzio's biography, which allows us to shed light on the probable commissioning of our altarpiece, allowing us to hypothesize a "continuum" between the master and the imitative painter of the circle, is constituted by the commissions that Tanzio received from members of the aristocracy , who had been able to admire his works at the Sacro Monte and who involved him in the creation of altarpieces, intended for noble chapels directly under the patronage of these noble families .

It cannot be excluded that such a fact also occurred with the artist of our altarpiece, more “cheap” , less complex than Tanzio, certainly more oleographic than the model, but equally imbued with a pictorial language, now appreciated and requested,.

Prof. Giorgio Maturi

 

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