19
Gaspare Da Pesaro © (Operante a Palermo, 1413 - 1461)Attributed to
Madonna and Child Enthroned between Saints John and Jerome
Tempera on panel
42.5x32.5cm
Professional expertise of Prof. Claudio Strinati :
"The panel depicting the Madonna enthroned with Child between Saints John
Baptist and Jerome (tempera on wood, 42.5 x 32.5 cm) is an unpublished work
datable, for stylistic reasons and with relative approximation, to the first
quarter of the fifteenth century and attributable, albeit circumstantially, in< /i>
lack of certain comparisons, to Gaspare da Pesaro, a painter active
for a long time in southern Italy, attested by numerous archival papers
and handwritten and then printed testimonies of the sources that inform us
of his activity, but of which not even a certain work remains, for signatures
or documents.
And yet the clues found in the painting may suggest that
we are dealing with a work of very fine quality as well as excellent
conservation and significant historic-artistic interest, probably by the hand of this legendary painter. In fact, the sources allow us to frame
first of all the certain chronological terms of his work.
Born in he last decade of the fourteenth century, the painter and
illuminator Gaspare da Pesaro died in 1461 after a fervent career and
also honored by great patrons such as the king of Naples Alfonso the magnanimous
who invited him to the court of Gaeta to entrust him with a job
< i>inherent in his skills as an illuminator which, for that time, meant
the supply of both works on paper and paintings on wood of small size</ div>
very small format, suitable for being placed on a desk or in a
study.
Specialist in sacred painting, above all Gonfalons and Standards,
but also specialized in smaller format and elegant works
< i>iconography, Gaspare da Pesaro was certainly a leading exponent of
that school of the Marches of the fifteenth century which includes a series of
< i>remarkable figures, including Giovanni Antonio da Pesaro in the first half
up to Nicola di Maestro Antonio da Ancona in the second half. The style of
our painting, examined here, is typically from the Marche region, with a mixture of
naturalism (the beautiful shapely child and the almost spherical face
of the Madonna) and an abstract gothic tendency (the figure of the Baptist
so emaciated or the witty Saint Jerome intent on reading). These figures
belong to a typology of images that characterize the whole
culture of the Adriatic area only partially influenced by the school
Venetian but also participating in that Dalmatian culture which was thus
decisive for another excellent Veneto-Marche native, Carlo Crivelli with which our painting has some point of contact. Tradition
attributes, often with little foundation, to Gaspare da Pesaro works
very different from each other, including even the Triumph of Death of Palermo.
Nevertheless the belonging of our table to the Marche culture
Adriatic would seem clear, while the impossibility of conducting
convincing comparisons with other works by established authors, leads one to think
of being faced with an illustrious artist yes, but largely forgotten
by historiography.
All these deductions lead me, then, to think that the identikit
probable of Gaspara da Pesaro may coincide with what can be seen in
our picture. The neat canopy suggests, moreover, the processional painting
of which Gaspare da Pesaro was a well-known master and the idea, from
authentic miniaturist, not to paint the nimbus of the Virgin but to obtain it
from the gold background on which the entire panel is painted, would seem like a ploy< /div>
refined and elegant, worthy of a cultured pictorial mind.
That mixture of the ironic and at the same time solemn is a peculiar characteristic of</i
this Adriatic art and a certain relationship with the other famous Pesaro of the
time, Giovanni Antonio, makes the identification of
our painting with this unknown but remarkable painter. And even more
interesting is to learn from the sources that Gaspare, in the first period of his
activity was in close relations of collaboration with a painter, of whom we also
we are completely ignorant, called Niccolò di Magio, from Siena.
And a certain influence of the Sienese environment of the early fifteenth century is also
present in our work under examination. The first news we have of
Gaspar is related to his first marriage contracted in 1415. It seems
probable that our painting can be dated to that time."
€ 19.000,00
Starting price