Enea Salmeggia called 'Salmezza' (Salmezza, Nembro around 1570 - Bergamo 1626)
Aeneas Salmeggia, Ecce Homo

$27,048.19

£20,039.43

€23,000

CA$37,031.48

A$41,663.81

CHF 22,075.11

MX$514,495.43

NOK 270,617.44

SEK 260,026.05

DKK 174,997.57

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About the Item

Enea Salmeggia known as Talpino (Bergamo, 1565 - 1626), second decade of the 17th century Ecce homo Oil on canvas, 84 x 61 cm Framed, 103 x 77 cm The work presented here depicts the scene of Ecce homo, which can be literally translated as "Behold the man"; the famous phrase was uttered by Pontius Pilate when he presented Jesus scourged and crowned with thorns to the crowd and represents one of the most poignant moments of the Passion. The strong impact of this image, so saturated with dramatic pathos, was masterfully interpreted by the painter Enea Salmeggia known as Talpino, who was born in the Seriana Valley, specifically in the small hamlet of Salmezza, in about 1570 and died in Bergamo in 1626. Having soon moved to Bergamo, Salmeggia would establish himself first in the province, then in the Orobic capital and finally reach as far as the great metropolis of Milan, where he would leave important testimonies in some of the city's most important places of worship: in the Duomo, the Certosa di Garegnano, San Maria della Passione, San Simpliciano and even in the chapel of Palazzo Carmagnola. The prestige of these places, considering the strong competition of coeval colleagues, from Procaccini to Cerano via fellow countrymen Cavagna and Lolmo, fully demonstrates the level reached by Salmeggia, who was able to have his art appreciated even beyond local borders. In fact, his training is strongly rooted in Bergamo's painting culture, among which stands out the figure of Giovan battista Moroni (Albino, 1520/1524 - 1578/1579), which will persist throughout his career with, however, some innovations learned during travel, work and experience. His alleged trip to Rome in 1597 would introduce stylistic features that would earn him the title "Raphael of Bergamo," the altarpiece of the Annunciation for the Carthusian Monastery allowed him to work closely with Simone Peterzano, considered by many to be his master, while at the building site of santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo he met Camillo Procaccini. All these influences will be well amalgamated by the artist, who is capable of adding different elements in a harmonious way, thus renewing his language without distorting it; in this case we are before a work belonging to the second of the seventeenth century: the ashen tones of Christ's skin, the strong patheticism of the face, the menacing expressions of the executioners, and the dark setting, exploited to the fullest for luminous contrasts, testify to the final phase of his activity. Indeed, it must be said that Salmeggia was not insensitive to the innovations brought by the group of painters that Giovanni testori wittily called the pestanti. Hence an increasingly continuous use of nocturnal settings, as in the canvases made for Santa Maria della Passione, and a consequent play of luminous contrasts; moreover, the macabre taste that characterizes the painting of these artists, who lived between two epochal plagues, also reverberates in the martyrdom or Passion scenes that Salmeggia would produce in his later years: the Flagellation in Santa Maria della Passione, the Martyrdom of St. Agatha in Bergamo or the cycle of canvases of St. Alexander. The executioners, martyrs, or soldiers express a more intense emotionality than in previous years, sought not impulsively but following a long path of studies and preparatory drawings, still preserved today, that direct their attentions to Leonardo's works of the first half of the sixteenth century; here the painter found the source of inspiration to go beyond that placid atmosphere of the first sacred altarpieces, in which references went toward artists such as Lorenzo Lotto or such as Correggio. We are therefore in a later phase than the early Milanese works: the Marriage of the Virgin for the Duomo in 1601, the Madonna in Glory with Child and Saints Ambrose and Charles Borromeo of 1603 for the Broletto Novissimo, or the Deposition at the Peterzano of 1602, now preserved at Brera. The lessons learned in his youth still remain alive and are added to Raphaelesque and Lottesque instances, but the overall tone of the work changes, delineating a style close to that of the Pestants if not identical. Salmeggia's talents and quality earned him the praise of Girolamo Borsieri, a poet and treatise writer from Como, in his letter to the collector Scipione Toso: "V ha il Salmetia, il quale allo incontro contento dell'imitar la delicatezza e la semplicità di cui adopera i pennelli nel principio del passato secolo, move a mirar devotamente ciascuna sua imagine fino inemici della stessa devotione." From the letter, in which Borsieri encourages his friend to embark on the path of collecting, artists deemed valuable already in his collections are mentioned. Salmeggia appears, therefore, alongside the great coeval painters such as Morazzone, Procaccini, and Cerano, to whom, a few years later, Toso would entrust the execution of the famous Martyrdom of Saints Rufina and Seconda, known as the Painting of the Three Hands, enough to indicate to us the appreciation enjoyed by Salmeggia already in this era. The item is in good condition

Creator:
Enea Salmeggia called 'Salmezza' (Salmezza, Nembro around 1570 - Bergamo 1626) (1570 - 1626)
Dimensions:
Height: 40.56 in (103 cm)Width: 30.32 in (77 cm)
More Editions & Sizes:
103x77 cm Price: $27,048
Medium:
Canvas,Oil
Period:
17th Century
Condition:
Gallery Location:
Milan, IT
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU2639215520632

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