16th-17th Century St. John Baptist Painting Oil on Canvas by Bertolotto

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16th-17th Century St. John Baptist Painting Oil on Canvas by Bertolotto

About the Item

Gian Lorenzo Bertolotto (Genoa, 1640 - there, 1721) St. John Baptist Oil on canvas, 88.5 x 67 cm Frame 94 x 73 cm A vigorous illumination lights up the figure of St. John the Baptist, figured in his full maturity. The classic torsion of the bust, reminiscent of ancient Roman marble sculptures, is parallel to the retraction of the legs, a solid pivot on which the Saint pushes to better indicate the divine lamb at the side of the painting. The careful anatomical analysis, specified in the musculature of the trunk and in the bundle of veins that runs through the arm holding the processional cross with the canonical Ecce Agnus Dei cartouche, reaches its apex in the red colorism in correspondence with the face and neck of the Saint, of vivid expressiveness . The painting can be compared to the production of Giovanni Lorenzo Bertolotto, a Genoese artist recently the subject of research (Manzitti, Zanelli). Exponent of an established family of painters (before him: his ancestor Filippo and his father Michelangelo, then his future son Michelangelo), being "of a very perceptive genius" (Soprani-Ratti treatises, 1768-1769) Bertolotto abandoned the paternal workshop to reach that of Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (1609-1664). The fortunate apprenticeship with the excellent master allowed the artist to update his language on the baroque innovations of the Genoese school, fueled by the arrival in the city of the altarpiece with the Circumcision of Rubens (1605), then of Rubens himself between 1606-7, Van Dyck between 1621 and 1627, as well as contacts with Lombard artists of late Mannerism, The contemporaries remember very prestigious orders for Genoese churches and palaces, which Bertolotto attended by preferring religious and mythological themes. The Reception of Giovanni Agostino Durazzo, ambassador of the Genoese to the court of Mohammed IV in Constantinople (Genoa, private collection), painted for Eugenio Durazzo, was widely praised by the sources, so much so that shortly after Marcantonio Franceschini ruled that the artist was "a de 'the most excellent professors our city had at that time ”. Payments relating to the two-year period 1679-1680 also testify the activity of Bertolotto for Ridolfo Maria Brignole Sale in the rooms of Palazzo Rosso, decorated with various frescoes. Even James Stuart, pretender to the English throne, commissioned some paintings around the decade of the following century, during a stop in the city of Genoa. One of the last documented works was the San Teodomino, bishop of Iridia, who had the wood cut to find the body of San Giacomo for the former church of San Giacomo della Marina, in 1720. The present shows stringent similarities with Jonah on the beach of Nineveh (Genoa, Palazzo Bianco), both for the nuanced shadow that dulls the smallest details, and for the attention to the tones of the pigments and the intentional expressiveness of the prophet. A parallel attention to the emotional charge also pervades the San Filippo Neri in contemplation of the Virgin and Child preserved in the church of Santi Nicolò and Erasmo in Genoa. The same light defining a brown backdrop for large chromatic scores also occurs in the Ecstasy of San Francesco and in the Agar and Ismaele, both in a private collection.

Dimensions:
Height: 37.01 in (94 cm)Width: 28.75 in (73 cm)Length: 37.01 in (94 cm)
Materials and Techniques:
Canvas,Hand-Painted,Oiled,Painted
Place of Origin:
Italy
Period:
Early 17th Century
Date of Manufacture:
16th-17th Century
Condition:
Refinished. Wear consistent with age and use. The painting has been cleaned.
Seller Location:
Milan, IT
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU5918226763432