The Madonna Suckling the Infant Christ

Rizzi Gian Pietro called Giampietrino

(active in Lombardy first quarter of the 16th century)

The painting was already in the collection in 1613, as shown by the payment for its frame. At the time, the panel was considered an autograph work by Leonardo; it was later unanimously attributed to Giampietrino. Believed to be a derivation of a lost Leonardo original, the painting clearly documents the powerful influence exerted by da Vinci on 16th-century Lombard artistic production. The contrast between the group in the foreground and the receding landscape beyond the window is striking.

Object details

Commentary

The panel was already in the collection in 1613, as evidenced by the payment for the frame (Della Pergola 1955, p. 77). At the time, it was considered to be an autograph work by Leonardo da Vinci and was only later, thanks to Frizzoni’s input in 1869, unanimously attributed to one of his pupils, Giovanni Pietro Rizzi known as Giampietrino. It was mentioned by Morelli as ‘among his best works’ (1897, p. 158). The Virgin, calm and graceful, gently offers her breast to the child. The pyramidal structure is heightened by the Madonna’s ample robe in contrast to the dark green drape that gives a glimpse of a view of a street ‘with houses lined up in perspective’ (Venturi 1893, p. 209) where ‘the intimacy of the domestic environment is contrasted with the peaceful scene of daily work’ (Staccioli, Moreno 1981, p. 32).

The refined depiction of the Virgin, with her flowing hair, like golden filaments, and her subtly shaded flesh, as well as the bird’s eye view of the landscape, are so clearly of Leonardesque inspiration that this painting, together with other versions or copies, may be considered a derivation from one of Leonardo’s prototypes. The use of colour, especially the palette of predominantly green-red tones, seems, rather, to have been borrowed from another Lombard, Bernardino Luini. In any case, the strong influence exerted by Leonardo on his school and, in general, on the entire artistic production of Lombardy in the 16th century is clear. Indeed, the Lombard style of painting, as the numerous works in the collection show, was a veritable source of illumination for Scipione Borghese.

Gabriele De Melis