Circle of Prospero Fontana (Bologna, 1512 – Bologna, 1597), Holy Family with the Infant Saint John

Circle of Prospero Fontana (Bologna, 1512 – Bologna, 1597)

Holy family with Saint John

Oil on canvas, 44,5×34 cm

With frame, 61 x 47 cm

Prospero Fontana He was born in Bologna in 1512: after a long “apprenticeship” as an assistant to various Mannerist painters, first of all Perin del Vaga, with whom he collaborated in Genoa for the creation of the masterly cycle of frescoes in Palazzo Doria, Fontana opened a school in Bologna that played a notable role in the maturation of Emilian painting in the second half of the 1560th century. Fontana was an excellent portraitist (a skill he passed on to his daughter Lavinia, also a successful painter) and as such he was introduced by Michelangelo to Julius III, becoming one of the favorite painters of the pontiff, who, as Abbot Lanzi recalls, «paid him among the Palatine painters». For Julius III in Rome, Fontana was not only active as a portraitist: he supervised the decoration of the Belvedere in the Vatican, worked in Castel Sant'Angelo, decorated Villa Giulia together with Taddeo Zuccari and Pietro Venale, and frescoed the loggia of Palazzo Firenze in Campo Marzio (then belonging to the Pope's brother). Around XNUMX he went to France: the artist appears to have been one of the various Mannerist painters involved by Primaticcio in what would turn out to be the foundation of the School of Fontainebleau, an experience that was also very formative for Fontana. The French stay, however, was brief, because Fontana, seriously ill, had to be repatriated in a hurry (not even managing to earn the advance he had received, which Primaticcio later forgave him).

Also around 1560 Fontana was commissioned by Cardinal Tiberio Crispo to decorate his palace in the city of Bolsena, today Palazzo del Drago. Shortly afterwards Fontana accompanied Vasari (with whom he had already collaborated in Rimini) to Florence, where he assisted him, together with Livio Agresti, in frescoing Palazzo Vecchio (1563-1565), and where he was admitted to the Florentine Academy of Design. Having returned to Bologna in 1570, he left the following year for Città di Castello, where he had been commissioned to decorate Palazzo Vitelli a Sant'Egidio. The work took him, with assistants, from 1572 to 1574, but its central part, the 22 scenes of the Stories of the Vitelli Events in the Hall, is often cited for the speed with which it was executed: it seems in fact that the project, although absolutely sumptuous, was completed in a few weeks. From Città di Castello Fontana returned definitively to Bologna where, however, he had worked continuously in the intervals between his various journeys. In 1550 he had frescoed the Palazzina della Viola with a cycle of scenes from the Life of Constantine, in 1551 Palazzo Bocchi, between 1550 and 1556 Palazzo Poggi; in 1560 he had painted the Dispute of Saint Catherine for the sanctuary of the Madonna del Baraccano, a work particularly appreciated by his friend Giorgio Vasari, who praised her for her technical expertise in the Lives; between 1566 and 1568 he had frescoed the Pepoli chapel in San Domenico and in 1570 he had participated in the decoration of the new apse in the Church of San Pietro. Fontana continued to paint until the 90s, even though in the final part of his life he suffered strong competition from the newly founded workshop of the Carracci cousins, active in the same period.

This beautiful painting from the workshop of the Bolognese painter presents various references to the work of the master: as in the mobile works of Fontana's production, also in this case the fusion of Roman, Tuscan and Emilian influences is evident: this is due to the master's numerous trips to the Peninsula and his very close friendships with figures such as Giorgio Vasari and Michelangelo. The theme of the Holy Family with the Infant Saint John is often revisited by Fontana in his works, as can be seen in the Holy Family with Saints Elizabeth and John the Baptist in the Civic Museums of Vicenza – described by Mauro Lucco in these terms: “an image of serenity, to which the spring-like, melodious brightness of the contrasting colours, sometimes iridescent, certainly of Vasarian origin, but not forgetful, once again, in the careful dilution of light areas on darker areas, of what had been, and was, one of the secrets of Venetian painting” – or the Holy Family with the Infant Saint John and Saint Francis in the Civic Museums of Forlì. The domestic and peaceful atmosphere and the sense of sweet cohesion that shows how the pupil was able to brilliantly interpret and make his own the solutions devised by his ideal master, stand out in the painting.