Francesco Londonio (Milan, 1723 -1783) Landscapes with shepherds and herds

Francesco Londonio (Milan, 1723 -1783)

Landscapes with shepherds and herds

oil on canvas, 47 x 39 cm

Londonio began his artistic career as a pupil of Ferdinando Porta in Milan, initially training in the tradition of history painting. A youthful trip to Parma, likely undertaken to study the work of Antonio Allegri, known as Correggio, testifies to his early interest in the great Emilian tradition. However, his artistic career took a crucial and innovative turn, abandoning historical painting to dedicate himself to the animalistic and pastoral genre. This conversion, presumably taking place in the fifth decade of the eighteenth century in Lombardy (between Milan and Cremona), was not only a change of subject, but a true reformulation of the genre, capable of intercepting the most advanced cultural demands of Milan in the second half of the eighteenth century. The sources of this new vision were multiple and predominantly Nordic: figures such as Berchem, Adiaen van de Velde or Peter van Laer known as il Bamboccio and Willem Romeyn, whose “bambocciate” rich in horses and herds were well represented in Milanese collections such as the Galleria della Porta (formerly Parravicini), providing a direct stimulus. Alongside these, Londonio integrated Italian influences: the rendering of the animals was indebted to Giovanni Battista Castiglione (il Grechetto), while the figures, while retaining the agile baroque grace learned from Porta, show the strong influence of Giacomo Ceruti, evident above all in the pathetic tone and the close-up perspective of the isolated figures present in his first etchings of 1758-59. His documented debut in the new genre dates back to the middle of the century, with the 1753 drawing, A Bull and a Cow Resting, and the first signed painting of 1756, a Cattle Market, which openly confirmed his Dutch sources. Londonio thus managed to mediate Nordic influences with Lombard sensibility, creating a pastoral art that defined his identity in the eighteenth-century artistic panorama. Londonio's youthful activity is documented by his etchings (1758-59), a technique he learned in Milan from Benigno Bossi. The 103 total engravings, divided into 10 series, reveal a strong stylistic influence from Giacomo Ceruti, evident in the close-up perspective and the pathetic tone of the pastoral subjects. The seventh decade of the eighteenth century is the most fruitful and documented period of Londonio's career. It was marked by a series of study trips that were fundamental for the development and enrichment of his pictorial language; he visited Rome (1763) and Naples (1763-64), with a probable stop in Genoa. His travels were interspersed with the creation of important pictorial cycles on canvas for the noble Milanese Grianta and Alari families. The first half of the 1960s was also a period of great productivity for his preparatory studies, which form the backbone of his performance practice; these are numerous oil studies on paper, often signed, intended to be reused in larger compositions. They are characterised by a soft, vibrant brushstroke and a lively chiaroscuro that shapes the figures and motifs. Londonio's remarkable mastery of the pastoral genre found formal recognition in the 1770s. His fame is attested by the praise paid to him in 1772 by the dialect poet and academic Trasformato Domenico Balestrieri, who, like his colleague Carlo Antonio Tanzi, owned “some paintings” by the artist. During the 1970s his painting technique evolved, with the brushstroke becoming more cursive and nervous. An example of this approach can be found in the Old Peasant Spinner with Cattle from the Sforza Castle, dated 1775. Other important complexes of works commissioned by influential Lombard families, including the Borromeos, the Greppis and the Mellerios, date back, at least in part, to this chronological phase. An activity of great interest, which transcends the canvas, is linked to the painted and cut-out paper nativity scene, a genre in vogue in Lombardy in the second half of the eighteenth century. Londonio played a leading role in the renewal of this technique. The key example of this production is the imposing nativity scene in the church of S. Marco in Milan. Yet, marginally with respect to his favourite pastoral theme, Londonio also cultivated other genres. His forays extend to still life and portraiture, as demonstrated by the very famous Self-Portrait preserved at the Sforza Castle in Milan.

These two pastoral scenes, centered on shepherds and herds in a shady landscape, fit perfectly into Francesco Londonio's oeuvre. The style is characterized by a cursive, vibrant brushstroke and a lively chiaroscuro that shapes the subjects. The animal figures, particularly the cows, reflect the meticulous observation of life that Londonio developed in his preparatory oil studies on paper, the most substantial corpus of which, containing numerous sketches of livestock, is preserved at the Pinacoteca di Brera. These works highlight the master's synthesis of the influence of Northern European genre painting and the Lombard sensibility of the eighteenth century.

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