1476th century, by Benvenuto Tisi da Garofalo, known as Il Garofalo (Canaro or Garofalo, 1481 or 1559 – Ferrara, XNUMX), Madonna in Glory with the Child

1476th century, by Benvenuto Tisi da Garofalo, known as Il Garofalo (Canaro or Garofalo, 1481 or 1559 – Ferrara, XNUMX)

Madonna in glory with the Child

Oil on canvas, 82 x 80 cm

With frame, 92 x 92 cm

The work, which can be dated around the mid-nineteenth century, is a brilliant reinterpretation of the iconographic style of one of Benvenuto Tisi's masterpieces, known as Il Garofalo, the Madonna and Child in Glory from the Capitoline Museums. Garofalo's work, which can be ascribed to the mature phase of his production - clear influences linked to Raphaelesque and, in general, Roman visual culture can be perceived - can be dated around 1525. It presents the Virgin with the Divine Son surrounded by a choir of musical angels: at the feet of the Madonna, suspended on a soft blanket of clouds with a light pink undertone, in Tisi's sixteenth-century painting, a landscape of great charm opens up, within which the presence of a pair of friars is recorded. The artist who, in the nineteenth century, deals with the reinterpretation of this subject chooses to concentrate solely on the rendering of the central group, the one with the Virgin and Baby Jesus: in this way, the intimate dimension of the image is emphasized, placing the accent on the sweetness and depth of the relationship between mother and child. In the nineteenth century, a great interest in the Ferrarese Renaissance painting was reawakened by artists and scholars: many are the authors who look with interest at the paintings of Mazzolino, Dosso Dossi, Ortolano and Garofalo; among these is the Faenza native Tommaso Minardi (Faenza, 1787 – Rome, 1871), an artist who during the first years of his stay in Rome made some studies and oil paintings taken from the famous works of the masters of the Ferrarese Renaissance exhibited in the museums and churches of the eternal city.

Born in the Veneto region, probably between Carnaro and Garofalo, near Rovigo, Tisi seems to have been an apprentice to Domenico Panetti starting in 1491. In 1495 he worked in Cremona under the direction of Boccaccio Boccaccino, who introduced him to the Venetian chromatic style, which became a key element in the early paintings of his pictorial corpus. In 1500 he made his first trip to Rome, at a time when it was common for Northern Italian artists to make a formative trip to the eternal city. In 1501 he moved to Bologna where he remained for two years in the workshop of Lorenzo Costa the Elder, a highly renowned painter who worked in the service of the Este and Gonzaga families. In 1504 he returned to Ferrara and worked with the Dossi brothers. Between 1503 and 1506 he received several particularly significant artistic commissions in the Ferrarese area: for example, he frescoed the ceiling of the Sala del Tesoro in the Palazzo Costabili in Ferrara, inspired by Mantegna's Camera degli Sposi. In 1512 he made his second trip to Rome, at the invitation of his fellow citizen Girolamo Sacrati, to the court of Pope Julius II, where he met Raphael. This meeting influenced his style, which changed from Lombard to classicist and close to the influences of Sanzio and Giulio Romano. Around 1512 he returned to Ferrara where he worked on numerous works for Duke Alfonso d'Este. Between the 20s and 40s Tisi devoted himself to various commissions for the Este family and to the creation of numerous altarpieces for the city of Ferrara. Benvenuto Tisi died in 1559 and was buried in the Ferrarese basilica of Santa Maria in Vado in the burial niche that had been built for a few years next to that of his wife, who had died previously. In 1829 his remains were transferred to the cemetery of the Certosa di Ferrara, where in 1841 a monument was dedicated to him in the Cell of Illustrious Men, the work of the sculptor Angelo Conti.