Expertise of an 18th-century Lombard school canvas

Subject: Saint Jerome comforted by angels

Attribution: Lombard school

Period: mid-18th century

Technique: oil on canvas

Dimensions: overall dimensions 85x132h cm

Condition: There are widespread surface abrasions, thinning of the paint layer in the upper area and along the edges, paint loss, varnish oxidation, and general wear consistent with the work’s age. The composition was evidently done directly on the canvas without applying a preparatory gesso base.

Iconographic description

The painting depicts Saint Jerome in his advanced age, his body half-naked and wrapped in a blue-green cloth, in the act of receiving comfort from angelic figures.

The Saint is depicted seated, in a diagonal position, his muscles highlighted by vigorous modeling and accentuated anatomical rendering. Next to him appears an angelic female figure, wrapped in a flowing red cloak, the dominant color in the composition.

In the background, a classicist architectural setting develops with columns and wall masses, while in the upper part two flying cherubs emerge from a golden luminosity.

Symbolic attributes are placed in the foreground:

• the skull, a traditional memento mori associated with the Saint;
• the red helmet, abandonment of vanities and renunciation of power and earthly glory;
• the book, theological wisdom understood as knowledge of the Sacred Scriptures;

The compositional structure is theatrical, with a strong diagonal construction and scenographic articulation of space, denoting the difficulty in abandoning the Baroque compositional models of the late 17th century.

Stylistic analysis

The work presents characteristics consistent with the Lombard school of the 18th century, in particular:

• Scenographic setting and taste for figurative monumentality;
• Warm and contrasting colors, with a prevalence of intense reds and deep blues;
• Plastic modelling of the figures, with chiaroscuro accentuation;
• Late Baroque influences are still evident, albeit with a progressive formal simplification typical of eighteenth-century Lombardy.

The anatomical rendering of the Saint and the theatricality of the composition hark back to the Lombard pictorial tradition that developed between the Milanese and Bergamo areas, with influences attributable to the figurative culture of the late seventeenth century but which evolved in a more decorative sense during the eighteenth century.

The execution quality appears to be of a good level, despite some inhomogeneities due to the state of conservation.

Critical considerations

The shaped typology of the support suggests a probable original destination as an element of liturgical furniture, probably inserted in an altarpiece, in a side chapel or in a shaped wooden structure.

The iconographic setting, with a strong emotional and scenographic accent, responds to the post-Tridentine devotional sensitivity still alive in the Lombard context of the 18th century.

Attribution

In light of the observable stylistic, iconographic and technical elements and in the absence of documentary evidence or specific comparisons that allow for a more detailed assignment to a specific workshop or artist, the work can be attributed to the Lombard school of the mid-18th century. One could hypothesize an artist trained in a late-Baroque Milanese tradition, updated on 18th-century decorative models widespread between Milan, Bergamo and the pre-Alpine area.

This attribution was made through comparison with the following artists:

Milan area – late Baroque

Francesco Cairo, for the dramatic nature of the Saint’s figure, the accentuated anatomical rendering, and the marked chiaroscuro. The hollow face and emotional tension recall the Cairo tradition, still influential in 18th-century Lombardy.

Stefano Maria Legnani, for the softness of the angelic figures and the vertical scenographic construction. The presence of cherubs suspended in a golden light harks back to his decorative culture.

Milan-Como area

Giovanni Battista Crespi, not because of chronological contiguity but because of the persistence, in the Lombardy area, of an intense devotional pathos and an energetic modelling deriving from his teaching.

Bergamo area

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, pur trattandosi di artista veneziano, la sua influenza in Lombardia nel pieno XVIII secolo fu significativa. La luminosità nella parte superiore e l’ariosità dei putti possono richiamare, in forma più contenuta, modelli tiepoleschi.

Francesco Capella, per l’impostazione teatrale e la costruzione diagonale della scena.

Milan area – mid-eighteenth century

Carlo Innocenzo Carloni, for the decorative component and for the scenographic articulation of the architectural space.

Conclusions

In light of what has emerged during the study of this canvas, we can say with certainty that the attribution handed down within the owners’ family and referred to the famous Venetian painter Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, can be considered generous but not without foundation.

Venetian domination of the Bergamo area, which ended in 1797 with the Treaty of Campo Formio, certainly indirectly influenced some of its influence on taste and language.