Giampietrino

Giampietrino, possibly Giovanni Pietro Rizzoli (active 1495–1549),[1] was a north Italian painter of the Lombard school and the Leonardo circle, succinctly characterized by Sidney J. Freedberg as an "exploiter of Leonardo's repertory."[2]

He was a very productive painter of large altarpieces, Madonnas, Holy Women in half figure, and mythological women. For a long time the true identity of the artist was unknown; he was only known as the so-called "Giampietrino" who turns up in lists of the members of Leonardo's studio. In 1929 Wilhelm Suida suggested that it could perhaps be Giovanni Battista Belmonte, since a Madonna signed with this name and dated 1509 had been associated stylistically with Giampietrino. Since then, this assumption is considered outdated, and Giampietrino is identified predominantly with a "Giovanni Pietro Rizzoli", who is known through documents.

Giampietrino can be regarded as a talented but limited painter who contributed substantially to the distribution of the late style of Leonardo da Vinci. He adapted numerous displays of Leonardo, and in addition, he left behind numerous capable compositions of his own. Many pictures are preserved in multiple versions.

Selected works

Notes

  1. '^ Though Andrea Bayer says "rather securely identified" (Bayer, "North of the Apennines: Sixteenth-Century Italian Painting in Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna" The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, New Series, 60.4 [Spring, 2003], p. 19), Sidney J. Freedberg says "It is uncertain whether this painter is to be identified with Gian Pietro Rizzi or Giovanni di Pietro of Como." (Freedberg, Painting in Italy 1500-1600 3rd ed. 1993:383, note 25).
  2. ^ Freedberg, 1993:383.

References