Madonna With Child And San Giovannino

Bottega di Francesco Di Bernardo De' Vecchi, Detto Rizzo Da Santacroce (news 1504 - 1545)

Madonna with Child and San Giovannino

Tempera on table, cm 39 x 33

The strong stylistic and compositional assonances, with works such as the Madonna and Child of the Civic Museum of Sarnico, allow to connect the table to a painter working in one of the most famous and profitable workshops of the 16th century in Veneto: that of the Santacroce of Val Brembana.

The critics divide the painters of Santacroce, who are about ten, in two separate workshops but collaborated both working simultaneously in Venice, their city of adoption, in Istria, Dalmatia and the Bergamo and Brescia hinterland between the early sixteenth century and the first quarter of the seventeenth century. The first workshop is that of Francesco di Simone (died 1508), a pupil of Giovanni Bellini, he succeeded Francesco Rizzo di Bernardo, also from Santacroce but not related, active between 1504 and 1545, with whom his brother Vincenzo died in 1531. The activity of the first workshop ends with the figure of Giovanni de Vecchi or de Galizzi documented in Venice until 1565. The definition of the second workshop reveals a clearer genealogy since it passes from father to son and grandson; in fact, it started with Girolamo, active between 1503 and 1556, to which his son Francesco di Girolamo (Venice, 1516 -1584) and his nephew Pietro Paolo succeeded, active between 1575 and 1620.

This is a work performed for the devotional market by the workshop of Francesco di Bernardo de' Vecchi, called Rizzo da Santacroce. Certainly the painting is a take of an iconography in use among the painters of the circle of Santacroce: the San Giovannino finds a precise comparison with the same subject present in other works as the Madonna and Child between the ss. Giovannino and Caterina d'Alessandria of the Church of San Giacomo Apostolo dei Domenicaniand in the Madonna with Child of the Civic Museum, Bassano del Grappa. The prototype of the Madonna whose figure is emphasized by a rectangular drape behind it is also found in other works related to him kept at the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo and in the Pinacoteca di Forlì.

The documents on the artist are scarce, as well as the chronological records of his life and production. The first news about Francesco is in 1505 when he was present at the reading of a will, this power was obtained only with the attainment of majority. As already reported he becomes a disciple and apprentice of Francesco di Simone and heir to the workshop still very young, he was about twenty-three years old. In 1516 he concluded a contract with the rector of the church of Santa Maria a Serina for the execution of a triptych, depicting the Pietà between Saints Peter and Young Baptist, still existing, although dismembered, which he delivered in 1518. Between 1515 and 1524 he made two polyptychs for the church of S. Giovanni Batista in Dossena: that of the Madonna del Rosario and that of the high altar, commissioned by the confraternity of Corpus Domini. These works testify to the strong connection to his places of origin, having also married in 1516 Adriana, originally from Bergamo. But his activity took place mainly in Venice, as evidenced by the registration to the brotherhood of painters in 1530 and the two most famous works: The last supper of the chapel Bragadin in S. Francesco della Vigna and the Apparition of the Risen Christ (1513), now in the Gallerie dell'Accademia di Venezia.
The founder of the workshop of painters from Santacroce in Venice was Francesco di Simone who in the testament of 1508 left the workshop with drawings and other materials to the student Francesco Rizzo di Bernardo, also from Santa Croce (San Pellegrino) in Val Brembana, but belonging to another family. Their workshop is the owner of a craft mode to carry out the profession and frequently relies on the reworking of ideas of Giovanni Bellini, patriarch of Venetian painting of the time, but also other undisputed masters such as Mantegna and Antonello da Messina, Drawings held in high regard and transmitted by testamentary for the continuation of business. Many of his Sacred Conversations, which have countless variations on the theme, can be traced to drawings taken from the originals by Giovanni Bellini in Venice. 

The object is in good condition