Bergognone (Ambrogio da Fossano)

BERGOGNONE (AMBROGIO da FOSSANO). - Lombard painter, b. probably between 1450 and 1460, mentioned between 1481 and 1522. He was a follower of Vincenzo Foppa without attaining in his delicate images the plastic modelling of the latter.

To the first period of his activity, characterized by cold and grey tones, belong among other works the Virgin Enthroned with Saints, in the Ambrosiana picture gallery, the decorations of the Certosa di Pavia and the Virgin of the Veil at Brera; to the second period, in which the figures take on animation and sweetness of expression through an influence perhaps of Perugino and the colours become warmer and more pasty, we may recall the Baptism of Melegnano (1496) and the polyptych of the church of S. Spirito at Bergamo, the Assumption at Brera, the fresco of the Incoronata at S. Simpliciano in Milan. B. felt the influence of Leonardo in a wholly external way, striving to render with a smoky chiaroscuro the characteristic "sfumato" of Vinci (Mary and Saints at S. Celso); and in general, through his inability to absorb new contributions of taste and art, he repeated to the point of weariness his sweet figures with weary features, in conventional poses, never neglecting the traditional attributes and often depicting in the backgrounds, with a realism at times picturesque, the misty Lombard region. More than in monumental works he finds a coherence of his own in the small compositions of lesser scope such as the very numerous Madonnas with the Child. - See Pl. LXXXIV.

Vincenzo Golzio