BUTINONE, BERNARDINO

He is one of the leading representatives, along with Zenale and after Foppa, of pre-Leonardesque Lombard painting, best known especially for the triptych (Madonna enthroned with saints), signed and dated 1484, in the Brera Gallery (Milan). The “Qualino” triptych, formerly at Cereseto Monferrato, is probably his earliest work. Other works preceding the Brera altarpiece include: the Resurrection and the Deposition from the Marbio Collection in Milan, the Adoration of the Magi formerly in Paris, the Nativity in London, the Circumcision in the Carrara Academy in Bergamo, and the Marriage at Cana from the Borromeo collection in Milan; these demonstrate how this painter, starting from an initial empirical Mantegnesque style upon which individual accents are grafted, moves toward modes derived from Foppa. Later, B., who proves to be essentially an eclectic, also absorbs Flemish influences (Nativity in the Malaspina Gallery, Pavia), Ferrarese influences (Madonna on Isola Bella), and Bramantesque ones transmitted to him by Zenale, with whom he executed the frescoes in S. Pietro in Gessate in Milan (now half-destroyed) and the grand altarpiece of S. Martino in Treviglio, dating after 1493, a pure expression of Lombard decorative luxury.