FERRARI, GAUDENZIO. – Piedmontese painter, b. at Valduggia, near Borgosesia, around 1471 (according to others, around 1480), d. in Milan on 31 January 1546. In some documents he is called « Gaudentius de Vince » (from his mother’s name); in others:
« Mag. Gaudentius de Ferrari de Varello Vallis Sicidas, filius quandam Antoni Lanfranchi ». According to Lomazzo, he was a pupil of a mediocre Milanese painter, Stefano Scotto; but the names of Perugino, Raphael, and Leonardo have been put forward by various art historians to indicate the masters of G.
Both the panels with Storie di s. Gioacchino (Turin, Galleria Sabauda), the master’s first dated works (1507), and many of his drawings indicate a concrete relationship with Bramantino, and link G.’s art to the Lombard pictorial tradition. Bramantino’s influence can be noted in the particular luminous graphic treatment of the folds, evident in the drawings and paintings, as well as in certain foreshortening effects. But already in the earliest frescoes of the Sacro Monte di Varello (prior to 1513), the reference to Leonardo is apparent, and G.’s distinctive « manierismo » is manifested in the billowing, swollen movement of the folds, which has led his art to be defined now as Gothic, now as Baroque—at least as a linguistic reference. The altarpiece of Arona (1511), one of the artist’s masterpieces, also belongs to the first period; here the Umbrian-Peruginesque influence appears, and it subsequently becomes more pronounced in the cycle of frescoes depicting the Vita e passione di Cristo (1515), in S. Maria delle Grazie at Varello. This is followed by the polyptych of S. Gaudenzio in Novara (1515), another significant work, in which the chromatic effect, exceptionally vivid in G., appears tempered by Leonardesque chiaroscuro. Between 1528 and 1539, G. worked in Vercelli and Saronno. This period saw the cycle of frescoes in S. Cristoforo at Vercelli, with Storie della Maddalena, characterized by a broad and calm manner; the Madonna degli Aranci (Vercelli, S. Cristoforo); the frescoes of the sanctuary of S. Maria dei Miracoli in Saronno (1534), etc. From 1539 until his death, G. F. worked in Milan.
To this period, dominated by a more pronounced Mannerism and by more complex Leonardesque suggestions, belong, among other works: the altarpiece of S. Maria di Piazza in Busto Arsizio (1539); the frescoes of S. Maria delle Grazie in Milan (1542); the S. Paolo in the Louvre (1543); and the beautiful frescoes with Storie di s. Aiona, for S. Maria della Pace, later in Brera. – Vedi tav. LXXIX.