FERRARI, GAUDENZIO. - Piedmontese painter, b. at Valduggia, near Borgosesia, c. 1471 (according to others c. 1480), d. at 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 the various art writers to indicate G.'s masters.
Both the panels with Stories of St. Joachim (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 is noticeable in the particular luministic graphic quality of the folds, evident in the drawings and paintings, as well as in certain foreshortened effects. But already in the oldest frescoes of the Sacro Monte of Varello (earlier than 1513) the reference to Leonardo is noticeable, and that particular "mannerism" of G. manifests itself, in the undulating and swollen movement of the draperies, which has led his art to be defined now as Gothic, now as Baroque; at least as a linguistic reference. To the first period also belongs the altarpiece of Arona (1511), among the artist's masterpieces, in which the Umbrian-Peruginesque influence is inserted, which then becomes more pronounced in the cycle of frescoes of the Life and Passion of Christ (1515), in S. Maria delle Grazie at Varello. There follows the polyptych of S. Gaudenzio of Novara (1515), another significant work, in which the chromatic effect, in G. extremely vivid, appears tempered by Leonardesque chiaroscuro. Between 1528 and 1539, G. worked at Vercelli and at Saronno. To this period belongs the cycle of frescoes in S. Cristoforo at Vercelli, with Stories of the Magdalene, characterized by a broad and calm manner, the Madonna of the Oranges (Vercelli, S. Cristoforo); the frescoes of the sanctuary of S. Maria dei Miracoli at Saronno (1534), etc. From 1539 until his death, G. F. worked at Milan.
To this period, dominated by a more pronounced mannerism and by more complex Leonardesque suggestions, belong, among other things: the altarpiece of S. Maria di Piazza at Busto Arsizio (1539); the frescoes of S. Maria delle Grazie at Milan (1542); the St. Paul in the Louvre (1543); the very beautiful frescoes with Stories of St. Aiona, for S. Maria della Pace, later at Brera. - See pl. LXXIX.
Bibliography14 works
Luigi Grassi