Luini, Bernardino

LUINI, BERNARDINO. - Lombard painter, b. between 1480 and 1490, d. in Milan in 1532; his typically Lombard formation is evident in his earliest works, where the reflections of the manners of Foppa, Bergognone, and Civerchio can be identified in turn (Christ Deposed, in the church of the Passione in Milan; Annunciation, 1516, at Brera), and then, even more, those of Bramantino (frescoes of the Pelucca, 1522; organ shutters, 1524, formerly in S. Eustorgio and now in the Parish Church of Paderno Milanese).

The attribution to L., still debated, of an altarpiece marked "Bernardino Mediolanensis, 1507" in the Jacquemart André Museum, would lead to recognizing quite early in the painter the Venetian influences, identifiable later, and through the mediation of Andrea Solario, in the Deposition (1516) of the chapel of the Sacrament in S. Giorgio al Palazzo in Milan. In the Madonna and Child with Angels, at Chiaravalle Milanese, of 1512, the first certain dated work, the various motifs converging in L.'s manner already appear fused with Leonardesque echoes, which the painter would always take into account thereafter, sometimes repeating the master's compositions (St. Anne, at the Ambrosiana) or more often drawing free inspiration from his models (Madonna with the Infant St. John, at Brera; St. John the Baptist, at the Ambrosiana; Salome, Louvre; Portrait of a Woman, Levy collection, New York; Magdalene and Martha, Rothschild collection, Paris).

Typical of L. were a gentle religiosity, a serene and human grace, with which his Madonnas appear endowed (Madonna of the Roses, Brera; Madonna between St. Anthony and St. Barbara, 1521, at Brera, formerly in the chapel of S. Maria di Brera; Madonna between St. Sebastian and St. Roch, Ringling Museum, Sarasota) and his scenes, always recomposed in placid rhythms and quiet harmonies of color (St. Catherine Carried by Angels, 1522, fresco formerly at the Pelucca, now at Brera; frescoes in the sanctuary of Saronno, ca. 1525); just as restful and serene are his landscapes, of a persistent Lombard archaism (Fall of the Manna, 1522, fresco formerly at the Pelucca, now at Brera; predella, Benson collection in London). A painter of great cycles of frescoes, in addition to those mentioned in S. Giorgio al Palazzo (1516), in the villa of the Pelucca (1522, today for the most part at Brera) and in the sanctuary of Saronno (ca. 1525), one should recall the Crowning with Thorns of the Biblioteca Ambrosiana (1521-22), the frescoes in S. Maurizio in Milan (1521-23) and in the Besozzi chapel near S. Maurizio (1530), in S. Maria degli Angeli in Lugano (1529-30), and those formerly in the church of the Pace in Milan, now at Brera.

Maria Vittoria Brugnoli