Pedrini, Giovanni, called Giampietrino

PEDRINI, GIOVANNI, called GIAMPIETRINO. - Painter, active in the first half of the 16th century. The only dated work, if its disputed attribution is accepted, would be the altarpiece (1521) in Pavia, formerly in S. Marino, now in the Cathedral.

In the series of Madonnas with the Child grouped under his name (besides the Borghese Madonna and the one close to it in the Poldi Pezzoli Museum, one recalls the Madonna of the Lily at Highnam Court and the other at Villa Albani; the Madonna in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and those in the Murray collection in London and in the Museum of the Castello Sforzesco), as in the Adorations of the Child at S. Sepolcro in Milan and in the Cook collection in Richmond, the derivation from models or drawings by Leonardo is evident, translated with an insistent search for grace. More conventional is his manner in the figures of Magdalenes (cf. the one at Brera), as in the mythological and allegorical ones attributed to him (female figure in a private collection, Vienna; Nisfa Egeria, Brivio collection, Milan; Leda, Castle of Neuwied; Cleopatra and Lucretia, Simonetti collection, Rome; etc.) derived, with greater or lesser adherence, from the models of Leonardo. Among the best works is the altarpiece in the parish church of Ospedaletti Lodigiano.

Maria Vittoria Brugnoli