Schiavone, Andrea Meldolla detto Io

SCHIAVONE, Andrea Meldolla detto Io. – Painter and engraver, b. at Zara in the early 1500s, d. at Venice in 1563.

The date of birth is uncertain; Ridolf placed it in 1522, but on various indications it must be brought forward by about twenty years. Having gone to Venice as a young man, he often had to adapt himself to humble collaborative work. He adorned numerous palace façades with frescoes, now all lost, and distinguished himself above all as a painter of cassoni. In his engravings he faithfully mirrored the fantastic world and the compositional taste of Parmigianino, contributing notably to the spread of Mannerism in Venice. In his paintings he came above all under the influence of Bonifacio and of Titian, achieving an individual interpretation of Mannerism with a lively taste for the patch of colour, a free and disdainful brushstroke, and with effects of light that anticipate those of Tintoretto and Jacopo Bassano. Among his best works: the Pietà in Dresden, the decoration of the organ at the Carmini in Venice, an Annunciation in S. Pietro at Belluno; less happy are the paintings in which the pronounced Parmigianinesque Mannerism leads to a superficial pursuit of effects: Adoration of the Magi at the Ambrosiana, Conversion of St. Paul at the Querini Stampalia in Venice.

Typical and very numerous are the cassone decorations, in which, with freshness of invention and with a taste now Bonifacesque, now Mannerist, or even pre-seicento, he represents mythological and sacred scenes full of delightful details: works in Venice (Accademia and Brass collection), Vienna, Turin, Hampton Court, Dublin, etc.

Nolfo di Carpegna