Giovanni Ambrogio Bevilacqua, known as Liberal (documented 1481-1512), attr.

Giovanni Ambrogio Bevilacqua, known as Liberal (documented 1481-1512), attr.

Madonna and Child

Oil on panel, cm 63 x 46

The refined table under examination, of the Lombard school of the early seventeenth century, for its particular formal and stylistic setting, allows us to identify the hand of Giovanni Antoni Bevilacqua, called Liberal.

The Bevilacqua was born in Milan in the mid-fifteenth century; in 1481 it is recorded as being registered with the Art of painters and is among the artists who worked for Duke Francesco Sforza. He worked mainly for a religious commission, creating frescoes for the parish of Landriano and for the Place Pio di Carità in Milan, then working for the Certosa of Pavia next to Ambrogio Fossano, known as Bergognone (1453-1523). The news about him disappears after he is mentioned as a witness in a public act in 1512. The matrix of his painting is of foppesca ancestry, not without affinity with the painting of Bergognone (1453-1523), of which he is considered a pupil in some sources. With maturity these influences will be accompanied by Leonardo’s veils, consequence of the presence in Lombardy of the great master. 

The delicacy of the subject fully expresses the sweetness of this painter at the level of intimacy that he manages to reach with the observer, in search of a deep meaning capable of going beyond the pictorial matter: the just reclining looks, the closed eyes of the Child and half-closed of the Virgin and tender gestures participate in this search. The interesting panoramic view, although limited to a small space, manages to expand the dimensions of the table towards an indefinite horizon, with a taste for the landscape of clear Leonardo da Vinci influence, treated with thin blue velvets.The pictorial quality of this table is fully expressed in the delicate passages of light and shadow and in the refined transparency, in the elegant gold profiles and in the use of a palette of enamelled, bright and saturated colors. 

A fitting stylistic comparison is highlighted with the canvas depicting a Madonna and Child by Bevilacqua, now kept in the Sforzesco Castle Art Gallery, and with a Madonna del Latte, in private collection in Milan. The painting under examination also seems to look at some performances of the Bergognone: in the richness of colour and the intimate maternal scene of the Madonna with Child preserved at the Pinacoteca di Brera and in the delicate and wise use of the gold of the Madonna with Child from the Royal Museums of Turin, without forgetting the Marian compositions by Vincenzo Foppa.

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