Francesco Rizzo di Bernardo da Santacroce (active from 1504 to 1545)

Francesco Rizzo di Bernardo da Santacroce (active from 1504 to 1545)

Madonna and Child Saint Simon and Saint Catherine

Oil on board, cm 44 x 61

With frame, cm 65 x 79

Santa Croce is a small village that rises in front of San Pellegrino terme, on the hilly slopes beyond the Brembo. This village was kept alive by some family groups such as the Galizzi (also called Rizzo or De Vecchi), the Oprandi, the Grazioli, the Micheli who then flowed to other centers, such as Bergamo and Venice thus emptying the small village of Santa Croce. From here come about ten painters active from the beginning of the sixteenth century until the first quarter of the seventeenth, belonging to two separate families that formed two workshops operating both in Venice. 

One of these is the one started by Francesco di Simone, who died in 1508, leaving the legacy to Francesco Rizzo di Bernardo, active from 1504 to 1545 helped by his brother Vincenzo. He was succeeded by his perhaps cousin Giovanni De Vecchi or Galizzi, documented in Venice until 1565.

The genealogy of the second workshop is more defined: it passes from his father, Girolamo active from 1503 to 1556, to his son Francesco active between 1516 and 1584, and finally to his nephew Pietro Paolo di Francesco who died in 1620. Both shops are active in and around Venice, expanding into Brescia and Bergamo, touching Istria and Dalmatia, often working together. Their works are characterized by compositional styles inspired by great masters such as Giambellino, Cima da Conegliano, Titian, Cariani and Previtali and tend to repeat through the generations often making it difficult to distinguish the various personalities that animate the workshops. 

The Madonna with Child and Saints Simeon and Catherine proposed here refers to undoubted influences of Bellini. The figures are shot in the middle of the bust and crowd the space of the table that opens on a landscape background, only interrupted by a central panel against which stands the figure of the Virgin.

The cuteness of the stroke is similar to that of the known works of Francesco Rizzo di Bernardo da Santacroce, especially if you compare it with the Madonna and Child among Sts. Simone and Giuseppe at the Pinacoteca of Ravenna. The two works are matched in the compositional scheme and in the hieratic disposition of the characters whose voluminous bodies are hidden, if not flattened, by the garments that cover them in favor of an almost graphic simplification of the same. The comparisons between the figures of Saint Simon and the Virgin, which repeat the same poses, are particularly striking, as are the analogies in the rendering of the draperies and their crumpling. 

Francesco Rizzo, son of Bernardo, who carried out a modest activity, belonged to the De Vecchi family. First records of him date back to 1505 in a document citing him as a witness, indicating that by that time he had already reached the age of 18. In 1508 he inherited the workshop of his master Francesco di Simone. In 1518 he gave to the Church of S. Maria a Serina a triptych, now dismembered but still existing. He appears again as a witness in a 1545 document after which he died.

With Ars Antiqua you can defer all amounts up to a maximum of € 7,500 at ZERO RATE, for a total of 15 INSTALLMENTS.

Ex. Tot. € 4,500 = Monthly installment € 300 for 15 months.

Ex. Tot. € 3,600 = Monthly installment € 720 for 5 months.

For amounts over €7,500 or for a longer grace period (over 15 installments), we can provide a custom payment.

Contact us directly to get the best quote.

LIVE TV

- SUNDAY 17.00 - 21.00 Dig.terr. 126 + 809 SKY

- Streaming on our website www.arsantiquasrl.com and on our social networks Facebook and Youtube

All the works proposed by Ars Antiqua are sold accompanied by a certificate of authenticity in accordance with the law and accurate fact sheet.

You can see the works directly at the showroom gallery in Milan, in via Pisacane 55 and 57.

We personally organize transport and deliveries of the works, both for Italy and abroad.