Plate 32.—The Virgin and Child with St. John and St. Martha
Luini, Fresco in the Brera, Milan
cohesion and unity. The “Burial of St. Catherine” is also in the Brera. It is a small fresco brought from the Convent della Pelucca, and is one of the more successful works of Luini. Three finely designed angels are carrying the body of St. Catherine, below which is the tomb. The robes of the saint are red in colour, while those of the angel on the right are purple; the middle, green; and the angel to the left has yellow drapery. The best work, however, by Luini in the Brera is the beautiful fresco, in the Sala XVI, of the “Virgin and Child” with St. Martha, St. John, and a nun. In this work the landscape background is remarkably fresh and pure in colour, and is painted in a very naturalistic manner, the treatment of the trees, and details of the landscape reminding one forcibly of a picture by Constable. There are some fine passages of luminous and harmonious colouring in the draperies, the faces of the figures have a tenderness and purity of expression, and the whole work is a convincing example of the master at his best. Being on a level with the eye, and in a good light, one is enabled to see in this fresco that Luini’s method of painting consisted in his first modelling the forms in a solid impasto, and afterwards finishing his work, like the majority of Italian fresco painters, by shading transparently in finely hatched lines.
There are other examples of Luini’s fresco work in the Brera, consisting chiefly of heads and figures of boys. In the old Romanesque basilica church of St. Ambrogio at Milan, in the first chapel of the left aisle, is a fresco by him, the “Ecce Homo,” in a fairly good state of preservation, and in the sixth chapel of the right aisle is his work, the “Legend of St. George.” The Church of St. Maria della Grazie in the same city contains his fresco of the “Virgin Enthroned,” with saints around, the colour and composition of which are good, but an injurious dusty bloom has appeared on some portions of this fine work. Numerous examples of Luini’s fresco decorations may be seen in the Church of St. Maurizo (Monastero Maggiore), including the large “Crucifixion,” on the wall over the entrance to the choir. This great work contains nearly 140 figures, many of which are of singular beauty. At Saronno, not far from Milan, in the Church of the Santuario there are also some very important frescos by Luini, representing scenes in the history of the Virgin, the best of which is a very fine “Adoration of the Magi.”
Gaudenzio Ferrari (1484-1549) was another Milanese painter, though a native of Piedmont, but Milan and its neighbourhood was strictly speaking the centre of his labours. He was a follower of Leonardo da Vinci, although he had worked with Perugino, and later with Raffaelle. He painted numerous frescos in Milan, Saronno, and Varallo; most of them are characterized by life and animation of pose in the figures, and as a rule his works contain many figures of great merit and beauty,
