Artibus et Historiae no. 55 (XXVIII)
2007, ISSN 0391-9064Up
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SERGIO MARINELLI - New and Distinctive Aspect of Domenico Brusasorci
Roger Rearick, one of the few scholars who understood the artistic prominence of the Cinquecento Veronese, apart from Paolo Caliari, would have undoubtedly been interested in the painting we are publishing here. The painting, a Santa Maria Maddalena, which comes from a still unknown villa in the Verona area, brings to mind the prototype of the long-haired Maddalenas by Gianfrancesco Caroto, master of Domenico Brusasorci. In addition, the nearly square-shaped canvas (114 × 107 cm.), seems to perfectly suit the sense of carnality emphasized in the figure. The work can be dated to the artist's juvenile years, definitely before 1554 when his distinguished benefactor, Gerolamo Fracastoro, died.
It is probable that the painting could be the same one mentioned by Bartolomeo dal Pozzo in 1718, "una mezza figura di Maria Maddalena. Di Domenico Brusasorzi bella al pari di Raffaello", and seen in Verona in the collection of Count Alvise Fracastoro, "in casa del Conte Alvise Fracastoro a' SS.Apostoli". At the beginning of that century the collection was described as a small 16th century interesting selection of works by Domenico and Felice Bruasorci and of Sante Creara, pupil of the latter. There is a charming possibility that the patron could reasonably be that Gerolamo Fracastoro (1478-1554), eminent humanist and physician, depicted in the frescoes of Palazzo Fiorio della Seta in Verona by Domenico between 1553 and 1554. After 1568 Gerolamo was also portrayed in the altar-piece for the Loggia del Consiglio in Verona painted by Orlando Flacco together with Bernardino India. Moreover he also received the honour of a statue by Danese Cattaneo, ordered in 1555 and placed on the arch of the Logge in Piazza dei Signori four years later in 1559.
Gerolamo was the author of the dialogues: Della poetica, D'intellezione, Dell'anima ("On Poetics", "On Intellection", "On the Soul"), but above all he was famous for his short poem Della Sifilide, over morbo Gallico ("On Syphilis or French pox"). Alvise, the owner of the Palace at Santi Apostoli at the time of Bartolomeo's description, descended from a collateral branch of the Fracastoro family different from the one Gerolamo belonged to.
At Santa Maria ad Nives del Pavarano in Campiglia dei Berici, a Maddalena, probably by Domenico's son, Felice, but still echoing the father's style, is portrayed in the version of the penitent, aged and ugly though gracefully dressed, with the skull, the crucifix and the vase of ointments. The painting is on an altar of the Caliari di Cologna Veneta, now covered, where it stands as a warning to believers.
The monumental tension present in these works doesn't persist in the art of Domenico Brusasorci. We can still trace it in a preparatory drawing for an altar-piece, ignored among the painter's recently discovered works. It describes the Madonna di Loreto with two monumental figures, Giovanni Battista and a martyr, standing prominently in the foreground. The only possible chance of identification seems to be with that of the Vergine di Loreto, a painting that Saverio Dalla Rosa remembers in San Clemente in Verona, notwithstanding the fact that sourcers never mention the presence of saints in this canvas. The work is now placed on a side altar of the church, opposite a work by Felice.
The small altar-piece made for Sant'Egidio at Tregnago, Sante Agata, Caterina e Lucia, now enclosed in a 17th century mixtilinear stucco frame, shows elegant references to the Santa Cecilia by Raffaello in Bologna, which are rare in Veneto. Nevertheless it bears witness of a provincial patronage with social and devotional claims but totally lacking in any cultural pretension.
