ANSALDO, Giovanni Andrea - b. 1584 Voltri, d. 1638 Genova - WGA

ANSALDO, Giovanni Andrea

(b. 1584 Voltri, d. 1638 Genova)

Italian painter. His first teacher was Orazio Cambiaso, son of Luca Cambiaso, from whom he learnt the principles of design and acquired his proficiency in the use of colour. Ansaldo’s appreciation of colour must also have owed something to Veronese, whose works he copied as a student. Orazio Cambiaso’s large canvas of St James Converting Josiah (c. 1600; Genoa, Oratory of S Giacomo delle Fucine) is one of many sources for Ansaldo’s multi-figured and highly detailed compositions, set in a deep architectural space. The elegant figures and subtle tonalities of his early works are derived also from the work of Tuscan Mannerist artists in Genoa, such as Pietro Sorri (1556-1621), Ventura Salimbeni and Aurelio Lomi (1556-1622). The sumptuous draperies and strong chiaroscuro contrasts of Giovanni Battista Paggi, who had adopted the Tuscan manner after a period in Florence, influenced Ansaldo, as did the rich impasto of Bernardo Strozzi and Simone Barabbino (b 1585).

In the 1620s the work of the more progressive Lombard artists Cerano and Giulio Cesare Procaccini, who visited the city between 1618 and 1621, had an impact on his art. Ansaldo was also indebted to the realism of the colony of Flemish artists who worked in Genoa at this time. From such rich sources he created a style justly described as ‘elegant in design, well founded in perspective, intelligent in sotto in sù, expressive in effects, and soft and gentle in colouring.’

Allegory of the Crowning of Ferdinando II de' Medici

The painting is an allegory of the crowning of the young Grand Duke Ferdinando II. His father died in 1621 while the prince was still a child, and he became Grand Duke on coming of age in 1629. His mother Maria Maddalena of Austria and his grandmother, Cristina of Lorraine acted as regents during this lengthy period.

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The Flight into Egypt

The unusual iconography, with the Madonna dressed in the habit of a gypsy, makes it interesting to trace the different interpretations of the painting. The concept of Ansaldo’s work may derive directly from a work by Luca Cambiaso that Ratti saw during the eighteenth century at the Palazzo Barberini. In his notes on Soprani’s biographies of the Genovese Painters, Ratti described how “in Rome at the Palazzo Barberini, there is a painting of the Virgin dressed in the manner of the gypsies, who flees to Egypt with the infant Christ in her arms”.

To support this hypothesis it is necessary to refer to two known Cambiaso paintings of the head of the Madonna with an identical attire, datable to around 1570, which may be smaller-format versions of the lost Palazzo Barberini picture. Even more closely related is a drawing of the Madonna of the Promenade showing the Virgin taking a stroll, wearing the same attire and large hat, and with the child held in a sling over her shoulder. Also similar iconographically and in other ways is a canvas of Bernardo Strozzi (Genoa; private collection). In the context of this connection, it is helpful to recall that Strozzi was in close contact with Ansaldo during the very years to which the painting has been dated.

The painting is dated to 1620-30, since its appearance can be connected to other works from Ansaldo’s period of full maturity. The numerous stylistic sources that lie at the base of Ansaldo’s mature style may be discerned in this work. Cross-breeding with each other and the aforementioned Cambiasesque currents, one recognizes the influence of Barocci (as seen through his Sienese followers Banni and Salimbeni), the well assimilated influence of Rubens, as well as that of Gentileschi, who was working in Genoa during the time that Ansaldo painted this picture.

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