BOLTRAFFIO, Giovanni Antonio

The verses written on the paper are from a work by Gerolamo Casio (1464-1533). Casio, a bizarre personality, was a merchant and troubadour of humble origin, who became one of the most popular and celebrated poets of his time.

Consciously “humanistic” and commemorative, this portrait is based on the classical models of the time, but shows some uncertainty in compositional balance, especially in the placing of the hand in the same plane as the face. However, the uniqueness of the composition, slightly displaced to the right of the spectator, rescues the work from any monotonous effect. It also plays up the colour values, which are displayed in broad, polished, well-defined areas.

Boltraffio was a pupil and collaborator of Leonardo in Milan and Leonardo’s influence is clearly evident in this portrait of an unknown lady. The proportions of the face and the ideal of beauty which it reflects are very close to Leonardesque prototypes: the oval face, large nose, small mouth and large melancholy eyes. This influence is evident not just in the formal elements and the use of chiaroscuro, but also in the psychological penetration of the sitter’s character, who seems to be stifling a smile (as do Leonardo’s sitters). However, some features differentiate it from the older artist’s work, such as the use of a harsher sfumato, which gives the bust a more sculptural character.

The sitter clearly wished to be depicted as St Lucy, holding up the saint’s attribute: a pin with an eye on the end. Portraits of this type, known as “portraits in the holy manner”, remained customary until the Baroque, and were commissioned by young aristocratic women who wished to invoke their patron saints in order to follow their virtuous example. The sitter’s piety is underlined here by the cross around her neck.

Traditionally the sitter is identified as the poet Gerolamo Casio, who is depicted demonstrably by Boltraffio in the portrait now in the Brera, Milan. However, since the portrait is without any attribute alluding to the poet or his work, the identification is by no means sure.

Casio was Boltraffio’s most significant patron, commissioning a great altarpiece for the church of the Misericordia in Bologna, now in the Louvre.

This appealing portrait of an unknown man with a broad nose and clear gaze, sober in attire and attitude has long been considered one of the most significant and characteristic of the small group of portraits painted by Boltraffio after about 1500 that are notable for their intense naturalism.

Boltraffio’s drawings in the 1490s are demonstrations of a pure Leonardesque idiom. This silverpoint drawing was executed in the exacting technique that Leonardo had imported from Florence. It is a study for the drapery of the Virgin in the Madonna Litta, a much discussed work, designed by Leonardo and executed under his supervision by one of his close followers, most probably by Boltraffio.

Boltraffio’s drawings in the 1490s are demonstrations of a pure Leonardesque idiom. This silverpoint drawing was executed in the exacting technique that Leonardo had imported from Florence. It is preparatory for an early painting of the Virgin and Child (Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan).

Of all Leonardo’s pupils and followers it is Boltraffio whose work is most clearly related to that of the master in style. He is recorded as having worked for some years after 1491 in Leonardo’s studio in Milan, and in his own works he often made use of compositions, sketches and drawings by the master - to whom more than one of his pictures has at some time been attributed. At the beginning of the last century this half-length Madonna in Budapest was so attributed and it certainly shows an unmistakably close link with Leonardo, the surviving series of whose drawings demonstrate that he was occupied with the idea of a composition in which the infant Jesus stretches his arms towards flowers in a vase. Nor is it only in the type of picture that the Budapest Madonna is related to Leonardo. The subtlety of the detail, for instance the beauty of Mary’s hands, the tender pose of the heads and the accomplished execution of the rich drapery, all provide evidence that the link with Leonardo is more than a matter of inspiration or borrowing of motifs. It is even believed that the master himself made some contribution to the work.

The painting, probably a fragment of an altarpiece, shows the influence of Leonardo da Vinci.

The painting was executed for the Chapel Casio de Santa Maria della Misericordia, near Bologna. The two donors are Giacomo Marchione de Pandolfi da Casio and his son, Girolamo Casio (1464-1533), a poet from Bologna, who was portrayed by Boltraffio several times.

Boltraffio was one of the first, and perhaps the most interesting, pupils of Leonardo da Vinci. The influence of the master is obvious in this early painting by Boltraffio.