FRANGIPANE, Niccolò

(b. ~1540 ?, d. ~1590 Venezia)

Italian painter. Little documentary evidence survives concerning the life of Niccolò Frangipane, who is recorded as working in Venice and the Marches during the second half of the 16th century. His oeuvre consists principally of three types of painting: religious works, many of which draw heavily from Titian’s production of the 1540s and 1550s; arcadian figures, in the style of Giorgione; and light-hearted mythological or genre scenes, reminiscent of the work of Vincenzo Campi.

Christ Bearing the Cross

The subject of Christ carrying the cross along the Via Dolorosa to Golgotha is the most frequent in Frangipane’s known works. There are nine surviving versions which display some compositional variations, as in two the figures are represented full-length while in the remaining paintings Christ is depicted half-length accompanied by some figures, such as executioners, Mary Magdalene or St Veronica.

This canvas is one of the few signed and dated paintings by Niccolò Frangipane.

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Pietà

This painting represents Christ in the arms of Mary. Sharing the mother’s grief are also Mary Magdalen, Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus and the apostle John, together with a pious woman.

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The Holy Family with the Infant St John

The painting depicts the Holy Family with the Infant St John in a landscape. It is signed and dated lower left: Nicolaus Frangipanis f. 1585.

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The Holy Family with the Infant St John the Baptist

Although the present work is Venetian in character, the pose of the Madonna and Child, as well as the inclusion of the elaborate chair, is inspired by Raphael’s celebrated painting of La Madonna della Sedia of 1513, today in the Galleria Palatina, Florence.

The painting is signed lower left: NICOLAUS. FRANGI/ PANIS. F.

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