PASSEROTTI, Bartolomeo

The composition follows the example of Raphael, but there are some details characteristic for Passerotti, e.g. the hand of St Catherine and the portrait-like position of St Joseph.

The subject of the painting is taken from Ovid, who tells how Andromeda, daughter of an Ethiopian king, was chained to a rock by the sea-shore as a sacrifice to a sea-monster. Perseus (the son of Danaë whom Jupiter caused to conceive after turning himself into a shower of golden rain) flying overhead on Pegasus, the winged horse, fell in love at first sight. He swooped down just in time, slew the monster and released Andromeda.

The sitter of this portrait is Don Lope Varona di Villanahue of Burgos, a Spanish nobleman, who was appointed Rector at the University of Bologna in 1579. The portrait, showing the sitter half length with a book in his right hand, was probably commissioned for this occasion.

Between 1575 and the early 1580s, Passerotti was Bologna’s pre-eminent painter. He produced many altarpieces while also painting genre scenes.

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Passerotti was a much sought-after portraitist in Bologna in the latter half of the sixteenth century, immediately preceding the naturalistic reforms of the Carracci brothers. He achieved high quality and originality in portraiture. In the Portrait of a Man with a Dog Passerotti presented a novel compositional idea: the young man clasps the spotty dog to his chest, while he turns to the viewer with a clear and intense gate, as if he had been suddenly addressed. The identity of the young man is not known, but he was certainly a member of a prominent family in Bologna.

The hand with the spread fingers holding the dog suggests tenderness, and the dog’s front legs resting on the master’s shoulder and its muzzle turn toward his face express devotedness.

The two paintings in the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica (The Butcher’s Shop an the Fishmonger’s Shop) were originally part of a series of four. The dating of the pictures, considered to rank among the best examples of Italian genre painting, oscillates between 1578-80 and 1585-90. There are close stylistic connections between these canvases and the works of the Dutch masters Aertsen and Beuckelaer, as well as with the Butcher’s Shop by Annibale Carracci (now at Oxford).

Passerotti describes the butcher’s shop with a combination of realistic precision in the rendering of details and irony in the characterization of the people. In late sixteenth century art the theme of the butcher shop was moralistically interpreted as an allegorical warning about the temptations of flesh and of indulgence in erotic passions without caution. According to the counter-reformation precepts laid down by Gabriele Paleotti (1582), veiled moral messages could be transmitted through comical pictures.

In both pictures the sparrow appears: as this bird’s Italian name is the passerotto, the artist used it as a type of pictorial signature.

The two paintings in the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica (The Butcher’s Shop an the Fishmonger’s Shop) were originally part of a series of four. The dating of the pictures, considered to rank among the best examples of Italian genre painting, oscillates between 1578-80 and 1585-90. There are close stylistic connections between these canvases and the works of the Dutch masters Aertsen and Beuckelaer, as well as with the Butcher’s Shop by Annibale Carracci (now at Oxford).

The fish shop is rich with the most minute naturalistic description, with the woman holing up the blowfish and with various types of sea shells on display reflecting Passerotti’s interest in naturalistic study. A participant in the scientific culture of Bologna, of which Ulisse Aldovrandi was a protagonist, Passerotti created his own varied collection of curiosities and monstrosities.

In both pictures the sparrow appears: as this bird’s Italian name is the passerotto, the artist used it as a type of pictorial signature.