PORDENONE

The early decades of the sixteenth century in Cremona were some of the most turbulent in its political history. In these years of constantly changing foreign rulers, the local leaders of Cremona pursued an elaborate project of decoration with remarkable consistency. From 1506 to 1522 the community had the chancel and nave of the twelve-century cathedral frescoed. By continuing the decoration through all the changes in government, the community represented its own identity; it was an act of local self-assertion.

The decoration was begun in the semi-dome vault of the apse in 1506. Boccaccio Boccaccino depicted, following a time-honoured scheme, the Epiphany of God in the Last Days (Christ in Majesty) as the principal and culminating image within the church space. Later, in 1514 Boccaccino received the commission to begin a fresco cycle of the life of Mary and Christ on the walls of the nave. They begin on the left wall, running from the fa�ade to the apse and then on the right wall from the apse back to the fa�ade. The left wall is dedicated to Mary and Christ’s childhood; the right to the Passion.

Boccaccino painted the scenes above the first four arches of the nave, and Giovan Francesco Bembo had been active above the fifth arch. He was not awarded another commission, the fresco cycle was continued by the Cremonese artist Altobello Melone. He painted the scenes above the next arch, and continued the cycle on the right wall, where he painted five scenes of the Passion above the three arches next to the apse.

Romanino was commissioned for the next four scenes of the Passion on the right wall. In December 1519 he was commissioned to fresco the three remaining bays of the nave as well. However, the contract was revoked in 1520 and it was awarded to Pordenone. Above each arch there is just one broad field in which he painted Pilate Judges Christ; Carrying the Cross; Christ Nailed to the Cross. In each composition an immense, dense, violent jostling of figures is developed in a relief-like style and from a viewpoint slightly below the action.

The narrative folds into the wall of the fa�ade, where the trilogy of the procession to Calvary comes to a close in the enormous fresco of the Golgotha by Pordenone.

The early decades of the sixteenth century in Cremona were some of the most turbulent in its political history. In these years of constantly changing foreign rulers, the local leaders of Cremona pursued an elaborate project of decoration with remarkable consistency. From 1506 to 1522 the community had the chancel and nave of the twelve-century cathedral frescoed. By continuing the decoration through all the changes in government, the community represented its own identity; it was an act of local self-assertion.

The decoration was begun in the semi-dome vault of the apse in 1506. Boccaccio Boccaccino depicted, following a time-honoured scheme, the Epiphany of God in the Last Days (Christ in Majesty) as the principal and culminating image within the church space. Later, in 1514 Boccaccino received the commission to begin a fresco cycle of the life of Mary and Christ on the walls of the nave. They begin on the left wall, running from the fa�ade to the apse and then on the right wall from the apse back to the fa�ade. The left wall is dedicated to Mary and Christ’s childhood; the right to the Passion.

Boccaccino painted the scenes above the first four arches of the nave, and Giovan Francesco Bembo had been active above the fifth arch. He was not awarded another commission, the fresco cycle was continued by the Cremonese artist Altobello Melone. He painted the scenes above the next arch, and continued the cycle on the right wall, where he painted five scenes of the Passion above the three arches next to the apse.

Romanino was commissioned for the next four scenes of the Passion on the right wall. In December 1519 he was commissioned to fresco the three remaining bays of the nave as well. However, the contract was revoked in 1520 and it was awarded to Pordenone. Above each arch there is just one broad field in which he painted Pilate Judges Christ; Carrying the Cross; Christ Nailed to the Cross. In each composition an immense, dense, violent jostling of figures is developed in a relief-like style and from a viewpoint slightly below the action.

The narrative folds into the wall of the fa�ade, where the trilogy of the procession to Calvary comes to a close in the enormous fresco of the Golgotha by Pordenone.

Venice’s climate and environment were unfavourable to fresco paintings, which were easily damaged by damp. This powerful fresco, painted originally for the cloister of the church Santo Stefano, has faded badly.

The decoration was executed by Pordenone and Bernardino Gatti.

Domes, which vault the crossing and altar of countless churches, lend themselves well to being transformed into paintings of the sky. The round shape above our heads seems to open onto a higher world, so that God and the things of heaven become visually present at the church holiest spot.

Astonishing dynamic effects in dome decorations were achieved by Pordenone. In the large ribbed dome of Santa Madonna di Campagna in Piacenza, in 1530-32, Pordenone began to fresco a complex theological program. God the Father floats in the cupola, mysteriously illuminated by invisible windows. Putti, animals, and illusionistic reliefs of Old Testament stories decorate the ribs. In between them heroic sibyls, prophets, and other Old Testament figures are seen against views of the heavens. In 1543 Bernardino Gatti added apostles on the pilasters of the drum below, stories from the life of Mary on the next level, and finally evangelists on the pendentives.

Astonishing dynamic effects in dome decorations were achieved by Pordenone. In the dome of the Cappella della Concezione in the Chiesa dei Francescani in Cortemaggiore, he made it appear as if God the Father and a cloud of angels were plummeting down into the chapel itself through a painted opening in the heavens. Their flight cuts across the fictive architecture and aims for the altarpiece, in which St Anne conceives Mary, who has been miraculously freed of original sin. Thus the decoration of the dome and that of the wall form an illusionistic unity that draws the real space of the viewer into the action.

Located on the inner fa�ade of the cathedral, this is the most impressive of the murals of the Passion of Christ that were the contribution of Pordenone to the large-scale decorative cycle painted by various artists in Cremona cathedral. The ample space offered by the Romanesque building allowed Pordenone to give free rein to his violent, dramatic, and highly-charged theatrical vein. The composition has the air of a painterly whirlwind and was much appreciated by the public.

The Crucifixion by Pordenone dominate the nave; an elevated Golgotha towers over the portal of the entrance. Pordenone places the cross at an angle in the picture plane, which moves Christ to the right of centre, making the composition more dynamic. The movement of the riders beneath the crosses echoes the crosses above them. A circular configuration results, and Mary has fallen into a faint at its centre.

In the lower zone of the wall next to the portal to the church Pordenone painted the Lamentation in 1522. Not until 1529 did the Lamentation receive its pendant, when Bernardino Gatti painted the Resurrection on the other side of the portal.

Located on the inner fa�ade of the cathedral, this is the most impressive of the murals of the Passion of Christ that were the contribution of Pordenone to the large-scale decorative cycle painted by various artists in Cremona cathedral. The ample space offered by the Romanesque building allowed Pordenone to give free rein to his violent, dramatic, and highly-charged theatrical vein. The composition has the air of a painterly whirlwind and was much appreciated by the public.

It was a fundamental departure from the traditional way that Calvary had previously been shown. The muggy, storm-laden atmosphere conjures up amazing effects of light.The three crosses are arranged in an asymmetrical fashion and are viewed from an angle.The crowd mills around uncomfortably and the dramatically foreshortened horses have an almost demonic look about them.The entire composition focuses around the tall mercenary at the centre. When he took over the job of painting the frescos in the cathedral of Cremona from Romanino, Pordenone revolutionized the local school.

In the lower zone of the wall next to the portal to the church Pordenone painted the Lamentation in 1522. Here the figures quietly form a niche around Mary, who has fallen to her knees, mourning her dead son stretched out before her. Extremely foreshortened, the corps juts out at us, pushing toward us.

Pordenone’s enormous artistic freedom compared to the main Venetian school is beautifully expressed in this altarpiece. The traditional layout of the scene is subverted by the asymmetrical architectural backdrop behind the group. It is also upset by the uneasy but effective way that each member of the group is gesticulating.

The early decades of the sixteenth century in Cremona were some of the most turbulent in its political history. In these years of constantly changing foreign rulers, the local leaders of Cremona pursued an elaborate project of decoration with remarkable consistency. From 1506 to 1522 the community had the chancel and nave of the twelve-century cathedral frescoed. By continuing the decoration through all the changes in government, the community represented its own identity; it was an act of local self-assertion.

The decoration was begun in the semi-dome vault of the apse in 1506. Boccaccio Boccaccino depicted, following a time-honoured scheme, the Epiphany of God in the Last Days (Christ in Majesty) as the principal and culminating image within the church space. Later, in 1514 Boccaccino received the commission to begin a fresco cycle of the life of Mary and Christ on the walls of the nave. They begin on the left wall, running from the fa�ade to the apse and then on the right wall from the apse back to the fa�ade. The left wall is dedicated to Mary and Christ’s childhood; the right to the Passion.

Boccaccino painted the scenes above the first four arches of the nave, and Giovan Francesco Bembo had been active above the fifth arch. He was not awarded another commission, the fresco cycle was continued by the Cremonese artist Altobello Melone. He painted the scenes above the next arch, and continued the cycle on the right wall, where he painted five scenes of the Passion above the three arches next to the apse.

Romanino was commissioned for the next four scenes of the Passion on the right wall. In December 1519 he was commissioned to fresco the three remaining bays of the nave as well. However, the contract was revoked in 1520 and it was awarded to Pordenone. Above each arch there is just one broad field in which he painted Pilate Judges Christ; Carrying the Cross; Christ Nailed to the Cross. In each composition an immense, dense, violent jostling of figures is developed in a relief-like style and from a viewpoint slightly below the action.

The narrative folds into the wall of the fa�ade, where the trilogy of the procession to Calvary comes to a close in the enormous fresco of the Golgotha by Pordenone.

Pordenone underwent his early training as a painter in an artistic context still heavily influenced by Mantegna. Subsequently he experienced a multiplicity of different fashions and styles in Venice, Ferrara, Loreto, Rome and Urbino where he came into contact with Giorgione, Titian, Sebastiano del Piombo, Melozzo da Forli, Raphael and Michelangelo. The taste which arose from this wide-ranging education was marked by an expressive Mannerist vitality that found itself in conflict in Venice with the courtly classicism of Titian. Such expressive passion loses some of its intensity in the later phase of Pordenone’s career and under the refined Mannerist influence of Parmigiano his figure groupings became more studied and tightly organized.

It is to this last period of Pordenone’s activity that the great altar-piece of St Lorenzo Giustiniani belongs, with the saint pictured standing between two “fratelli turchini” and St Francis and St Augistine on the left and St Bernardino and St John the Baptist on the right. The work was completed in 1532 for the church Madonna dell’Orto where the Canons of San Giorgio in Alga (the fratelli turchini, so-called because of the blue-green colour of their vestments) celebrated mass. In the play of light and shade achieved with considerable dramatic tension by means of the circular sky-light in the architectural structure, the figures of the saints are presented as a magnificent series of interlocking shapes, a dense interweaving of sentiments.

Pordenone specialized in depicting powerfully built, often ungainly figures in dramatic movement, and seen foreshortened from below. He found the fullest scope for this specialism in the decoration of ceilings and domes. The panel, showing the Evangelist St Luke with his customary attribute of a bull (or ox), was also painted for a Venetian ceiling, namely for the ceiling in the Scuola dii San Francesco ai Frari. The ceiling was dismantled in 1733.

Martin is turning to cut his cloak in half for the beggar as his powerful steed and the muscular giant, spurred on by the Child, vie with each other to break through the plane of the wall. Amazingly, these were originally the doors of a cupboard.

The picture shows the final design for the altar of St Peter Martyr in the church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice. The altarpiece was eventually executed by Titian, who had won the competition.

The early decades of the sixteenth century in Cremona were some of the most turbulent in its political history. In these years of constantly changing foreign rulers, the local leaders of Cremona pursued an elaborate project of decoration with remarkable consistency. From 1506 to 1522 the community had the chancel and nave of the twelve-century cathedral frescoed. By continuing the decoration through all the changes in government, the community represented its own identity; it was an act of local self-assertion.

The Golgotha by Pordenone dominate the nave; an elevated Golgotha towers over the portal of the entrance. Pordenone places the cross at an angle in the picture plane, which moves Christ to the right of centre, making the composition more dynamic. The movement of the riders beneath the crosses echoes the crosses above them. A circular configuration results, and Mary has fallen into a faint at its centre.

In the lower zone of the wall next to the portal to the church Pordenone painted the Lamentation in 1522. Not until 1529 did the Lamentation receive its pendant, when Bernardino Gatti painted the Resurrection on the other side of the portal.