Description

Jacopo Nigretti de Lavalle’s production is entirely dedicated to three main subjects: mythology, portraits and sacred subjects. Born in Serina but raised and trained in the Venetian school of Andrea Previtali, Giovanni Bellini and Giorgione, he will also establish a strong bond with his contemporaries Lorenzo Lotto and Tiziano. This panel, intense in the tones and psychological presence that the painter uses to describe the emotionality of the moment, is a pictorial proof that demonstrates the profound link that binds Palma to the Venetian school of painting and its main protagonists. The canvas is of a more unique than rare immediacy: an obvious example is the very evident repentance of Christ’s right arm, supported by the angel, as well as the sense of unfinished that envelops many elements of the representation. The dark background is generally used by the artist in portraits, while for the narration of sacred events he preferred using a backdrop of Bellini’s memory, very intense and made up of wide, clear skies and brilliant colours. The study of colour layers, which autonomously construct the pictorial masses almost without the aid of drawing, is a typical solution of Giorgione’s study of pictorial elements. Although critics point out many works to the corpus of our artist’s production, it is very difficult to discern the differences between the two, which makes the definition of the artist’s entire corpus complex.

Bibl.: G. C. F. Villa, a cura di, Palma il Vecchio: lo sguardo della bellezza. Catalogo della Mostra tenuta a Bergamo nel 2015, Milano, Skira, 2015.