ALBERTINO PIAZZA DA LODI
1490 - Lodi - 1528/9
The Madonna and Child with a Goldfinch
Oil on panel
31.8 x 23.5 cm
with the inscription on the back:
‘1654
DEL CONTE DI ROVELLO
DON GIO DELLA PORTA.
L’ anno M.D.C.L.I.V.
Pittura del Luino.
CHE SI LASCIA IN PERPETVA
PRIMOGENITVRA
Per essere un quadro insigne, e Vecchio di Casa’
(“1654. Property of The Count of Rovello, Don Giovanni Della Porta, 1654. Picture by Luini. That should be left to the first born in perpetuity, because it is a famous painting belonging to the house for a long time”)
A 19th century exhibition label on the back, lent by Contessa Piccolomini reads:
Esposizione Arte Antica no. 42
PROVENANCE
Giovanni della Porta, Conte di Rovello by 1654;
Contessa Piccolomini (according to the label on the reverse);
Luisa Casati Stampa di Soncino, Marchesa di Roma, and by descent
Traditionally attributed to Luini, this beautiful panel was recognised as by Albertino Piazza by Andrea De Marchi: Dr. Everett Fahy, Dr. Mauro Natale, Dr. Franco Moro and Dr. Marco Tanzi each independently concur. Cleaning has revealed the work to be in superb condition and an infrared reflectogram shows underdrawing beneath the paint surface with a number of changes to the composition.
Professor De Marchi proposed a date close to the Galliano polyptych of 1520 in the church of S. Agnese at Lodi. The Piazza workshop dominated art in Lodi in the 16th century. Albertino Piazza and Martino Piazza (1475/80 - 1523?) were brothers, who frequently collaborated; both are documented at the Incoronata at Lodi in 1514. Martino’s oeuvre has been reconstructed on the basis of two pictures, St. John the Baptist (National Gallery, London) and an Adoration of the Shepherds (Ambrosiana, Milan), which bear the monogram MPP; he was an eclectic artist, and like Albertino, indebted to Leonardo da Vinci. Of Martino’s three sons, Callisto (c.1500-1561) was the dominant figure, and Cesare and Scipione worked with him in Brescia and Lodi. Fulvio (1536-after 1579) was the son of Callisto, and collaborated with him at the Incoronata, Lodi, and elsewhere.
The Comune of Rovello, now in the province of Como, was granted as a feudal possession to Giovanni della Porta in 1649, to whom this painting belonged. The Comune remained the fief of the family until 1763, when a later Giovanni della Porta, Count of Rovello, died.
The Marchesa Casati (1881-1957), who owned the picture more recently, was a spectacular social figure, painted and photographed by many leading artists of her time, and associated with several outstanding dress designers and jewellers. She knew, entertained and was entertained by many of the most gifted people of her time, including Nijinsky, Picasso, Colette and Chanel. Her affair with the Italian Nationalist writer Gabriele d’Annunzio was widely publicised. The substantial fortune she inherited was not enough to finance the Marchesa’s tastes. The forced sale of her collection in 1932 marked a new phase in the Marchesa’s life and she moved to London.
