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ALBERTINO PIAZZA DA LODI
Lodi 1490-1528/9

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 DLLA PORTA./ L’ANNO M.D.C.L.I.V. / Pittura dle Luino. / CHE SI LASCIA IN PERPETVA / PRIMONGENITVRA / Per essere un quadro insigne, di / Vecchio di Casa’ (1654. 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 and Dr. Marco Tanzi each independently concur. Cleaning has revealed the work to be in superb condition and an infra-red reflectogram shows underdrawing underneath 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. With his elder brother Martino (c. 1475/80-1530), with whom he frequently collaborated, Piazza was the dominant painter of their city, Lodi. This workshop was continued by Martino’s son, Callisto, whose son Fulvio was in turn to be a painter.

The Commune of Rovello, now in the provincia of Como, was granted as a feudal possession to Giovanni della Porta in 1649, to whom this painting belonged. The Commune 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 Gabrielle 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.