Originalveroffentlichung in: Art Bulletin 76, Nr. 4, 1994, S, 664-679 Folengo and Romanino: The Questione della Lingua and Its Eccentric Trends Alessandro Nova of the High Renaissance classical canon as best exemplified The works of the Brescian painter Girolamo Romanino 5 in Northern Italy by Giorgione and Titian. By examining (1484/87-1560) have attracted considerable critical atten­ 1 Romanino's anticlassical stand, however, the present writer tion during the last decade. We now know much more not only about his life but also about his network of patrons; would like to argue that such unclassical eccentricities were not necessarily addressed to provincial audiences; and that some of his lost or previously unknown paintings have come to light; and four of his major fresco cycles have been Romanino's dramatic change had more to do with stylistic self-consciousness than with networks of patronage (without restored, thus offering a unique opportunity to analyze his implying by this statement that the social milieu in which the technique and working methods.'-' Yet we will never under­ stand his somewhat troubled career, which was marred by artist worked was irrelevant to or uninfluential on his formal several controversies with his patrons, if we do not find a choices). plausible answer to a major question: why did a very The problem can be better understood if we approach this successful artist like Romanino, who in the early part of his issue from a point of view that plays down the hierarchies career enjoyed the favor of the public and the support of constructed by our discipline, and if we try to learn from the powerful patrons (such as Nicolo Orsini, Francesco Gonzaga, results achieved in other fields of research, primarily the the abbot Giovanni Cornaro, and the prominent Martinengo history of literature. Since the early 1980s scholars have :i investigated artists such as Giorgione and Aspertini in the family), decide to move from what we now call a High 6 Renaissance style, influenced by the works of Giorgione and light of their "literary equivalents." Similarly, the present Titian, to a more expressionistic, and indeed tormented study aims to examine Romanino's works within the context of sixteenth-century heterodox literary experiments, and idiom? What lay behind this apparently rebellious and probably socially disadvantageous choice—since later in his more specifically to investigate their relationship with the life he ended up working in such peripheral areas as the publications of the most gifted anticlassical writer of the remote Valcamonica? Given the lack of written evidence to period, the Benedictine monk Teofilo Folengo. The danger help shed light upon the painter's mentality and personality of such an undertaking is that paintings may be interpreted (for Romanino we have nothing comparable to either Lorenzo as mere reflections of other forms of art, thus substituting the Lotto's or Jacopo Bassano's "account books"), there are no rather vague notion of social background with a more easy answers to these questions. A reasonable explanation of fashionable but perhaps equally elusive "mirror." It is true the artist's behavior, however, might have a bearing on our that in a very broad sense one can argue that Folengo's works understanding of the entire group of Renaissance eccentrici, are the "literary equivalent" of Romanino's heterodox style, such as Altobello Melone, Giovanni Antonio Pordenone, or vice versa, that the paintings of the Brescian artist are the Amico Aspertini, and Benedetto Diana, among others: that "visual equivalent" of the writer's literary heterodoxy, but is, those heterodox artists who worked outside the High this does not take us very far. Instead, a detailed analysis of Renaissance mainstream in Northern Italy during the first their possible relationship will highlight the cultural context 4 of their similar intellectual goals and provide a framework four decades of the sixteenth century. for analyzing the social implications of their formal choices, The traditional characterization of these painters' oeuvres has been to emphasize their provincial, popular, or even since questions of style are densely packed with meaning that vulgar nature, insofar as they did not conform to the "rules" go well beyond what is normally taken as mere formalism. d'or de la peinture a Venise, exh. cat., Paris, 1993, A shorter version of this paper was discussed at the Romanino: Corso di lezioni sulla giovinezza delpit- Center for the Arts of Wesleyan University in April tore bresciano," L'niversita Statale di Ferrara, Fa- 391-97. 1993. and at the Institute for Advanced Stud) in colta di Magistero. 1970-71 (\ts in the Bibliotheca 2. For his patrons and his previously unknown Princeton in December 1993. I would like to thank Hertziana in Rome); C. Boselli, Regesto artistico del paintings, see the present author's forthcoming some of the participants for their helpful sugges­ natal roganti in Brescia d/iU'anno 1500 all 'anno 1560, catalogue raisonne. Between 1985 and 1992 fresco tions: Rona Goffen, Jeffrey Hamburger, Irving Brescia, 1977. 2 vols.; C. Cook, "The Lost Last cycles were restored in: the loggia in the Castello Lavin. Marilyn Lavin, Laurie Naussdorfer. John T. Works by Romanino and Gambara," Arte lombarda, del Buonconsiglio in Trent, the chapel of Adeodata Paoletti. and Wendy Stedman Sheard. My warmest vols, i.w iwi. 1984, 159-67; F.. Chini, Gli affreschi Martinengo in S. Salvatore in Brescia, S. Maria thanks also to Philip Sohm for his generous in­ del Romanino nella loggia del Castello del Blionconsi- della Neve in Pisogne, and S. Antonio in Breno. For sights. Translations throughout the essay are mine. glio a Trento, Milan, 1986; M. Oregon, ed., IJI Romanino's technique and working methods, see pittura del C.inqitecento a Brescia, Milan, 1986; A. 1. The most recent monograph on the artist is M. V. Oheroldi, "Note su alcune pratiche di pittura Nova. "Le ante d'organo di Santa Maria Maggiore L. Ferrari, // Romanino, Milan, 1961. See also the murale," in Romanino m S. Maria della Neve a a Trento," Studi trentini di scienze stonche, Sezwne classic works bv (•. Pana//a: Mostra di Girolamo Pisogne, ed. B. Passamani, Brescia, 1991, 87-100; Romamnn. exh. cat.. Brescia. 1965 (ill collaboration seamda, i.xin. no. I, 1988 [1984], 105-24; B. and V. Oheroldi, "Una ricerca sui livelli del hnito," with A. Damiani and B. Passamani): andAffresclu di Passamani. ed., Romanino in S. Maria della Neve a in Romanino in Sant'Antomo a Breno {as in n. I), Girolamo Romanino, Milan. 1965. More recent con­ Pisogne, Brescia. 1991; Romanino in SantAntonio a 77-105. tributions include: A. Ballarin. "La Salome del Breno, Brent), 1992; A. Ballarin, "Girolamo di .3. Furthermore, when the Gesuati commissioned Romano, dit Romanino," in Le Sieclede Tltien: L'Age him to execute the high altarpiece for the church of FOLENGO AND ROMANINO 665 1 Girolamo Romanino, Lamentation, 1510. Venice, Accademia (photo: Musei Civici di Brescia) Let us compare two of Romanino's early altarpieces with Child in the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo), as well as by one of his later panels. The Lamentation in the Accademia in Sebastiano del Piombo (e.g., his Salome in the National Venice (Fig. 1), painted in 1510 for the Brescian church of S. Gallery in London, also dated 1510). Of course, the early Lorenzo, is a key work in his early career. The body of Christ, phase of Titian's career is highly controversial, and in as stiff as a wooden sculpture, and the figure of Mary principle one could object that we do not know enough about standing on the left-hand side are still Lombard elements Titian at this stage to suggest that Romanino used his works indebted to the works of Bramantino and Zenale, but they as source material. Yet the present writer is inclined to agree are overwhelmed by High Renaissance Venetian features; with those scholars (most recently Alessandro Ballarin) who indeed, the three male heads betray a close and prolonged date the Jacopo Pesaro Presented to Saint Peter by Pope Alexander study of Giorgione's works of around 1506, such as the Three VI in Antwerp to around 1506, the Fete champetre in the Philosophers (also identified by some as the Three Magi); and Louvre to around 1509, the Madonna and Child between Saint the two Marys kneeling at the side of Christ are inspired by Francis and Saint Roch in Madrid to around 1509-10, and the the paintings of the young Titian (e.g., the Madonna and Saint Mark Enthroned for S. Spirito in Isola, now in S. Maria bello Melone: at times Pordenone created deliber• S. Cristo in Brescia, the contract of Aug. 17, deals with a definition of the classical style in the ately violent and vulgar images "for the purpose of 1511—the earliest surviving contract for one of his different regions of the Italian peninsula: "The- making communication with a popular and provin• first major paintings—was drawn up in the sacristy most extraordinary intersection of genius art his• cial audience" (291, 297); Romanino's frescoes in of the monastery between the prior Oliverius and tory has known occurred then [in the 16th century's Valcamonica resemble "the earlier, inchoate, popo- Romanino, who is described as "pictor excellens" first two decades in Florence and Rome] and gave form to a style which, again eliciting a term that is a lano Pordenone" in their "popular verism" (365); (Boselli [as in n. 1], n, 81-82). value judgement, we call 'classic' or 'classical'. Altobello Melone's figures are "given a deliberately 4. R. Longhi, "Cose bresciane del Cinquecento," With less emphasis this applies elsewhere in Italy unbeautiful Germanic cast" (375).