Milan 1487: Bernardo Zenale and Jacopino de Mottis

The recent restoration of the stained-glass window depicting the Stories of san Giovanni Damasceno, made in the Milan Cathedral commissioned by Paratico degli Speziali, who was given on May 7, 1478 for this purpose a window near the altar of the Notaries (fin. IX), has provided an opportunity to reconsider a very complex and still not fully clarified issue, such as the relationship between master glassmakers and the authors of the cartoons in the fifteenth-century construction site of the Milan Cathedral.

Specifically regarding the stained-glass window in question, it will be necessary to briefly recall the news found in the sources: on February 16th, 1479, the glassmaker Nicolò da Varallo is commissioned by the guild of the Speziali to make a stained-glass window. For this purpose, in October, the Deputies purchase 395 pounds of glass (equivalent to about 22-23 panes). On May 25th, 1480, Nicolò obtains a room from the Fabbrica to be used as a workshop, which he is to free up when the master is not busy with this work. In the following years, Nicolò is documented in other projects as well, both in the Cathedral and elsewhere (particularly in Lodi between 1484 and 1486), until the last payments by the Veneranda Fabbrica in August 1489, with notes of blame, which to this day constitute his last record. On October 1st, 1498, however, the stained glass window is reported to be unfinished, and still in September 1516 there are supplies of glass “iuxta so litum”. Finally, in 1539, a payment is recorded “pro aptari faciendi” for the stained-glass window in question, which has been correctly associated, I believe, with its relocation from window IX to window XXV, where it is currently preserved, on the occasion of the placement in the south transept of the tomb of Gian Giacomo Medici, commissioned by Pope Pius IV. 

The subject chosen by the Paratico degli Speziali for the stained-glass window, the life of San Giovanni di Damasco, is rather unusual and was probably driven by the desire to include in the rich iconography of the Cathedral this saint of the Eastern Church who strenuously defended in his writings the worship of images. The scenes depicting his life are drawn from Vincenzo di Beauvais’ Speculum Historiale, a rather concise 13th century text, which also turns out to be the basis for the only other sequence dedicated to this figure in Lombardy, painted in the 14th-century fresco on a sub-arch in the church of San Francesco in Lodi. A re-reading of the text of the Vita made it possible to accurately identify the various episodes and to propose the rearrangements of the panels in a position more in line with what the original sequence would have been.

From a stylistic perspective, the close observation of the panes during the restoration allows for some additional considerations both on the extent of Nicolò’s intervention and on the possible authorship of the cartoons’s authors for the stained-glass window. Three main groups can indeed be noticed, clearly distinguishable both in terms of the general setting of the composition, the rendering of the figures and details, and in terms of the technical data, This could lead one to believe that there was a turnover not only among the glassmakers but also among the makers of the cartoons. In fact, the earliest scenes (from the Nativity through the Monasticism, up to John teaching the Caliph’s son) show rather homogeneous stylistic traits, which can be well compared with several works by Vincenzo Foppa: the most relevant cross-references are particularly evident in the Presentation at the Temple already in the Gerli collection (Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera), where there are convincing parallels for the women in the Nativity and the infant John himself (as well as for the Madonna with Child appearing to the young saint in prayer). The male figures find precedents in the frescoes of the Portinari Chapel, where the Apostles witnessing the Assumption of the Virgin are related to  the bystanders attending the lecture of 12-year-old John, only somewhat more massive in bulk; the young saint praying to the Virgin is a reworking of the Saint Christopher (Denver, Art Museum), while we can read the scene of the Boy writing the false letter going all the way back to the Boy reading Cicero (what remains of the frescoes for the Banco Mediceo, circa 1462) and to the spatial settings of the Portinari Chapel (see the Miracle of the healed foot). Furthermore, the young pupils on the left side of The Monk Cosmas teaching, with remarkably naturalistic faces and volumes, their soft hair escaping from their caps, can be aptly compared with the musical angel beside the Madonna with Child (Florence, Uffizi Galleries), while the wider faces of the monks in the Vesting seem indebted to the more massive volumetry of Saint Stephen in the Bottigella Altarpiece (Pavia, Pinacoteca Malaspina).

If we consider that similar stylistic references are found in the first panes of the Scenes from the New Testament and in the stained-glass window depicting the Stories of Saint Eligius, which turn out to have been made on cartoons by Vincenzo Foppa, commissioned, on March 11, 1482, by the Paratico degli Orefici, we can have confirmation of Foppa’s authorship for the cartoons on this part of the stained-glass window. The six Greek-clad Angels, with their arms crossed at the chests, which adorn in pairs the little space on either side of the spires of the mullions halfway up the window, should also be attributed to a design by Foppa. Though heavily interpolated by restorations, they can be well compared with the herald Angels in the sails of the Portinari Chapel. 

From a technical perspective, the use of highly transparent glass is evident (white glass is used for the faces), with delicately grisaille in refined strokes to emphasize facial features and drapery in a rather calligraphic manner; magnificent shades of red and plum glass; the abundant use of silver stain, highlighting certain details of the figures (e.g., hair), but primarily used for architectural elements (such as capitals and frames); the use of damask glass in the faux-fabric panel that serves as the headboard of the birthing bed; a very unusual color (like red earth) used in firing to enliven the complexions on the cheeks and in one instance – the scene of John communicating his vocation to his parents – for his father’s entire cloak. In these technical features, we should likely recognize the intervention of Nicolò da Varallo.

After these scenes, which reach approximately the level of the mullions halfway up the window, there is a distinct break. With the panes depicting the Martyrdom of the saint and the Hand hanging on the city gate, the hand of the painter and stained glass master Pietro da Velate, whose identity has recently been effectively reconstructed, is clearly recognised: his intervention, which is characterized by the use of a sparingly applied grisaille (i.e., by removing the grisaille with a small stick or the back of the brush after spreading it), must date back to a time between 1519 and 1523, when received various payments “pro aptando” and “pingendo” stained glass windows in the Cathedral: it follows that the two scenes were likely introduced during the final assembly of the stained-glass window.

The panel depicting the Arrest is not easily assessed, as it was probably already affected by ancient restorations and replacements (particularly on the right side). However, the frontal head of one of the henchmen stands out, displaying marked volume and great strength, of considerable Bramante influence, which can be aptly compared with the heads of the executioners of Saint Sebastian in the Martyrdom of the Saint (Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera) by Vincenzo Foppa from Santa Maria di Brera, generally dated around 1487, but also with King David frescoed by Bernardo Zenale on the vault of the central nave of the church of the Certosa di Pavia, during the 1490s. Additionally, the technical rendering of the grisaille also differs from both the first group of panes and those of Pietro da Velate.

The following panels appear to be very interpolated due to ancient restorations and the nineteenth-century remakes by the Bertini family (who used less transparent glass), evidently carried out extensively as a result of greater deterioration, most likely due to a lower quality technical execution – although it has already been noted in other cases that the Bertinis generally are very respectful of the original lines of the composition and facial features. In many of the surviving ancient parts, the original grisaille has fallen off. However, several beautiful antique portions can still be recognized, along with the overall settings of the compositions, thus allowing some general observations to be drawn. Leaving aside rare cases where Foppa’s distinctive features still recur, we are faced with characters depicted in broad planes, with large round heads, a certain simplification, less complex architectures, but above all, a different use of the available space, as evidenced by the decision to reserve the last two registers of the stained-glass window for only two episodes, which unify the environment within which the scene takes place. A very similar layout can be found in coeval panel painting, for example in the triptych executed by Bernardo Zenale around 1490, perhaps for the church of Ognissanti in Monza, now divided between the Uffizi Galleries and the Museum of Art in Lawrence (Kansas). Here we also find timely comparisons for the striking head of the monk with folded hands who welcomes John in the scene where the Emperor gifts a monastery to John, closely related to the holy abbot in the right panel (Florence, Uffizi Galleries).

A very tight reference for the similar approach to volumes and draperies also recurs in the side panels of the Franciscan altarpiece, also executed by Zenale, divided between the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan, a private collection, and the Museum of Grenoble, which is believed to date from the same years, as well as in the side panels of the later altarpiece for the Chapel of the Immaculate in San Francesco in Cantù (divided between the Bagatti Valsecchi Museum and the Poldi Pezzoli Museum in Milan), for which an artist payment occurs in 1502.

Consider now that on September 11th, 1487, Bernardo Zenale and Jacopino de Mottis rented a workshop in the parish of San Giovanni Laterano in Milan from Giuliano da Sondrio for three years, with the purpose of collaborating on works hitherto unidentified. Jacopino is then reported to have been paid in 1488 and 1489 for stained glass windows and frescoes in the Certosa di Pavia with “fellow painters”, and among them, Stefania Buganza has long ago correctly proposed to identify Bernardo Zenale, recognizing the hand of the artist from Treviglio in two Carthusian monk Saints on the vault of the third left chapel. Further payments to this company occur in 1491 with regards to three chapels on the right side, where Jacopino has been recognised in the figures of Prophets (vault of the third chapel), Patriarchs (vault of the fifth chapel), and in two lay monks on the vault of the first chapel, while the other two figures are indeed by Zenale, who is also credited with some frescoed figures (probably already in the second half of the 1490s) on the vaults of the central nave, such as King David.

If one considers that the portraits of the six famous ancient physicians (Dioscorides, Galen, Mesue, Avicenna, Hippocrates, Serapion), which still adorn the mullions located halfway up the window XXV in the Milan Cathedral, appear to be twins (in facial features, in the style by simplified planes, in the small and sinewy hands, in the somewhat metallic and strained drapery) of the characters Jacopino de Mottis painted on the vaults of the chapels in the Certosa di Pavia (especially the Patriarchs and the Prophets), there is a strong degree of probability that the  1487 document, implying a collaboration between the two artists in Milan, may also refer to the creation of the cartoons for the upper part of the stained-glass window. The realization of these cartoons was then delayed until the intervention of glassmakers of lesser technical abilities, as evidenced by the extreme deterioration of the grisaille and the loss of much of the original glass in the upper part of the window, where the figures of the monks with wide faces, the somewhat caricatured features recur, and the conclusion of Pietro da Velate. Lastly, reasoning on the figure of Zenale as the author of cartoons for stained glass and given his presence in Pavia as early as 1477 and the fact that in 1488-1489, as a companion of Jacopino, he is documented for stained glass windows and frescoes in the Certosa, with great caution, it could be proposed that it is to his hand that the cartoon for the St. Michael the Archangel signed by Antonio da Pandino is to be traced, for which the only possible term of comparison remains Zenale’s namesake saint already in the Contini Bonacossi collection, now at the Uffizi Galleries.

June 19, 2024