Altobello Melone ( 1490–1491 – before 3 May 1543) was an Italian painter of the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

Biography

Melone was born in Cremona. His work merges Lombard and

Mannerist Mannerism, which may also be known as Late Renaissance, is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Ita ...

styles. In Cremona, he encountered the elder

Girolamo Romanino Girolamo Romani, known as Romanino (c. 1485 - c. 1566), was an Italian High Renaissance painter active in the Veneto and Lombardy, near Brescia. His long career brought forth several different styles. Biography Romani was born in Brescia. H ...

. He was commissioned in December 1516 to fresco the

Cathedral of Cremona Cremona Cathedral ( it, Duomo di Cremona, ''Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta''), dedicated to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is a Catholic cathedral in Cremona, Lombardy, northern Italy. It is the seat of the Bishop of Cremona. Its be ...

, work which continued until 1518. His contract required that his frescoes be more beautiful than those of his predecessor,

Boccaccio Boccaccino Boccaccio Boccaccino (c. 1467 – c. 1525) was a painter of the early Italian Renaissance, belonging to the Emilian school. He is profiled in Vasari's '' Le Vite delle più eccellenti pittori, scultori, ed architettori'' (or, in English, ' ...

. He worked alongside

Giovanni Francesco Bembo Giovanni Francesco Bembo was an Italian Renaissance painter from Cremona, mainly active from 1515 to 1543. He apprenticed with Boccaccio Boccaccino. In 1515, he painted two frescoes: ''Presentation in the Temple'' and an ''Adoration of the Magi'' ...

and Paolo da Drizzona. Francesco Prata was influenced by Melone. Melone contributed frescoes to the Cathedral of Cremona in 1516. The ''

Lamentation A lament or lamentation is a passionate expression of grief, often in music, poetry, or song form. The grief is most often born of regret, or mourning. Laments can also be expressed in a verbal manner in which participants lament about somethin ...

'' in the

Pinacoteca di Brera The Pinacoteca di Brera ("Brera Art Gallery") is the main public gallery for paintings in Milan, Italy. It contains one of the foremost collections of Italian paintings from the 13th to the 20th century, an outgrowth of the cultural program of ...

/ref> comes in all probability from the church of Saint Lorenzo in

Brescia Brescia (, locally ; lmo, link=no, label= Lombard, Brèsa ; lat, Brixia; vec, Bressa) is a city and ''comune'' in the region of Lombardy, Northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Garda and Iseo ...

and is dated 1512. The stylistic convergence with Romanino is particularly obvious, such that the contemporary Venetian

Marcantonio Michiel Marcantonio Michiel (1484–1552) was a Venetian noble from a family prominent in the service of the State who was interested in matters of art. His notes on the contemporary art collections of Venice, Padua, Milan and other northern Italian centr ...

describes the Cremonese painter as a "disciple of Armanin". Moreover, in his masterpiece frescoes, Melone aims to be an interpreter of the anticlassicism and "expressionist" language emerging in the work of Romanino. The seven scenes realized by Altobello evince a new forcefulness – the ''Massacre of the Innocents'' is emblematic of this quality, which is manifest in the gestures and in the grotesque transformation of the faces.

Selected works

* ''Madonna and Child with Saint John'' (c. 1510) –

Accademia Carrara The Accademia Carrara, (), officially Accademia Carrara di Belle Arti di Bergamo, is an art gallery and an academy of fine arts in Bergamo, in Lombardy in northern Italy. The art gallery was established in about 1780 by , a Bergamasco col ...

, Bergamo * ''Adoration of the Christ Child'' (c. 1510) – Kunsthaus, Zürich (warehouse) * ''Madonna with Child'' (c. 1511) –

Pinacoteca Ambrosiana A pinacotheca (Latin borrowing from grc, πινακοθήκη, pinakothēkē = grc, πίναξ, pinax, (painted) board, tablet, label=none + grc, θήκη, thēkē, box, chest, label=none) was a picture gallery in either ancient Greece or an ...

, Milan * ''Lamentation over the Dead Christ'' (1512) –

, Milan * ''Transfiguration'' – Szépművészeti Múzeum, Budapest * ''Portrait of Gentleman'' (''Cesare Borgia'') –

, Bergamo * ''Embrace of Lovers'' – Gemäldegalerie,

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

* ''Embrace of Lovers'' – Szépművészeti Múzeum, Budapest * ''Adoration of the Christ Child'' (1512–1514) – Museo Berenziano, Cremona * ''Portrait'' (1512–1515) – Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan * ''Lamentation over the Dead Christ'' – Archiepiscopal Picture gallery, Milan * ''Christ Bearing the Cross'' (c. 1515) – National Gallery, London * ''Mercy'' –

Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo The Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo is a public art museum in Brescia, Lombardy. Established in 1851, the museum exhibits mainly paintings by local artists dated from the Thirteenth through the Eighteenth century. The museum's current collection in ...

, Brescia * ''Road to Emmaus'' (c. 1516–1517) – National Gallery, London * ''Saint Helena Travels to Jerusalem in Search of the True Cross'' – private collection * Frescoes in

Cremona Cathedral Cremona Cathedral ( it, Duomo di Cremona, ''Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta''), dedicated to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is a Catholic cathedral in Cremona, Lombardy, northern Italy. It is the seat of the Bishop of Cremona. Its ...

(1516–1518) **''Flight into Egypt'' **''Massacre of the Innocents'' **''Last Supper'' **''Washing of Christ's Feet'' **''Agony in the Garden'' **''Capture of Christ'' **''Christ in front of Caiaphas'' * ''Adoration of the Shepherds'' (c. 1518) – Frescoes detached, Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan * ''Resurrection'' (c. 1517) – Private collection * ''Simonino from Trento'' (c. 1521) – Castello del Buonconsiglio, Trento * ''Madonna and Child'' (1520–1522) – Accademia Carrara, Bergamo * ''Madonna and Child with Saints John Nicholas'' – Civic Museum Wing Ponzone, Cremona * ''Narcissus at Fountain'' – Städel, Frankfurt * ''Saint Prospero, Bishop of Reggio Emilia'' –

Hatfield House Hatfield House is a country house set in a large park, the Great Park, on the eastern side of the town of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England. The present Jacobean house, a leading example of the prodigy house, was built in 1611 by Robert Cec ...

* ''Madonna del Gatto'' – Church of

San Nicolò, Isola Dovarese San Nicolò is a Neoclassical-style, Roman Catholic church located on in the town of Isola Dovarese in the province of Cremona, region of Lombardy, Italy. History A church raised on land protected from floods of the Oglio river, called ''Santa M ...

, province of Cremona, Lombardy

References

Sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Melone, Altobello 1500s births 16th-century deaths 16th-century Italian painters Italian male painters Painters from Cremona Italian Renaissance painters