Biagio Pupini

Oil on panel painting, measuring 55 x 75 cm without frame and 75 x 95 cm with frame, by the painter Biagio Pupini, known as Biagio delle Lame (Bologna 1515 - 1575). Thanks to Alessandro Agresti for his ineffable expertise. This panel (in excellent condition and of fine executive workmanship) attests to the enormous fortune of Raphael's inventions in the years following his death: in fact, it is clearly inspired by the famous fresco of Parnassus commissioned for Julius II in the Vatican. It seems interesting to note that it is not a simple copy, nor does it slavishly reproduce the prototype, but rather gives a personal and imaginative interpretation, indicative of a talented painter. The first thing that strikes the eye is the non-secondary role conferred on the landscape, which in Sanzio's painting is certainly described in detail, but is still a background to the main scene: here, as if we were switching from a zoom to a wide angle, our painter dilates the distances between the bystanders and indulges in the description of the natural setting, with a remarkable sensitivity. We can see this both in the subtle tonal changes of the bank from which the small waterfall descends, giving a certain depth to the representation, and in the capricious and detailed workmanship with which the rustling foliage is rendered, leaf by leaf, with the tip of the brush, with the lighter pigment on the tips to also restore the refractions of the light. This is a more brooding and wild landscape than that of Raphael, which denotes the strong influence of the most heterogeneous of his pupils: the ingenious and saturnine Polidoro da Caravaggio, who in the paintings of the church of San Silvestro al Quirinale as in some drawings gives a similar vision of nature; an element, this, which as we will see will contribute to formulating a more than plausible attribution for our work. In the central group, the pose of the god of the arts changes and almost all of the bystanders on the second plane are of invention, the group on the right presents variations in the clothes but, on the whole, follows the Parnassus rather faithfully, while the invention of the figures on the left is new, to close the composition symmetrically. The author of the table sub judice declines the prototype in a less grandiose and noble key, lighter and more sweetened than the grandeur and majesty that inspire the protagonists of the Vatican fresco, ennobling their movements also by way of the thinner proportions and a certain simplification of the forms, which we find in the anatomies, in the physiognomies that recur without many variations from character to character – also fori ere of a precise attributive proposal – in the geometric pattern of the clothes. Precisely these characteristics of soft formal balance, pleasant exposition, sweet eurhythmy of the forms captured with a certain naturalness lead to placing our table in the Bolognese area, where from Francia onwards, with the study trips to Rome and the arrival of works by the Urbino native such as the famous Santa Cecilia, there was a real revolution in the local school: Raphael's magisterium was therefore decisive for subsequent developments. Among the leading artists working in the capital of Bologna, it seems to me that the most suitable name is that of Biagio Pupini known as Biagio from Lame, whose physiognomy has been delineating in a rather precise way in recent years. We do not know the place and date of birth of the artist: the first news concerning him dates back to 1511, relating to the commission for paintings in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli in Bologna, together with Bartolomeo Ramenghi known as Bagnacavallo seni or with whom he will form a partnership that will last over a decade (see in 1519 the supply of a drawing for a stained glass window in San Petronio or in 1527 the execution of frescoes in the church of San Salvatore). A study trip to Rome between 1511-1519 is very plausible, testified by drawings that copy works by Raphael as well as Polidoro da Caravaggio, whose influence in graphics is truly preponderant, but which also appears clearly in the frescoes of San Michele in Bosco (1525-1526, fig.2) where the use of monochrome, the sensitivity for the restitution of country backdrops and the slender and nervous figures are a direct result of the poetics of Raphael's pupil. On the other hand, another fresco painting, almost coeval such as The Adoration of the Magi of the church of the Annunziata in Bologna (fig.3, 1524-1525 c.a) shows several elements comparable to the Parnassus: see the importance and description of the country background - once again clearly reminiscent of Polidoro - the slightly elongated proportions of the figures, the design that orders the rather simplified development of the clothes. It is precisely at that moment that a new collaboration begins with one of the most modern painters of the moment, Girolamo da Carpi, a collaboration that will last at least until the Este construction site of Belriguardo completed around 1536 - 1537 - and which will bear fruit in one of the most Raphaelesque works of Pupini's career, a true homage to the aforementioned Santa Cecilia by Raphael, that is the altarpiece with the Virgin and Child crowned by angels and saints of the Bolognese church of San Giuliano (1530 c.a,). Already in this work we can grasp similarities with the Parnassus in the clothes with rather geometric folds concluded by the clear contour line, in the anatomy of the Child with the detachments of the rather simplified muscles, in the detailed way with which the crowns are restored, as in the somatics (see that of profile). Even more obvious correspondences in a coeval Nativity of the National Art Gallery of Bologna in the soft folds where the light flows sweetly, from the elongated form, but above all in the physiognomies, here at the limit of congruence with those of the figurines of our table: see the Greek nose with the rounded tip, small mouth, slightly protruding chin and almond-shaped eyes with elongated cut, with the pin-shaped iris. Furthermore, once again, a notable sensitivity recurs in the restitution of nature, especially in the foliage rendered with the pointillist specks of paint-laden brush. These are stylistic features, set in an atmosphere of golden classicism, which will give way in later works to a greater formal abstraction, which is expressed in a clearer design, more rigid and geometric clothes, stereotyped physiognomies, an insistent comparison of the lights that leads to deeper shadows and a statuary prominence of the figures, as we note in the Sant 'Orsaia with the companions of the church of San Giacomo (1550 ) which is also one of the last known works of Biagio Pupini. In that year the artist was elected Massaro of the four arts in Bologna: from 1551 his name no longer appears in the documents, indicating his disappearance. From the comparisons proposed here, therefore, this Parnassus is not only to be attributed to Biagio Pupini, known as Biagio dalle Lame, but is to be dated in the central phase of his career, which is then the apical point, around 1530 c.a, after the beginning of the collaboration with Girolamo da Carpi. The paintings and works of art published here are my exclusive property and consequently are always available to be viewed in person, by appointment, in my exhibition locations located in Sanremo and Brescia. The work, like all our objects, is sold accompanied by a FIMA photographic certificate of authenticity and lawful provenance; this document identifies the object by adding value to the article. We personally take care of and organize the packaging and shipping of works of art with insurance worldwide. Dr. Riccardo Moneghini Art Historian