Altarpiece of St. Stephen
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Authors
Giacomo Del Maino and Giovan Angelo Del Maino
Date
Type
Image
Language
Keyword
Madonna and Child , St. Lawrence , St. Stephen , St. Augustine , Man of Sorrows , St. Barbara
Alternative Title
Abstract
This painted wood altarpiece is in its original location in San Michele in Pavia, but it has been encased in a later frame, and the architecture has been partially redone. The work was designed and begun by Giacomo Del Maino a specialist in wood who had his shop in Pavia and nearby Milan, although this is his only work surviving in Pavia. The somewhat stiff and blocky side figures on the left and right sides (St. Lawrence and St. Augustine on the lower level and St. Stephen the Pope and St. Barbara on the second level) are typical of Giacomo's style. The much more dynamic and fluid figures in the central register on all three levels (the Madonna and Child adored by St. Stephen, the Man of Sorrows, and God the Father) are instead carachteristic of the style of his son, Giovan Angelo Del Maino, who may have finished the altarpiece after his father died (recorded as living in 1503 and dead in 1505). The Madonnas's body twists gently, almost nervous folds cascading over her ample lap, as baby Jesus corkscrews to the side to grasp the large cross, accepting even as a tender infant his terrible fate, also reflected in the expression of sad acceptance on his mother's face. The composition seems to be based upon a painting of and Madonna and Child in which the baby grasps the cross, as a donor prays (St. Stephen in the sculpted altarpiece) in the style of Rogier Van der Weyden, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Flemish paintings were popular in Italy in this period, and the drapery used in the altarpiece suggests an interest in these northern models. According to Federico Zeri, the Met painting in specific was in Lombardy in this period. Photograph(s) licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Description
San Michele, Pavia
Citation
Raffaele Casciaro, La scultura lignea lombarda del Rinascimento (Milan: Skira, 2000), 79-80, 140-1, cat. 115, pp. 324-5.