Bartolomeo Veneto
Encyclopedia
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
, the Veneto (the mainland), and Lombardy
Lombardy
Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...
. During his time in Venice, he studied under Gentile Bellini
Gentile Bellini
Gentile Bellini was an Italian painter. From 1474 he was the official portrait artist for the Doges of Venice.- Biography :...
. The little information available about Bartolomeo's life has been derived from his signatures, dates, and inscriptions. His best known works are portraits or pictures with portrait-like character. Bartolomeo's later works, and especially those done on commission in Milan, indicate an influence from the artist Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance...
.
Work and Style
Bartolomeo’s early works consist of small devotional pictures. Bartolomeo changed his subject matter to suit his patronPatrón
Patrón is a luxury brand of tequila produced in Mexico and sold in hand-blown, individually numbered bottles.Made entirely from Blue Agave "piñas" , Patrón comes in five varieties: Silver, Añejo, Reposado, Gran Patrón Platinum and Gran Patrón Burdeos. Patrón also sells a tequila-coffee blend known...
s as the interest in portraiture grew in Venice and the Veneto. His portraits became quite popular and in his later life Bartolomeo obtained many commissions in Northern Italy.
Attribution
While forty paintings are generally accepted to be by Bartolomeo, only nine bear inscriptions with the artist's name. A fourth of the generally accepted works are devotional paintings, which were painted during his early career. All of his paintings were done on wood (few were later moved to canvas.) He appears to have received no public commissions and the majority of his work consists of portraiture.Inscriptions
Bartolomeo’s earliest dated work Virgin and Child, from 1502 bears an interesting signature important to our understanding of the painter’s developing style, "Bartolamio mezo venizian e mezo cremonexe" (“Bartolomeo half-Venetian and half-Cremonese.”) The inscription sheds light on the painter’s citizenship, as well as a reference to his diverse stylistic influence. The Venetian half reflects his knowledge of Bellini. The Cremonese suggests some knowledge of the Cremonese school founded by Guilio Campi.Another inscription is found on a similar Virgin and Child. The inscription is difficult to read and the date is unknown. What is left is "7 April 15... bartolamio s...o de z...be..." It is assumed that Bartolomeo inscribed the painting to indicate that he was a pupil of Gentile (Zentile) Bellini.
At Court
Bartolomeo is very likely to have been "Bartolomeo da Venetia" who the EsteEste
The House of Este is a European princely dynasty. It is split into two branches; the elder is known as the House of Welf-Este or House of Welf historically rendered in English, Guelf or Guelph...
court recorded as a craftsman in its service from 1505-1507. There, Bartolomeo gilded frames and made carnival decorations along with painting a Virgin with saints.
Portraiture
Flora from c. 1515 is currently attributed to Bartolomeo. The unknown figure is painted with hard-edges and a descriptive quality. Though the sitter is unknown, she is thought (and perhaps wrongly) to be Lucrezia BorgiaLucrezia Borgia
Lucrezia Borgia [luˈkrɛtsia ˈbɔrʤa] was the illegitimate daughter of Rodrigo Borgia, the powerful Renaissance Valencian who later became Pope Alexander VI, and Vannozza dei Cattanei. Her brothers included Cesare Borgia, Giovanni Borgia, and Gioffre Borgia...
. Close to a genre painting
Genre painting
Genre works, also called genre scenes or genre views, are pictorial representations in any of various media that represent scenes or events from everyday life, such as markets, domestic settings, interiors, parties, inn scenes, and street scenes. Such representations may be realistic, imagined, or...
, the painting could be a response to similar paintings by Giorgione
Giorgione
Giorgione was a Venetian painter of the High Renaissance in Venice, whose career was cut off by his death at a little over thirty. Giorgione is known for the elusive poetic quality of his work, though only about six surviving paintings are acknowledged for certain to be his work...
including the Laura. Bartolomeo placed the figure in front of a black background, a theme that would follow in his later paintings such as Saint Catherine, Salome with the Head of the St. John the Baptist, and Lady playing a Lute.
Documents suggest Bartolomeo went to Padua in 1512 and Milan in 1520. Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance...
had recently been to Milan, where he transformed the current mundane portraiture into one of intrigue and sfumato
Sfumato
Sfumato is one of the four canonical painting modes of the Renaissance .The most prominent practitioner of sfumato was Leonardo da Vinci, and his famous painting of the Mona Lisa exhibits the technique. Leonardo da Vinci described sfumato as "without lines or borders, in the manner of smoke or...
. Leonardo's effect is evident in Bartolomeo's developing style when juxtaposing Flora and Lady playing a Lute. Flora's hair is flat and each detailed single strand is painted, much detail is paid to the flowers and jewelry draped across her body. Lady Playing a Lutes figure is more three-dimensional with an emphasis of chiaroscuro
Chiaroscuro
Chiaroscuro in art is "an Italian term which literally means 'light-dark'. In paintings the description refers to clear tonal contrasts which are often used to suggest the volume and modelling of the subjects depicted"....
. Her hair, rather than individual strands, has some sense of being whole while still being separate.
Recent Interest
Bartolomeo's signed works have been recorded since the 16th century. However, it wasn't until recently that interest arose in the collection of his works. The mid-nineteenth century saw sales of Bartolomeo's works to prominent museums. Alexander Barker, a collector of Italian paintings, acquired (along with paintings attributed to Titian and Giorgione) a painting by Bartolomeo. He later sold the painting to Baron Meyer Amschel de Rothschild and eventually the painting ended up in the Timken Museum of ArtTimken Museum of Art
The Timken Museum of Art is a fine art museum located in Balboa Park in San Diego, California, close to the San Diego Museum of Art.-History:...
in San Diego. In the same year, The National Gallery acquired a portrait by Bartolomeo. In 1871 four of Bartolomeo's works were given to the Louvre
Louvre
The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...
. At the very end of the nineteenth century, in 1899, Adolfo Venturi published the first article about the painter.
Main works
- Salome with the Head of Saint John the Baptist, c. 1520, Dresden, GermanyDresdenDresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
, GemäldegalerieGemäldegalerie Alte MeisterThe Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden features major works of art. It is located in the gallery wing of the Zwinger.... - The Circumcision, 1506, Paris, FranceParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, Musée du LouvreLouvreThe Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...
, Inv. no. R. F. 2485 - Portrait of Gentleman, Rome, Italy, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte AnticaGalleria Nazionale d'Arte AnticaThe Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, or National Gallery of Ancient Art, is an art gallery in Rome, Italy, located on two sites: the Palazzo Barberini and the Palazzo Corsini....
, Sala 6 - Portrait of a Man, c. 1510, Cleveland, OhioCleveland, OhioCleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
, USA, The Cleveland Museum of ArtCleveland Museum of ArtThe Cleveland Museum of Art is an art museum situated in the Wade Park District, in the University Circle neighborhood on Cleveland's east side. Internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egyptian art, the museum houses a diverse permanent collection of more than 43,000... - Lady Playing Lute, c. 1530, Los Angeles, USA, The J. Paul GettyJ. Paul GettyJean Paul Getty was an American industrialist. He founded the Getty Oil Company, and in 1957 Fortune magazine named him the richest living American, whilst the 1966 Guinness Book of Records named him as the world's richest private citizen, worth an estimated $1,200 million. At his death, he was...
Museum at the Getty CenterGetty CenterThe Getty Center, in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California, is a campus for cultural institutions founded by oilman J. Paul Getty. The $1.3 billion center, which opened on December 16, 1997, is also well known for its architecture, gardens, and views overlooking Los Angeles... - Madonna, 1502, Venice, Italy, Collection of Donà delle Rose
- Madonna della Ca'd'Oro, 1505, BergamoBergamoBergamo is a town and comune in Lombardy, Italy, about 40 km northeast of Milan. The comune is home to over 120,000 inhabitants. It is served by the Orio al Serio Airport, which also serves the Province of Bergamo, and to a lesser extent the metropolitan area of Milan...
, Italy, Accademia CarraraAccademia CarraraThe Accademia Carrara is an art gallery and an academy of fine arts in Bergamo, Italy.-History:The origins of the art gallery lie with the Count Giacomo Carrara, a wealthy collector and patron of the arts, who left a generous legacy to the city of Bergamo at the end of the 18th century.After the... - Madonna di Bergamo, 1505, Bergamo, Italy, Accademia CarraraAccademia CarraraThe Accademia Carrara is an art gallery and an academy of fine arts in Bergamo, Italy.-History:The origins of the art gallery lie with the Count Giacomo Carrara, a wealthy collector and patron of the arts, who left a generous legacy to the city of Bergamo at the end of the 18th century.After the...
Image - Ritratto di Beatrice d'Este II, 1510, FerraraFerraraFerrara is a city and comune in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital city of the Province of Ferrara. It is situated 50 km north-northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream of the Po River, located 5 km north...
, Italy - Ritratto di gentiluomo, 1512, Rome, Italy, Palazzo BarberiniPalazzo BarberiniPalazzo Barberini is a palace in Rome, facing the piazza of the same name in Rione Trevi and is home to the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica.-History:...
- Saint Catherine (attributed), 1510-1520, Glasgow, United Kingdom, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and MuseumKelvingrove Art Gallery and MuseumThe Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum is a museum and art gallery in Glasgow, Scotland. The building houses one of Europe's great civic art collections...
- Courtesan, c. 1520-25, Frankfurt am MainFrankfurtFrankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
, Germany, Städelsches Kunstinstitut und Städtische GalerieStädelThe Städel, officially the Städelsches Kunstinstitut und Städtische Galerie, is an art museum in Frankfurt am Main, with one of the most important collections in Germany.... - Lucrezia Borgia, 1510-1520, NîmesNîmesNîmes is the capital of the Gard department in the Languedoc-Roussillon region in southern France. Nîmes has a rich history, dating back to the Roman Empire, and is a popular tourist destination.-History:...
, France, Musée des Beaux-ArtsMusée des Beaux-Arts de Nîmes-Site:It was founded in 1821 and originally housed in the Maison Carrée. Since 1907 it has been housed in a building designed by the architect Max Raphel in Square de la Mandragore on rue de la Cité Foulc. The Maison Carrée soon became too small and an architectural competition was organised in...
. - Portrait of a Lady, c. 1520, Ottawa, CanadaOttawaOttawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
, National GalleryNational Gallery of CanadaThe National Gallery of Canada , located in the capital city Ottawa, Ontario, is one of Canada's premier art galleries.The Gallery is now housed in a glass and granite building on Sussex Drive with a notable view of the Canadian Parliament buildings on Parliament Hill. The acclaimed structure was...
, Inv. no. 16909 - Ludovico Martinengo (attributed), 1530, London, United Kingdom, National Gallery, Inv. no. NG287