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LUINI, BERNARDINO (?1465-?154o)

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 117 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LUINI, BERNARDINO (?1465-?154o) , the most celebrated See also:master of the Lombard school of See also:painting founded upon the See also:style of Leonardo da See also:Vinci, was See also:born at Luino, a See also:village on Lago See also:Maggiore. He wrote his name as " Bernardin Lovino," but the spelling " Luini " is now generally adopted. Few facts are known regarding his See also:life, and until a comparatively See also:recent date many even of his See also:works had, in the See also:lapse of years and laxity of attribution, got assigned to Leonardo da Vinci. It appears that Luini studied painting at See also:Vercelli under Giovenone, or perhaps under Stephano Scotto. He reached See also:Milan either after the departure of Da Vinci in 15oo, or shortly before that event; it is thus uncertain whether or not the two artists had any See also:personal acquaintance, but Luini was at any See also:rate in the painting-school established in Milan by the See also:great Florentine. In the later works of Luini a certain See also:influence from the style of See also:Raphael is superadded to that, far more prominent and fundamental, from the style of Leonardo; but there is nothing to show that he ever visited See also:Rome. His two sons are the only pupils who have with confidence been assigned to him; and even this can scarcely be true of the younger, who was born in 1530, when Bernardino was well advanced in years. Guadenzio See also:Ferrari has also been termed his See also:disciple. One of the sons, EN angelista, has See also:left little which can now be identified; the other, Aurelio, was accomplished in See also:perspective and landscape See also:work. There was likewise a See also:brother of Bernardino, named Ambrogio, a competent painter. Bernardino, who hardly ever left See also:Lombardy, had some merit as a poet, and is said to have composed a See also:treatise on painting. The precise date of his See also:death is unknown; he may perhaps have survived till about 1540.

A serene, contented and happy mind, naturally expressing itself in forms of See also:

grace and beauty, seems stamped upon all the works of Luini. The same See also:character is traceable in his portrait, painted in an upper See also:group in his See also:fresco of " See also:Christ crowned with Thorns " in the Ambrosian library in Milan —a See also:venerable bearded personage. The only See also:anecdote which has been preserved of him tells a similar See also:tale. It is said that for the single figures of See also:saints in the See also:church at See also:Saronno he received a sum equal to 22 francs per See also:day, along with See also:wine, See also:bread and lodging; and he was so well satisfied with this remuneration that, in completing the See also:commission, he painted a Nativity for nothing. A dignified suavity is the most marked characteristic of Luini's works. They are constantly beautiful, with a beauty which depends at least as much upon the loving self-withdrawn expression as upon the See also:mere refinement and attractiveness of See also:form. This quality of expression appears in all Luini's productions, whether See also:secular or sacred, and imbues the latter with a peculiarly religious grace—not ecclesiastical See also:unction, but the devoutness of the See also:heart. His heads, while extremely like those painted by Leonardo, have less subtlety and involution and less variety of expression, but fully as much amenity. He began indeed with a somewhat dry style, as in the " Pieta " in the church of the Passione; but this soon See also:developed into the quality which distinguishes all his most renowned works; although his See also:execution, especially as regards modelling, was never absolutely equal to that of Leonardo. Luini's paintings do not exhibit an impetuous style of execution, and certainly not a negligent one; yet it appears that he was in fact a very rapid worker, as his picture of the " Crowning with Thorns," painted for the See also:College del S. Sepolcro, and containing a large number of figures, is recorded to have occupied him only See also:thirty-eight days, to which an assistant added eleven. His method was See also:simple and expeditious, the shadows being painted with the pure See also:colour laid on thick, while the See also:lights are of the same colour thinly used, and mixed with a little See also:white.

The frescoes exhibit more freedom of See also:

hand than the oil pictures; and they are on the whole less like the work of Da Vinci, having at an See also:early date a certain resem- Luini's colouring is mostly See also:rich, and his See also:light and shade forcible. Among his See also:principal works the following are to be mentioned. At Saronno are frescoes painted towards 1525, representing the life of the Madonna—her " See also:Marriage," the " Presentation of the See also:Infant Saviour in the See also:Temple," the See also:Adoration of the Magi " and other incidents. His own portrait appears in the subject of the youthful " Jesus with the Doctors in the Temple." This See also:series—in which some comparatively archaic details occur, such as gilded nimbuses—was partly repeated from one which Luini had executed towards 1520 in S. Croce. In the Brera See also:Gallery, Milan, are frescoes from the suppressed church of La See also:Pace and the See also:Convent della Pelucca—the former treating subjects from the life of the Virgin, the latter, of a classic See also:kind, more decorative in manner. The subject of girls playing at the See also:game of " hot-cockles," and that of three angels depositing St See also:Catherine in her See also:sepulchre, are particularly memorable, each of them a work of perfect See also:charm and grace in its way. In the Casa See also:Silva, Milan, are frescoes from See also:Ovid's Metamorphoses. The Monastero Maggiore of Milan (or church of S. Maurizio) is a See also:noble treasure-See also:house of Luini's See also:art—including a large Crucifixion, with about one See also:hundred and See also:forty figures; " Christ See also:bound to the See also:Column," between figures of Saints Catherine and See also:Stephen, and the founder of the See also:chapel kneeling before Catherine; the martyrdom of this See also:saint; the " Entombment of Christ," and a large number of other subjects. In the Ambrosian library is the fresco (already mentioned), covering one entire See also:wall of the See also:Sala della S. See also:Corona, of " Christ crowned with Thorns," with two executioners, and on each See also:side six members of a confraternity; in the same See also:building the " Infant Baptist playing with a See also:Lamb "; in ,the Brera, the " Virgin Enthroned, with Saints (dated 1521); in the Louvre, the " Daughter of Herodias receiving the See also:Head of the Baptist " i in the Esterhazy Gallery, See also:Vienna, the " Virgin between.

Saints Catherine and See also:

Barbara "; in the See also:National Gallery, See also:London, " Christ disputing with the Doctors " (or rather, perhaps, the See also:Pharisees). Many or most of these gallery pictures used to pass for the handiwork of Da Vinci. The same is the See also:case with the highly celebrated " Vanity and Modesty " in the Sciarra See also:Palace, Rome, which also may nevertheless in all See also:probability be assigned to Luini. Another singularly beautiful picture by him is in the Royal Palace in Milan—a large See also:composition of " See also:Women Bathing." That Luini was also pre-eminent as a decorative artist is shown by his works in the Certosa of See also:Pavia. A See also:good See also:account of Luini by Dr G. C. See also:Williamson was published in 1900. (W. M.

End of Article: LUINI, BERNARDINO (?1465-?154o)

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