GIANDOMENICO CIGNAROLI

(Verona, 1724 - 1793) Sketch for the altarpiece of the Redeemer and saints of the Holy Trinity in Crema Oil on canvas, 65X43.5 cm Provenance: Rome, Minerva Auction, May 26, 2016, lot 117 (as 18th-century Roman school) Florence, Pandolfini, May 15, 2018, lot 40 (as Giandomenico Cignaroli) Rome, private collection Bibliography: C. Alpini, New Studies in Art History, in Insula Fulcheria. Rassegna di studi e documentazioni di Crema e del circondario edited by the Museo Civico di Crema e del Cremasco, no. XLVII, 2017, pp. 237-238 A pupil of his brother Giambettino, the painter carried out most of his career in the family workshop and achieved professional autonomy around 1760, while maintaining a style in tune with his training. Nonetheless, Gian Domenico never stopped assisting his brother in more demanding works or in making copies of the best-known or easily marketable compositions. This inclination, however, led the painter to a kind of singular eclecticism, capable of looking to the dark examples of Piazzetta or declining his own compositions with delicate hints of classicism. Such mixtures are well inferred in the canvas under review, which compends Cignarolian rocaille elegance, chromatic refinements and chiaroscuro hints, forcing us to re-evaluate his expressive qualities. In fact, Giandomenico from his earliest trials differs in a more quivering sensibility, a dramatically theatrical use of light, and introverted physiognomies, as we can see by looking at the San Luigi Gonzaga in prayer signed and dated 1748 (Maccacari rectory near Gazzo Veronese), whose air of melancholy spirituality is close to that of the canvas under examination, which we recognize as a preparatory sketch for the altarpiece executed for the church of the Santissima Trinità now preserved at the Museo Civico di Crema (fig. 1). Compared to the finished work we perceive some variations in the presence of the cross that accompanies the appearance of the Risen One and in the arrangement of the saints, all characterized by a chiaroscuro vividness that allows us to 'better understand the evolution of Gian Domenico's compositional idea, from the whimsical initial thought, to the calm final drafting, offering us an altarpiece that can be judged one of the pinnacles of his art and in general, of the representation of the sacred in the panorama of Italian eighteenth-century art' (Cf. Alpini 2017). Reference bibliography: Il Settecento a Verona: Tiepolo, Cignaroli, Rotari; la nobiltà della pittura, exhibition catalog edited by F. Magani, Cinisello Balsamo 2011, ad vocem D. Samatelli, Giandomenico Cignaroli, in I pittori dell'Accademia di Verona (1764 ; 1813), edited by L. Caburlotto, F. Magani, S. Marinelli, C. Rigoni, Crocetta del Montello 2011, pp. 181-193 F. Benuzzi, Notes for the catalog of Giandomenico Cignaroli, in Arte Documento, 32, 2016, pp. 224-229