1347 - ANTONIO MONDINO

ANTONIO MONDINO The Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine of Alexandria Oil on canvas, 88x100 cm Antonio Mondino (or Mondini) is mentioned in ancient sources as a pupil of Morazzone. Orlandi (Abecedario pittorico, 1704) describes him as a Milanese and comments: “Few of his works are seen in his homeland, for he was fond of traveling the world”; a statement that is likely accurate, since his artistic career is documented in Varese and the surrounding area only from 1617 to 1633: a circumstance that suggests the painter spent other periods of his life elsewhere. As late as 1817, Mondino was still described as “one of Morazzone’s finest pupils” The painter, an important figure in early 17th-century Lombardy, remains largely overlooked even today, although over the past few decades he has enjoyed some critical acclaim, beginning with Vito Zani’s studies in 1996 and 1997, followed by numerous scattered references, particularly in the wake of Morazzone’s work. Mondino was active in the first quarter of the 17th century in Varese and worked both in the city’s main churches and for its most prominent families. He was also active at Sacro Monte di Varese, where he painted several frescoes for the sixth chapel, the Chapel of the Prayer in the Garden. His art, however, as Zani notes, “lacks too many defining characteristics” compared to the great master Morazzone; according to Mina Gregori, it reveals itself as “a pleasant transcription of the master’s simpler ideas.” His known career spanned the years 1617 to 1633. The Marriage of Saint Catherine is a unique work by Mondino. It is linked to a painting in the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana—a work of decidedly inferior quality—previously attributed to Morazzone and now attributed to the Lombard School. Further study of the canvas will be necessary. Bibliography: Zani Vito, “New Information on Antonio Mondino, a Pupil of Morazzone,” in *Tracce*, XVI (1996), pp. 33–53 Zani, Vito, “Further News on Antonio Mondino,” in *Tracce*, 1997, N.S. 17.1997, 13, 29–38 Stoppa, Jacopo, *Il Morazzone*, Milan 2003 A. Cifani, F. Monetti, “Antonio Mondino, *La deploration sur le Christ mort*,” in *From Vouet to Boucher: At the Heart of the Motais de Narbonne Collection: French and Italian Paintings of the 17th and 18th Centuries*, Orléans, 2018, pp. 240–41