_Ludovico Mazzolino_ (Ferrarese: 1480-1528).
Ludovico Mazzolino, "whose brilliant colours play through
all shades," has been called "the glowworm of the Ferrarese
School;" creamy-toned backgrounds of architectural subjects
also enrich his compositions. "He was principally a _genre_
painter, though in his early period he is said to have worked
much in fresco. His brilliant colouring made him a favourite
with art-loving prelates of succeeding generations; hence
his small pictures abound in Roman collections" (_Italian
Painters_, Borghese Gallery, p. 219). Morelli elsewhere adds
the conjecture that Mazzolino studied at Ferrara under Domenico
Pannetti. In another of his characteristics--the minuteness,
namely, of his work--he resembles rather the Flemish School.
Of his life little or nothing is known; but his interest in
decorative craftsmanship is proved by his pictures.
The background and accessories here, as well as in 641, are
particularly interesting as a record of the decorative art of the
time. A few years before the date of these pictures the Pope Leo X.
had unearthed the buried treasures of the Baths of Titus, and Giovanni
da Udine rediscovered the mode by which their stucco decorations were
produced. This method of modelling in wet plaster on walls and ceilings
was extensively used in house decoration from that time down to the
middle of the last century, but has since then been supplanted by the
cheaper process of casting. No sooner was Giovanni da Udine's invention
known than it must have been adopted by Ferrarese artists, for here we
find Mazzolino portraying it in the background of his picture. As in
Tura's pilaster (see 772), the winged sphere plays a principal part in
the design, for it was a favourite badge of the ducal house of Ferrara.
Nor is it only in the plaster modelling that Mazzolino's interest in
decorative art shows itself. The back of the bench on which the Madonna
sits is crowned by the most delicate carving, whilst up aloft, peeping
over the wall on which the plaster work occurs, there is a choir of
angels playing on a portable organ, which is full of suggestions for
decorative design (G. T. Robinson in _Art Journal_, May 1886, pp. 151,
152).