_Moretto_ (Brescian: 1498-1555).
In examples of the Brescian, as of the Veronese School, the
National Gallery is very rich. "The dialect of the Brescians
is very like that of their neighbours of Bergamo, but not so
harsh and rugged (see 1203): the character of the people,
too, is more lively and frank, more given to show and swagger
(Bresciani spacca-cantoni). The Brescians, wedged in between
the Veronese and Bergamese, unite, to some extent, the manly
energy of the latter with the greater vivacity and pliancy of
the former" (_Morelli_). The foundation of the Brescian School
was laid by Vincenzo Foppa (see 729), whose pupil Il Moretto
was. It is characteristic of the wide dispersion of the art
gift in Italy that this Alessandro Bonvicino, nicknamed "Il
Moretto,"--one of the greatest of portrait painters,--should
have belonged entirely to a provincial city. He was born and
educated at Brescia, where his father was a merchant; and
with the exception of a very few pictures, he painted only
for his native town and the province of Brescia, and it is
there that nearly the whole work of his life is still to be
found. Indeed he was little known beyond the frontiers of
the Brescian district, and it is only during the last half
century or so that his reputation has arisen. Moretto never
studied in Venice; his development and genius are native, and
he rivalled Titian himself in the stateliness and dignity
of his figures. His altar-pieces are distinguished further
by much gravity of feeling and sincerity of unostentatious
religious feeling. The picture in our own gallery (625) is a
good example. Others are to be found in the churches of his
native town and in some foreign galleries. Among the best are
the "Coronation of the Virgin" in SS. Nazzaro e Celso, Brescia;
"St. Margaret" in S. Francesco, Brescia; "The Feast of the
Pharisee," S. Maria della Pietà, Venice; "Madonna and Child,"
Städel Institute, Frankfort; and "S. Giustina," Belvedere,
Vienna. His nickname of "the Blackamoor" is particularly
inappropriate to his style, which is distinguished for its
silvery tones, "a cool, tender, and harmonious scale of colour
which has a peculiar charm, and is entirely his own" (_Layard_,
ii. 577). This harmony of colour, which became characteristic
of the Brescian School, may be observed also in his rival,
Romanino. Moretto is distinguished not more for his religious
subjects than for his portraits, of which we possess two very
beautiful specimens in the picture now before us, and in No.
1025. He was the master of another great portrait-painter,
Moroni of Bergamo (see 697), and works of the two are often
confused. In addition to the charm of his harmonious colouring,
Moretto's portraits are remarkable for the dignity he imparts
to his subjects. "Moretto," says Morelli, "shows himself the
higher artist of the two; his conception of a subject and
his drawing are nobler and more elegant than those of his
matter-of-fact scholar; but these intellectual qualities,
which are not perceptible to every eye, do not always suffice
to distinguish his weaker works from Moroni's best. In such
cases the only means we have of determining the authorship is
an exact and minute examination. The shape and expression of
the hand, for instance, are very different in Moroni from what
they are in Moretto. The hands of the latter, with pointed
fingers, suggestive of the academy, are never so true to nature
as those which Moroni can make when he chooses in drawing
from life. Moretto's flesh-colours, too, have a delicate
silver tone, while Moroni's, with their earth-like tints,
are more realistic" (_German Galleries_, pp. 47-50, 169-171,
396-403).[144]
This painter is conspicuous, says Lanzi (_History of Painting in
Italy_, Bohn's edition 1847, ii. 181), for his "skill in imitating
every kind of velvet, satin, or other cloth, either of gold or silver."
His portraits are remarkable, as is noticed under 1025, for their
poetic insight. He is not content with producing an obvious likeness
in the flesh; he strives at portraying or suggesting some spiritual
idea in all his sitters. These characteristics are conspicuous in
the present picture. Thus notice, first, the splendid brocades. Then
secondly, how the painter tells you not only that this was what the
sitter looked like, but what was his character. It is clearly the
portrait of some one who combined with an important position the
tastes of a _dilettante_, and who had an aspiring soul. On his cap is
a label inscribed ιου λιαν ποθω, which being literally interpreted
means "Alas, I desire too much!"--an inscription which accords with
the yearning upward gaze and the pose selected by the painter. But the
motto has also a punning reference. Reading the two first words as one,
it becomes ιουλιαν ποθω, "I desire Julia," or with a further pun on
the last word, "Julia Potho." We thus obtain a clue to the identity of
the sitter. The Potho or Pozzo family was well known at the time in
Brescia. Francesco dal Pozzo, 3rd Marquis of Ponderano (born 1494),
had as his first-born a daughter Julia. She became the wife of Giacomo
Gromo, Signor di Ternengo, who was a man of official status in Biella
in 1539, having to do with the fiscal arrangements of the district.
This may be indicated in our picture by the two coins of bronze and
gold, and the die or seal. The sandalled foot on the table (an antique
lamp?) may indicate his love of antiquities. "It is to be hoped, if
our picture be a portrait of Monsignor Giacomo Gromo di Ternengo, that
he had not long to wait before he became the devoted husband of Julia
Potho, for whom he so yearned, and whose favour he wore in his hat."
(W. Fred Dickes in _Athenæum_, June 3 and Aug. 26, 1893).[145]