_Andrea Solario_ (Lombard: about 1460-1520).
Andrea belonged to an artist family, the Solari (of Solaro,
a village near Saronna); one of his brothers, Christopher
(nicknamed "Il Gobbo," the hunchback), was an architect and
sculptor, and from him perhaps Andrea learnt his superb
modelling of the head--a point which is conspicuous in this
picture, and in which he surpassed all his contemporaries.
His repute in his own time is attested by the journey he made
to France in 1507. The Cardinal George of Amboise desired to
entrust the decoration of a chapel to Leonardo; but Leonardo
was too much taken up with hydraulic works at Milan to accept
the commission, and the Cardinal's representative sent Andrea
in the great man's place. It is not known with whom Solario
studied painting, but his subject-pictures prove conclusively
that he came within Leonardo's sphere of influence. "Although
by birth and training a Lombard artist, Solario was so much in
Venice that his native style was largely modified. There is
no historical evidence that he ever met Antonello da Messina,
but his works bear such close resemblance to that master's
productions that it cannot be doubted they were acquainted.
The portrait No. 923 is obviously Venetian in character;
indeed, it passed not long since under Bellini's name. It seems
unnecessary to suppose [with Morelli] that he paid a visit
to Flanders. The Flemish traits so conspicuous in his work
could well be derived from contact with Antonello. To the end
of his life he painted with the utmost finish and delicacy.
The brilliance and warmth of his colour compensate for the
somewhat cold ivory pallor of his flesh tones. His landscapes
are remarkably picturesque and full of incident. That behind
the figure of Longono in the National Gallery portrait is of
the greatest delicacy and charm" (_Catalogue of the Burlington
Fine Arts Club Exhibition_, 1898, p. lxi. See also Morelli's
_German Galleries_, pp. 63-68; _Roman Galleries_, pp. 170-176).
Subject-pictures by Solario may be seen in the Brera and the
Poldi-Pezzoli Gallery at Milan, and in the Louvre. His last
work was a large "Assumption of the Virgin" for the Certosa of
Pavia (now in the Sacristy), which his death prevented him from
finishing.
A portrait (dated 1505) of the artist's friend, a Milanese lawyer,
whose name, John Christopher Longono, is written on a letter in his
right hand. He wears the gown and cap (not unlike that still worn
by French "advocates") of his profession. Observe the landscape
background--here quaintly peopled with prancing dogs and horses on
the left, and servants in red pushing off boats on the right--with
which the old painters, like some of our modern photographers, were
fond of flattering their subjects. But in this case the subject is
well entitled to his "setting," for he is a nobleman as well as a
lawyer, and the background is perhaps studied from his country seat.
On the bottom of the panel is a Latin inscription which, literally
interpreted, runs, "Not knowing what you have been or what you may be,
may it for long be your study to be able to see what you are," _i.e._
by looking at this picture of yourself--a neatly-turned compliment at
once to the painter and his subject: the picture is to last for many
a long year, and the lawyer for many a long year is to grow no older.
Or is the inscription also meant to describe the lawyer's character in
words, as the portrait does in colours--a man not troubled overmuch
with what has been or what may be hereafter, but one who is keenly
alive to what he is, and who pours all his powers into the tasks and
interests of the present?