_Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo_ (Brescian: about 1480-1548).
Savoldo, "an excellent amateur, who was apparently first a
pupil of Romanino, then of Giovanni Bellini, and later of
Titian"[200] (Morelli: _Borghese Gallery_, p. 246). "He visited
Florence in 1508, and we find him enrolled as master in the
Painters' Guild there; his stay cannot, however, have been of
long duration, as none of his works known to us betray the
slightest Florentine influence" (_id. German Galleries_, p.
408). "His works," says Sir F. Burton, "display a distinct
individuality, the result of tendencies inherent in his nature.
The romantic element, already developed in Venetian art, shows
itself strongly in his passion for scenes of early dawn and
late sunset and effects of night illuminated by fire. His human
types are pleasing with a certain grave dignity. His colouring
is on the whole colder than that of his contemporaries of the
Veneto-Brescian School, and his flesh tints are adust and
sombre, especially in his male figures; nor are his draperies
generally brilliant in colour, although he delighted in the
sheen of silken stuffs, contrasting it with the kind of
twilight which pervades many of his pictures." "His landscapes
in sacred subjects make a profound impression of silent wonder
and devotion. They seem to palpitate in sympathy with the
deeds they witness, instead of being mere scenic backgrounds.
In the Berlin Deposition, for instance, the sky is lurid
and blood-stained; in the Adoration at Turin the shepherds
seem to be stealing noiselessly along, afraid of causing the
least disturbance in the hush and awe of the morning" (Mary
Logan's _Guide to Hampton Court_, in which collection there
is a picture by Savoldo of a Madonna and Child, dated 1527).
Savoldo's pictures are rare, and often pass under other names.
He was, says Vasari (iv. 535), "a fanciful and ingenious
person, what he has accomplished well meriting to be highly
commended." An important altar-piece, bearing his signature,
is in the Brera at Milan, and a beautiful "Adoration of the
Shepherds" is in the Church of St. Giobbe at Venice.
"A vein of realism, combined with the mystery of Savoldo's deep colours
and half-lights, is seen in the picture of a woman shrouded in a mantle
in the National Gallery" (_Layard_, ii. 585). The picture agrees with
the description given by Ridolfi of a "Magdalene," "a celebrated
work of which there are many copies." A very similar picture, signed
with Savoldo's name, is in the Berlin Gallery. The Magdalen is here
approaching the sepulchre, before which is a vase of ointment on a
square stone--for she had "bought sweet spices, that they might come
and anoint him. And very early in the morning ... they came unto the
sepulchre at the rising of the sun" (Mark xvi. 1, 2). Notice the daring
anachronism in the Venetian background, which "gives with exquisite
truth a very early dawn upon the Giudecca."