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Defined by Berenson as “the only mere portraitist that Italy has ever produced”, Giovan Battista Moroni is presented in the Gallerie d’Italia without too much ambition for what he knew how to reproduce best: the portrait “in action”. Far from superfluous pomposity, Moroni captures the characters represented in the midst of a gesture, moving away from the dry official portraits of the time.
The exhibition “Moroni (1521-1580). The portrait of his time” – curated by Arturo Galansino and Simone Facchinetti – celebrates the Renaissance artist from Bergamo by comparing him with works by Alessandro Bonvicino known as Moretto, his master in his Brescian workshop, and the masterful Lorenzo Lotto. An exhibition in nine sections that recounts Moroni’s entire artistic career, focusing on comparisons and differences with his contemporaries of the time, a tribute to the painter who paved the way for Caravaggio at the end of the sixteenth century.
The formats that are always the same, the layout cuts that are repeated, the very similar backdrops make the main subject the true protagonist of the scene: “Titiano used to say to the Rectors assigned by the Republic to the city of Bergomo, that they should have their portrait painted by Morone, who it made him natural” (Carlo Ridolfi).
Giovan Battista Moroni: the art of portraiture at the Gallerie d’Italia
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Beyond formalisms
In fact, during the sixteenth century the powerful often resorted to portraits: Moroni brought out their most intimate and friendly aspects, more complicit in the private than public sphere. A look that goes beyond the formalisms of the State and which makes his works “natural” compositions, not exempting himself from recording physical defects (wrinkles, frowning or pitying expressions, “Caravaggesque” shadows and minute details) of the person portrayed: “since they are called natural portraits, you should also take care that the face or other part of the body is not made more beautiful or more serious” (Gabriele Paleotti).
Moroni’s portraits, writes Roberto Longhi, appear “so true, simple, documentary that they even communicate to us the certainty of having known the models”. A technical strategy perfected over time is the surprising clear naturalism of Moroni’s paintings: first, the artist copies the model in a life-size format, helping to create the illusion of being in front of a real subject. Moroni is known for painting alla prima, thereby creating a formidable, luminous and vibrant immediate expressiveness. A light that strikes transversally on the wall, bringing the sparse background to life, taken first by Titian and then by Caravaggio himself. The section dedicated to altarpieces is splendid (with stylistic comparisons of works by Moretto), who during the long episcopate of Federico Cornaro – bishop of Bergamo from 1561 to 1577 – commissioned Moroni to produce devotional images to replace the old, updated ones to contemporary sensibilities and traits.