Lot 113: Benvenuto Tisi, il Garofalo (Ferrara 1476-1559)

Benvenuto Tisi, il Garofalo (Ferrara 1476-1559)
The Nativity
oil on panel
7 x 7 in. (17.8 x 17.8 cm.)

University Park, The Pennsylvania State University; Williamsburg, Joseph and Margaret Muscarelle Museum of Art; and Massachusetts, Springfield Museum of Fine Arts, Italian Renaissance Art. Selections from the Piero Corsini Gallery, 25 January-8 March 1987; 18 April-7 June 1987; 28 June-13 September 1987, no. 11.

B. Wollesen-Wisch, Italian Renaissance Art. Selections from the Piero Corsini Gallery, exhibition catalogue, University Park, 1987, pp. 34-5, no. 11.
F. Moro, 'Altri tasselli per il Garolfalo', Paragone, 1992, pp. 8-18, pl. 11.
A. M. Fioravanti Baraldi, Il Garofalo, Benvenuto Tisi (c. 1476-1559), Faenza, 1993, pp. 96-7, no. 21, pl. V.
A. Ballarin, Dosso Dossi, La pittura a Ferrara negli anni del Ducato di Alfonso I, Padua, 1995, I, p. 283, no. 274, p. 444, and II, pl. 210.

The reverend R. Parry, Trinity College, Cambridge.

The present painting dates to circa 1510, shortly after Garofalo's visit to Venice of 1508. Predominant light and saturated color are used to embue the scene with emotion, and reflect the artistic developments occuring in Venice at that time. The work of Giorgione and Bellini, (from whom the figure of the Madonna is borrowed) were particularly influential. Garofalo produced a group of related works, painted on a slightly larger scale, all in private collections (op cit., nos. 14-15 and 17-21).