(documented 1493–1510 Asti)
The Marriage of the Virgin; and
The Death of the Virgin,
oil on panel, each 29.7 x 32 cm, framed, a pair (2)

Provenance:
Private collection, Germany;
where acquired by the present owner

We are grateful to Simone Baiocco for confirming the attribution on the basis of a photograph.

Gandolfino da Roreto is one of the Northern Italian protagonists of the transition from late Gothic to Renaissance painting. The reconstruction of his output is based on his first identified commission, the large polyptych depicting the Assumption of the Virgin with Saints for the church of Saint Francis in Alba (Cuneo), signed and dated 1439, now in the Galleria Sabauda, Turin.

The Assumption of the Virgin is an early example of the artist’s ability to join a traditional courtly taste with a convincing and three-dimensional representation of the human figure, which appears modern. The influence of Flemish painting is apparent in these works, coexisting with other Southern European elements such as the halos in pastiglia arranged in concentric circles, typical of both Spanish and Ligurian art; as well as elements which are more prominent in Lombard painting – a combination of influences which have characterised Gandolfino’s corpus.

The present unpublished panels can be dated around the first decade of 1500 – a period which represents the artist’s full maturity: the work of Gandolfino is also close to the pictorial culture of Cremona and to the innovations introduced by Boccaccio Boccaccino (1467–1524).

Both the present scenes are represented in architectural settings which reveal the artist’s knowledge of buildings by Bramante. The structure of the temple where the Marriage of the Virgin takes place, can also be compared to architecture depicted in an etching by Prevedari, currently held in the Castello Sforzseco (Bernardo Prevedari, Interno di un tempio con figure, engraving, 1481). The Virgin is depicted with a rayed halo which surrounds her whole body, in a blue garment and a white robe; this iconography is employed by Gandolfino only in one other known work – a panel of a predella depicting the Nativity and Adoration of the Magi, conserved in the Palazzo del Comune di Crescentino (Vercelli).