(Ferrara 1550/1–1620)
The Annunciation,
oil on copper, 20.4 x 27.8 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private European collection;
where acquired by the present owner

Ippolito Scarsella, called lo Scarsellino was one of the most important artists active in Emilia during the late Cinquecento and early Seicento. He acquired a training from his father Sigismondo, called il Mondino, who was also a painter and architect, and who recognising his son’s potential, arranged for him to enter the studio of Paolo Veronese in Venice, where he was also able to study the works of Titian, Andrea Schiavone, Tintoretto and Bassano. This experience in Venice, mediated by access to the greatest artist of the Venetian school, contributed significantly to the painter’s mature style. On his return to Ferrara, Scarsellino opened his own studio, where he operated an extensive production, fulfilling largely religious commissions that allowed him to experiment, developing a late Mannerist palette and technique of quality. He executed many altarpieces for the churches of Ferrara as well as numerous small format paintings, of both sacred and profane subjects, both for devotion and for the pleasure of private individuals, such as the present painting.

The present refined small work on copper representing The Annunciation accords fully with late cinquecento taste and was almost certainly made for a private patron. Here Scarsellino reveals how he had studied and evolved the example of the Venetians, Titian and Tintoretto, to create his own pictorial style. This work is characterised by its bright palette and the elegantly graceful mannerist pose of the figures.