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Girolamo
di Giovanni
e la scuola di Camerino
It
was under the lordship of Da Varanno that the city of Camerino came to
experience a flourishing and lively period culturally. Between the 14th
and 16th centuries it was home to what Federico Zeri described as
"the most remarkable painting school of the Le Marche". Girolamo
di Giovanni, early follower of Pietro della Francesca, is considered by
critics as the most important exponent of the Camerinese Renaissance.
The artist departed from his Tuscan learnings in order to develop and
elaborate upon his own style of painting as expressed in the fresco
representing the Madonna
con il Bambino e Santi (Camerino, Sant' Augustin Church), his
first signed piece of work (1449). A formation based upon the lessons of
light and perspective learned from the Tuscan master.
Along with the new spatial and light conceptions, they nevertheless remain
gothic residuals (note the presence of the small figures of the committees).
After a period spent in Padova in the site of the Hermits, placing by the
side of Andrea Mantegna in the
Storie di S.Cristofo (1450), he returned to his home town under the
service of Da Varano, a gentleman from Camerino since it was during this
period that many artists were recalled to decorate the rooms of the Ducale
Palace.
The
adhesion to the style of Piero della Francesca can also be perceived in
the Madonna
della Misericordia (1463), conserved in the Civic Pinacoteca of
Camerino. The figure of the Virgin, hieratic and serene, emanates an idea
of protection towards its faithful and seems in turn to protect the
environment in which it’s placed, a panelled ceiling Renaissance chapel.
Some years earlier (1455-62) he completed probably his most famous
work:
L’Annunciazione on a panel (also conserved it in the Camerino’s
Pinacoteca), in which he reveals his home town roots of Padova in the
landscape, recalling the marble elegance of Mantenga. The influence of the
urbinate culture remains fundamental though and one can see that the
Virgin’s room is the representation of the Chapel of Forgiveness in
Urbino’s Ducale Palace. The column on the first floor almost marks the
passage, the connection between two dimensions: physical space and
metaphysical space, where the sacred event is placed. In the lunetta
soprastante, with the Deposizione,
the artist portrays himself in the figure of the man with a hat who can be
seen under the arms of Christ.
Remaining
in the Le Marche region, we can admire the works of other masters of the
Camerinese school, protagonists of a flourishing artistic period in
Camerino. In
particular, Cola
di Pietro and Arcangelo
di Cola, early masters of the Camerinese school, Carlo da Camerino, Olivuccio da Ciccarello and Giovanni Boccati. The
latter being remembered above all for his frescoes of the Ducale Palace of
Urbino, the praiseworthy Polittico
in the church of Sant' Eustachio in Belforte del Chienti, and the
Crucifixion fresco
separated from the Church of S. Maria di Raggiano of Camerino and today
exhibited in the Civic Pinacoteca of the village. It is here where the
only remaining work of Arcangelo di Cola is kept, the Madonna
in trono con Bambino e angeli. In the council room of the town hall of
Mondavio there is also a panel representing the Madonna
con Bambino, attributed to Carlo of Camerino.
© 2005
Liberation Ventures Ltd.
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