Full Description
This is the first English language monograph on Bartolomeo Veneto (c. 1480-1531), who worked in Northern Italy in an area bounded by Venice and Milan. The art made in this region is characterized by an intensity and richness arising from the various artistic personalities that enlivened the period and the vitality of exchanges that linked artists from widely separated cultural areas. An analysis of Bartolomeo's works allows one to observe the vivid atmosphere of the period. Specializing in portraiture, he moved often to satisfy the demands of his clientele in the small and large courts in the Veneto, Emilia, and the Lombardy regions of the Po Valley. Over the course of his career, from his earliest dated painting in 1502 until his death, presumably in 1531, he produced a remarkable body of work. Characteristic of Bartolomeo Veneto is an interest in a refined rendering of details, particularly of clothing, and the inclusion of symbolic elements. This symbolism - understandable by only a select few - refers to the moral, philosophical, or even political ideals of the person depicted and reflects the cultivated society of the clients for whom the artist worked.Of particular interest are his portraits and works that fall midway between conventional portraiture and representations of a symbolic, mythological, or religious nature. On the one hand, he was able to synthesize diverse stylistic tendencies. On the other, he was able to capture nuances of his subjects' personalities. Despite the remarkable quality of many of his paintings, he was not mentioned by historical sources, and he remains one of the least-studied and most mysterious of the 16-century Italian painters. He was rediscovered in the middle of the 19th century, when several of his signed and dated paintings were acquired by European museums.
