Pavia, attributed to Giovanni Ambrogio Figino the Lamentation of the Almo Collegio Borromeo

The catalog of Giovanni Ambrogio Figino (Milan, 1553 - 1608), one of the most important Lombard artists active in the late 16th century, is about to be enriched by a new work. Indeed, art historian Mauro Pavesi (professor of History of Modern Art at the Catholic University of Milan) has attributed to Figino the Lamentation over the Dead Christ in theAlmo Collegio Borromeo in Pavia: this is an unsigned work for which no convincing name had hitherto been found, and the attribution is the culmination of an investigation of the work that started with an engraving by Raphael Sadeler (Antwerp, c. 1560-Munich, c. 1628) having the same subject. Pavesi delved deeper into the relationship between the painting and the print and came to the conclusion that, almost certainly, the Borromeo Lamentation is an autograph work by Figino from which the Flemish engraving was taken, with its stronger strokes than the softness of the painting that served as a model.

The discovery was illustrated on Saturday, January 26, during a conference that followed the presentation of the book Giovanni Ambrogio Figino pittore, written by Pavesi himself and published by Aracne Editrice (the book also explains in detail the reasons for the attribution). The conference was also attended by Paolo Biscottini (art historian and museologist, professor of Museology at the Catholic University of Milan and until 2016 director of the Diocesan Museum in Milan), Luisa Giordano (professor of History of Modern Art at the University of Pavia), Andrea Dall’Asta (architect and theologian) and Paola Zanolini (restorer).

Giovanni Ambrogio Figino was one of the most prominent painters of 16th-century Milan. A pupil of the painter, treatise writer and poet Giovan Paolo Lomazzo (Mialno, 1538 - 1592), Figino inherited his complex and multifaceted culture, in which admiration for Leonardo and the Lombard Leonardo pain ters combined with imitation of Raphael and Michelangelo. A painter of remarkable talent and a highly refined draughtsman, Figino had a privileged relationship with poets and men of letters (Tasso and Marino sang his works), and he was probably the author of the first still life in the history of art. In late 16th-century Lombardy, the young Caravaggio admired his works, being inspired by his compositions several times.

Pavia, attributed to Giovanni Ambrogio Figino the Lamentation of the Almo Collegio Borromeo

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