Bernardino Luini - Lombard School

( Originally Published 1907 )

BERNARDINO LUINI (pronounced Loo ee'nee), "the Raphael of Lombardy," as he has been called, was one of the most charming as well as one of the most prolific of North Italian artists; and yet of the life of no other equally eminent painter of the period is so little definite known. It is generally accepted that he was born between 1465 and 1475 at Luino, a sunny little town picturesquely situated among somber chestnut-trees and gray olive groves on the shore of Lake Maggiore. From Luino, in accordance with a custom of the times, he took his name; and to this day an old house, reached by a steep path winding up from the lake, is pointed out to the traveler as the birthplace of the painter, for whom the neighboring street is named, and whom the inhabitants of the place confidently claim as a native of their town.

It has been stated that Luini was the son of one Giovanni Lutero of Luino; that he had a brother, Ambrogio, who was a painter, and two sons, Aurelio and Evangelista, who adopted their father's profession and assisted him in some of his works. We are further told that he went to Milan in or soon after the year 1500; and from the dates that he himself has placed on four of his great frescos, still in the churches for which they were originally painted, we have definite assurance of the scenes of his labors at certain periods of his career.

That all details of the life of a painter so famous as Luini undoubtedly was in his own day should be veiled in obscurity is due, in great measure, to the fact that for some unexplained reason Vasari, the biographer of so many of the old Italian artists, and the chief authority for all particulars that have been handed down to us of their lives, bestows only passing mention upon him, and not only furnishes us with no important biographical information concerning him, but, curiously enough, even misspells his name. "Bernardino del Lupino," he writes," was an exceedingly delicate and pleasing painter, as may be seen by many works of his, a number of which are still in the city of Milan. At Saronno, a place about twelve miles from there, is a `Marriage of Our Lady' by this master, which is admirably executed, as are also certain of his pictures in the Church of Santa Maria, which are most perfectly painted in fresco. Bernardino worked extremely well in oil also. He was a most obliging person, friendly and liberal in all his actions. To him, there-fore, is deservedly due all the praise which belongs by right to those artists who do themselves no less honor by the courtesy of their manners and the excellence of their lives than by the distinction to which they attain in their art." Again, in speaking of some of Luini's frescos, he says: "The figures are good and beautiful and the work is carefully executed and very delicately finished." But that is all that Vasari, usually so loquacious, tells us of Luini; nor do other early writers add materially to our knowledge of his life. Lomazzo, a contemporary of the painter, says that in the year 1500 he was already a distinguished artist, and also speaks in praise of him as a poet; but no verses by him have been found, nor is there any trace of the treatise on painting of which another writer, Morigia, tells us that he was the author.

In regard to his works a similar ignorance has until recently prevailed. This is perhaps to be accounted for by the fact that his greatest achievements —his frescos—were located in small and insignificant places, such as Saronno, Como, Legnano, and Lugano,—towns seldom visited by travelers until comparatively recent times,—and also because his easel-pictures, scattered throughout the principal galleries of Europe, bore such similarity to the work of the great Leonardo da Vinci, by whom Luini at one period of his career was strongly influenced, that they were frequently attributed to the Florentine master. As a consequence, Luini was for long ignored or for-gotten. Of late years, however, the researches of Kugler, Morelli, Crowe and Cavalcaselle, Brun, and others, to say nothing of the eloquent words of Mr. Ruskin, have re-established Luini's fame and accorded him the position in the history of art that the singular tenderness and beauty of his many frescos and oil-paintings entitle him to hold.

According to the writings of his contemporary Father Sebastian Resta, who states that he knew him personally, Luini was a pupil of Stefano Scotto, a Milanese painter, of whom little is discoverable. In Luini's early work, however, the influence of Foppa, the so-called founder of the Lombard school, may be traced in the sturdily built figures of his first frescos, while in the architectural backgrounds and the use of gold ornamentation, the influences of Borgognone and Bramantino are clearly discernible.

A `Pietà' in the Church of Santa Maria della Passione, Milan, has long been held to be Luini's earliest known work, but recent critics now regard it as by some unknown painter of the Lombard school. In the Church of San Pietro, near Luino, however, there is an `Adoration of the Magi,' and in that of San Giorgio al Palazzo, Milan, are five frescos, representing scenes from the life of Christ, which are evidently immature achievements; and the Brera Gallery, Milan, now contains many of the frescos originally in the Casa Pelucca, near Monza, which represent the most important works of his early period.

In connection with Luini's work in the Casa Pelucca, there is a story, albeit unauthenticated, which relates that when the painter was putting the final touches to his frescos in the Church of San Giorgio al Palazzo in Milan, he received a visit from the parish priest, who, interested in the progress of the paintings, and wishing to see them close to, mounted upon the scaffolding where Luini was working, and missing his footing, or, as some say, in consequence of a movement on the part of the painter, impatient perhaps of some ignorant criticism, fell over backwards and was instantly killed. The excitement and indignation which this event occasioned were so great, and so severely was Luini censured, that, in fear of his life, he fled to Monza, and sought refuge in the house of a prominent citizen of that place, the head of the Pelucca family. For two years he remained in the Casa Pelucca, the home of his patron and protector, decorating its walls with a series of lovely frescos of subjects taken from the Old Testament, from sacred legends, and from mythology. Meantime he lost his heart to Laura, the beautiful daughter of the house, who looked with more favor upon the painter than upon her numerous more eligible suitors. Two of these, however, Amarotto de'Gavanti and Federigo Rabbia, the latter Luini's friend, agreed to engage in a tournament, the victor of which, it was arranged, should be entitled to aspire to the fair Laura's hand. Fate decided in favor of Rabbia; but before he had addressed the lady his disappointed and treacherous rival attacked him one night and murdered him, and Luini, who was with Rabbia at the time, barely escaped with his life. No persuasion could induce Laura Pelucca to look with favor upon the murderer; and as she still persisted in her preference for the painter she was sent by her parents to a convent in Lugano, where, many years later, she was found by Luini when he was at work on his famous `Crucifixion' in the church of that town. To this day the people of Monza point to a spot named "Torneamento," where they say the tournament between Laura Pelucca's suitors took place, and to another named "Criminale," so called from the crime committed there.

The Casa Pelucca, near the town of Monza, is now a farm-house, de-spoiled since 1817 of its frescos, many of which, as has been said, are now in the Brera Gallery, Milan. One of the finest of them is the `Burial of St. Catherine,' in which, according to tradition, Luini reproduced in the face of the young saint the fair features of Laura Pelucca.

Luini is said to have removed to Milan in 1500, one year after Leonardo da Vinci had left that city and retired to his villa at Vaprio. It would seem, therefore, that Luini could not have been, as has frequently been stated, a direct pupil of the great Florentine; indeed, he probably never even saw the master; but there is no doubt that he was strongly affected by Da Vinci's powerful influence. "Milan, when Luini reached it," writes Dr. 'William-son, "was full of Leonardo's fame. The skill of the great artist was freely praised, and painters from all parts of Lombardy and Umbria were working in Milan, eagerly copying Leonardo's productions, adopting his ideas in coloring, composition, and expression, and following his lead with determination and with skill. To paint in Milan during the period that followed 1498 was to paint in Leonardo's manner. It was practically impossible for a Milanese painter to emancipate his ideas from the Leonardo influence, or to escape from the Leonardo style of face and expression." No one felt more deeply than Luini the subtle magic of this fascination; and although no single picture of his can be said to be an imitation of any one of Leonardo's, all his works belonging to this period are more or less reminiscent of Da Vinci.

To this, his second period, his maniere grigia Morelli terms it, belong many of his loveliest easel-pictures, as well as many fragments of frescos which, originally in the different churches of Milan, have now been removed to the Brera Gallery in that city. One of the greatest achievements of this time, however, a fresco representing `The Crowning with Thorns,' is still in its original place in the Hall of the Confraternity of the Holy Crown, now a part of the Ambrosian Library, Milan. The artist is said to have received for this work a paltry sum equivalent to about sixty dollars. Indeed all records show that the payments made to Luini were ridiculously small; but he seems to have been content, and would assuredly never have replied to a patron as Leonardo once haughtily observed when proffered payment in coppers for some work: "I am not one of your farthing painters!"

Luini's fame was now rapidly increasing, and commissions seem to have poured in upon him from all the neighboring towns of Lombardy. From 1520 to 1533 he was at the height of his power, appearing, as Morelli says, "in the fullness and freedom of his independence;" and to this third and last period belong his greatest works, both in fresco and in oil-paintings.

We hear of him at Legnano in 1523, at work on a great altar-piece in seven divisions, representing the Madonna and saints, which still hangs in the church for which it was painted. In 1525, as is proved by the date affixed to one of them, he painted a series of frescos in the pilgrimage church, II Santuario della Vergine, in the small town of Saronno, between Milan and Como. The story goes that Luini had fled from Milan because, under circumstances that are unknown to us, he had killed a man in self-defense; and, seeking refuge in the pilgrimage church of Saronno, was compelled by the monks to paint a number of frescos there in return for the protection afforded him. The sum of thirty soldi, or about thirty cents a day, was allotted to the artist, together with a daily portion of food and wine; and so well satisfied was he with this modest remuneration for his services that before he left the brethren he painted for them as a gift a beautiful picture of `The Nativity' on the cloister wall. "'T is almost a pity," said the good monks, "that Bernardino did not murder more men, that we might have received from him more such gifts."

Between 1526 and 1529 Luini was at work in Milan, fulfilling a commission from Allessandro Bentivoglio to decorate the interior of the newly erected Church of San Maurizio, belonging to the ancient foundation known as the Monastero Maggiore, where, with the help of assistants, he achieved what may be regarded as his most important and elaborate scheme of interior decoration. In 1526 he was at Como, where he painted three great pictures in the cathedral of that town, `The Nativity,' the `Adoration of the Magi,' and `The Madonna and Saints.'

Three years after this Luini left Milan for Lugano, where he had been commissioned to decorate the screen of the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, to paint a `Last Supper' for the refectory of the adjoining convent, and to decorate a lunette in the cloister. The `Last Supper,' although it bears a resemblance to Leonardo's great picture of the same subject, is different in the arrangement of its details, and full of Luini's own individuality. It has been removed from the convent, which is now converted into a hotel, and is preserved in the church itself.

Finer by far, however, is the enormous `Crucifixion,' one of the largest single frescos ever painted. It covers the entire wall which separates the nave from the choir of the church, and is generally held to be Luini's master-piece. This work bears the date 1529. That same year Luini was in Milan again, decorating, at the instance of Francesco Besozzi, a chapel in the Chuch of San Maurizio; after which, in 1530, he retired to Lugano to execute the last of his three commissions there, a fresco for the lunette of the cloister, representing the Madonna with Jesus and St. John. Again, in 1533, he seems to have been in Lugano, where an entry in the books of the convent shows that the last payment for his works there, a sum of fifty lire, was de-livered to the painter in that year.

After this, all records cease. At the very height of his fame, in the full force of his artistic power, Bernardino Luini suddenly disappears from our sight. The date of his death and the place of his burial are alike unknown.