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The frescoes of Cremona Cathedral

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2013

T. S. R. Boase
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Extract

The cathedral of Cremona in its basic structure is the work of the twelfth century, of the rebuilding undertaken by Bishop Uberto Dovara after the original church was destroyed in the great earthquake of 1117. By 1190 the new cathedral was consecrated, and the neighbouring octagonal baptistery, begun in 1167, was also well advanced. But for some three centuries the citizens constantly sought to improve and embellish their work. In 1250 the commune raised the great campanile, the highest and noblest in Lombardy, and its octagonal spire commemorates the triumph of the Guelfs in 1267. The great rose window is dated by an inscription to 1274. In the following century the porch was added with the three statues of the Virgin and Child between the local patrons, St. Omobono and St. Imerio. In 1491 the facade was terminated by a lofty pediment, supported by two great volute scrolls, and enclosing four statues in niches. A gallery, connecting the façade with the Baptistery, was added in the first half of the sixteenth century, and the statues crowning it date from 1738.

Type
Research Article
Information
Papers of the British School at Rome , Volume 24: Studies in Italian Medieval History , November 1956 , pp. 206 - 215
Copyright
Copyright © British School at Rome 1956

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References

1 Lucchini, Luigi, Il Duomo di Cremona (Mantua, 1894), ii, 7Google Scholar. The paintings are attributed to Polidoro Casella.

2 For Bonifacio Bembo see Salmi, M., ‘Nota su Bonifacio Bembo,’ Commentari, iv, 1953, pp. 7–15Google Scholar.

3 Lucchini, , op. cit., ii, 27Google Scholar.

4 Sacchi, Notizie Pittoriche Cremonensi, 1872, p. 180.

5 For Boccaccino see Zaist, G., Notizie Istoriche de' Pittori cremonesi (Cremona, 1874), i, 63–90Google Scholar; Venturi, A., Storia dell'Arte Italiana, vii, 3, 1914, pp. 723–728Google Scholar; vii, 4, 1915, pp. 671–676; and Puerari, A., La Pinacoteca di Cremona (Cremona, 1951), pp. 111–115Google Scholar.

6 Notizie de' Prqfessori del Disegno da Cimabue in Qua (Florence, 1728), iii, 199Google Scholar.

7 The History of Painting in Italy (trans. Roscoe, T., 1847), ii, 423Google Scholar.

8 Sacchi, Notizie, pp. 180–181.

9 Monteverdi, A., Su la vita di Maria dipinta a fresco dal Boccaccino nel duomo di Cremona (Cremona, 1910Google Scholar).

10 Sacchi, Notizie, pp. 181–186.

11 Vita di Polidoro da Caravaggio.

12 For Bembo see Bologna, Ferdinando, ‘Altobello Melone,’ Burlington Magazine, xcvii, 1955, pp. 240–250Google Scholar. Melone, having been long neglected, hasrecently been the subject of several articles. Bologna has investigated the origins of his style in the above article and in ‘The Cremonese ceiling from Via Belvedere’, Burlington Magazine, xcvi, 1954, pp. 166–171Google Scholar: there is an important article by Grassi, L., ‘Ingegno di Altobello Melone,’ Proporzioni, iii, 1950, pp. 142–163Google Scholar: see also Zeri, F. in Paragone, xxxix, 1953, pp. 40–44Google Scholar, and A. Puerari, La Pinacoteca di Cremona, 1951, p. 125.

13 The contract has ‘guardie,’ the exact meaning of which in this context is uncertain. See for the legends: E. Male, L'Art réligieux du XIIIe siècle en France (1923), p. 121.

14 Reproduced L. Grassi, pl. CLVI, and A. Puerari, op. cit., figs. 147–148.

15 The Resurrection is in a private collection in Rome: for the comparison with Dürer see L. Grassi, op. cit., pls. CLXXVI and CLXXVII. Grassi dates the Resurrection c. 1518, Bologna between the Massacre of the Innocents and the Capture of Christ.

16 See F. Zeri, op. cit., p. 42.

17 Sacchi, Notizie, p. 222 ff.

18 See Nicodemi, G., Gerolamo Romanino (Brescia, 1925Google Scholar) and review by Longhi, R. in L'Arte, xxix, 1926, pp. 144–150Google Scholar. An important article by Gregori, Mina, ‘Altobello, il Romanino e il cinquecento cremonese,’ has recently appeared in Paragone, lxix, 1955, pp. 1–28Google Scholar.

19 In 1519 the Massarii made a contract with him for three bays, but only two were painted: Sacchi, Notizie, p. 187.

20 Sacchi, Notizie, pp. 273–275. For Pordenone, see Fiocco, G., G. A. Pordenone (2nd ed., Padua 1943Google Scholar): also A. Pettorelli, ‘Il Pordenone nella Cattedrale Cremonese,’ Cronache d'Arte (1925), pp. 157–166, with reproductions of the frescoes before cleaning.

21 Sacchi, Notizie, pp. 188–189.

22 Fiocco, op. cit., p. 51.

23 27 August 1521—dealing with repair of the scaffolding for his work.

24 B. 1483–1484.

25 Old Master Drawings, viii (1933–1944), pl. 46Google Scholar.

26 The influence of the whole cycle of frescoes is curiously unmarked in Italian art. But in the Museum of Fine Arts at Boston, Massachusetts, there are five frescoes, scenes of the Passion, vaguely attributed to Paolo Zoppo, certainly of Brescian provenance, which, although clumsy provincial works, echo the grouping and some of the poses of the Cremonese series and have been affected by it (Pl. XXX, b).