Venice: Gallerie dell’Accademia - Paradise Regained –
Michele Giambono. At the Gallerie dell’Accademia the exhibition Il Paradiso Riconquistato
- Trame d’oro e colore nella pittura di Michele Giambono - Paradise Regained - golden
textures and color in the paintings of Michael Giambono, until April 17 is
curated by Paola Marini, Matteo Ceriana and Valeria Poletto. The exhibition arose from the need to explain the largely unexpected and highly
significant results that emerged during the restoration of two panel paintings
in the Gallerie dell’Accademia: The Coronation of the Virgin and Saints (also
known as Paradise) and the Deposition of Christ from the Cross, both by Michele
Giambono. In the former, detail above,
the restoration has revealed large, previously unimagined areas of original
paintwork, which implies a complex and fascinating historiographical
premise: the activity of a busy, greatly
varied workshop peopled by individuals from different cultures, individuals
whose role and and identity might eventually be revealed thanks to determined
research and scholarship. The works
exhibited aim to illustrate this special aspect and in particular the
relationship in the 1440s between Michele Giambono and the workshop of Giovanni
d’Alemagna and Antonio Vivarini, the other great protagonists of this period
who have been linked through archival documentation with this same altarpiece
of the Coronation of the Virgin.
The Two Paradise
Giovanni d’Alemagna, Antonio Vivarini - Coronation of the
Virgin and Saints – Paradise – 1444
tempera and oil, pastiglia on wood
Michele Giambono - The Coronation of the Virgin and
Saints – Paradise – 1447-1448
tempera on wood
In 1447 Giambono signed a contract with the procurator of
the church of Sant’Agnese for an altarpiece for the high altar. The contract
specified that he had a year to produce a work designed to replicate the 1444
altarpiece for the church of San Pantalon by Giovanni d’Alemagna, Antonio
Vivarini and the woodcarver Cristoforo da Ferrara. While remaining faithful to
the 1444 model, Giambino modified the orderly San Pantalon Paradise into a
highly charged composition with an excited crowd of holy figures.
photograph courtesy Gallerie dell’Accademia
Michele Giambono - The Coronation of the Virgin and
Saints – Paradise – 1447-1448
tempera on wood
Paola Marini, director of the Gallerie dell’Accademia,
Matteo Ceriana and Valeria Poletto curators of the exhibition and Maria Chiara Maida
technical director of the restoration
Michele Giambono - The Deposition of Christ from the
Cross
1430-1435 Ca.
tempera and gold on wood
Documented between 1420 and 1462, Michele Giambono was
the last and extraordinary interpreter of the late Gothic style in Venice. His was a technically intense and stern
style, and figuratively he was influenced by the work of Gentile da Fabiano,
even though he had never been his direct apprentice or student. Much appreciated for his aristocratically
tasteful compositions, he was also one of the Venetian Republic’s official
painters. A stunning work that perfectly illustrates his production, the Deposition
of Christ from the Cross, above is being exhibited for the first time.
Michele Giambono – San Crisogono – 1450 ca.
mixed media on wood
Michele Giambono – Virgin and Child – 1440-1445 ca.
tempera and gold on wood