LOCATION: Milan , Bagatti Valsecchi Museum

DIMENSIONS: 97 x 88 cms

PROVENANCE: Once located in S. Vincenzo church at Gera Lario, like the St. Stephen window is conserved in the same collection (see Milan Bagatti Valsecchi Museum 2). On the left side of the church there was a third painted glass, shattered during a storm in 1874 (Monti, 1899). As to what is reported by Monti (1899, 1902),that makes an explicit reference to the Death of St. Martha, the two glasses of the church in Gera were "sold for a trifling amount". Arrived to the Milan Bagatti Valsecchi collection, they are catalogued by Toesca (1918), sayng that thay are from the area of Como. The illegal selling of the " two stained-glass windows of uncommon merit painted at the beginning of 1500 , closing the openings of the two windows in the façade " is confirmed on 7 March 1884 by the canonic Vincenzo Barelli, Inspector of the Excavations, that replies to an interpellation of the Como Prefect (archive of the "Giovio" museum in Como, Ispectorate, insert 1884/13; Geddo, 1998); The two glasses came to the milanese palace of the brothers Bagatti Valsecchi that in 1885 entrusted the restoration works of the St. Stephen to Pompeo Bertini (Pavoni, 1987. Enter Stato di fatto).

CHRONOLOGY: 1511 (dated)

AUTHOR(S): Milanes master (Ambrogio da Velate? On Bernardino Zenale’s sheet?)

ASSIGNMENT : In the church at Gera the work was put in the counterfaçade in the window on the left hand side of the entrance, near the fresco with S. Martha adored by the members of the Disciplini Confraternity (1515 about). The confraternity commissioned the window.

SUBJECT/S: In the bottom part of The Death of St. Martha window there is an inscription painted with capital letters "Como. S. Marta era in transe de Morte e Xpo/li apparse insema con la Verg(in)a Maria e la Mada (lena)a".

CRITICAL NOTES: The Death of St. Martha is ascribed by Toesca (1918) to a lombard artist of the XVI cent.. On the contrary Monneret de Villard (1923) says that "maybe it’s not an Italian hand". According to Nava (1980) it breaks with the other windows of the area, showing traces of the milanese environment halfway through the XVI cent. It has been recently aknowledged by the undersigned (Geddo, 1998) to the painter Bernardino de Donati (in collaboration with another glass master), both for the striking analogies with the works concerning that artist (his presence between Como and Milan in 1510 is documented. He died in Talamona in 1530) and the peculiarity of the technique used that looks like the "sfumato" in painting. The slender proportions of the figures, the profiles, the flowing draperies and the characteristic compact hands undoubtedly refer to the frescoes at S. Antonio in Morbegno by Bernardino di Donati (1515) but more to those at S. Maria delle Grazie in Gravedona, the Crucified between the Virgin and St. Nicholas of Tolentino (1519) and the painted altarpiece at the St. Agatha chapel, dated to 1520 (A. Rovetta, in Pittura in Alto Lario e in Valtellina dall’alto Medioevo al Settecento, edited by M. Gregori, Milan 1995, pp 240-242, plates 51, 54-57) In this last work, besides the Bramantesque, northern and Venetian elements that qualify the painter, a luinesque influence emerges visible also in the window (the head of Christ, close to that of the shepherd of the Nativity, Duomo of Como). Therefore it can be plausibly placed around 1520, or a bit earlier. As certained by the inscription that shows traces of the local dialect, the work was executed in Como, where there was the seat of the glass workshop and where his presence is documented in 1517 and ’18 (M. Mascetti, pittori lariani noti ed ignoti in atti notarili tra Quattro e Cinquecento, in "Communitas", 1993, p.89).

CONDITIONS: in mediocre conditions, with the presence of many breaks roughly re-sealed and some repaintings. The photo of it, published in Toesca (1918) shows the worsening of the conditions and a heavy restoration . (Besides, the winged head next to the Magdalene is no longer recognizable

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Atti della Visita…, v. II, 1895-98, p. 150 note; Monti, 1899, p. 170; Monti, 1902, p. 236; Monneret de Villard, 1918, v. I, p. 136; Toesca, 1918, p. 20, tav. XXIX; Monneret de Villard, 1923, v. IV, p. 88, fig. 121; Zecchinelli, 1951, p. 146; Nava, 1980, pp. 103-104, n. 18a (repr.); Rossi-Rovetta, 1988,pp153-154; Pavoni, 1994, p. 72; Geddo, 1998, pp. 165, 177-178 and note 94, fig. 17

PHOTOGRAPHIC CREDITS: Photos Bagatti Valsecchi Museum, Milan.

EDITOR: Cristina Geddo, (February 2000)