Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo, A Shepherd with a Flute, 1525 to 1540, Oil on Canvas, 98 x 78 cm, J. Paul Getty Museum
Born in Brescia, Republic of Venice in 1480, Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo was an Italian High Renaissance painter, noted for his coloring, chiaroscuro, and realism of his works. Little is known about his formative years; his first records attest to the fact that he was in the city of Parma in 1506, and a member of the Florentine painters’ guild in 1508.
During this period in Florence, Savoldo finished his 1510 “Elijah Fed by the Raven”, now residing at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. In 1515 he painted the “Portrait of a Clad Warrior”, which was wrongly identified previously with painter Gaston de Foix. Savoldo was interested, as was other contemporary northern Italian painters, in the traditions of the Flemish school; some of that influence can be seen in his “Temptation of Saint Anthony”, particularly in the depiction of the saint’s tempters. These Florentine works of Savoldo were appreciated by the commissioners from Venice, where Savoldo relocated sometime before 1520.
On June 15, 1524 Giovanni Savoldo signed a contract for an altarpiece for the church of San Domenico in Pesaro; this work now resides in Milan’s Brera Art Academy. The influence of the northern-Italian painter Giorgione’s use of color and mood can be felt in Savoldo’s poetic treatment of such works as his 1525 “Portrait of a Knight”. In 1527, Savoldo completed a “St. Hieronymus” for the residence of the
Averoldi family in Brescia and, in the 1530s, a Nativity scene similar to Antonio de Corregio’s work of the same topic, which is now in the National Gallery in Washington DC.
In 1533 Savoldo painted his “Madonna with Four Saints” at the church of Santa Maria in Verona; and in 1537-1538 he executed the altarpiece for the main altar of Santa Croce, Brescia. He finished commissions for two Nativity paintings in 1540: one at the church of San Giobbe inVenice and one at the church of San Barnaba in Brescia. Showing influences by Titian and Lorenzo Lotto for clearly defined shapes in light, Savoldo’s 1540 “Magdalen” is a masterpiece of lighting effects, cloaked in an enigmatic white gown, almost completely veiled except for the face, with a sliver of red cloth sleeve emerging in a alluring fashion.
Savoldo’s use of deep, rich color gave his paintings dramatic tonal values. He defined his luminous, meticulously detailed figures by setting them against reflected or nocturnally lit scenes with unusual effects of light. Through the span of his career, Savoldo painted only forty paintings and had little influence on the course of Venetian painting. The exact date of is death is not known; in 1548 he was noted as still living but very old. Forgotten after his death, Savoldo’s reputation was revived with exhibitions of his work in the early twentieth century, and retrospectives held in 1990 in Brescia, Italy and Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
Note: Giovanni Savoldo’s “A Shepherd with a Flute” is an example of the genre scenes that became popular in Venice in the early sixteenth century, when interest in pastoral poetry and drama also began to flourish. The figure of the shepherd is clearly delineated against his surroundings and appears almost luminous in the evening light through Savoldo’s use of deep, rich colors and expressive textures.
Image Insert: Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo, “Magdalen”, 1540, Oil on Canvas, 89.1 x 82.4 cm, National Gallery of London