Milan and Savoldo

1. Professor Walter Friedlaender read a draft of this paper and made various suggestions; his generous encouragement of the study has been still more valuable. He, Dr. Wilhelm Suida, the Fogg Art Museum and the Frick Art Reference Library have made available the photographs without which publication would have been impossible. Staff Sergeant Stanley Meltzoff has also been especially helpful in this way.

Abstract

Among Savoldo's works the attention of recent critics has been most drawn by the group which they have connected with Caravaggio. Problems of precursorship and the startling unconventionality of the pictures combined to attract this interest. Lionello Venturi and Roberto Longhi, however, who have contributed most to the study, have been concerned primarily with relations to Giorgione and Caravaggio respectively.² This article will apply to the question the point of view of the intrinsic character of the pictures and their relation to other works of Savoldo's. Indirect external evidence will also be used for the first time to help in dating them; the pictures have received only very general dates on any grounds. They will also be associated for the first time with a locale, Milan. The conclusion, returning to the earlier problem, will tentatively suggest the implications of these critical and historical data for Savoldo's position in the history of painting.