The Annunciation, Melchiorre Gherardini Dit Ceranino (milan 1607 - 1668) Attributable

Melchiorre Gherardini, known as Ceranino (Milan 1607 - Milan 1668), attributable
The Annunciation

Oil painting on canvas (cm. 118 x 135 - with old frame 131 x 148 cm.)

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The superb annunciation proposed is a valuable work with an effective devotional intensity which, also thanks to its large size, is able to involve and fascinate the viewer.

It presents itself with a rather consolidated iconographic scheme, with the Archangel Gabriel on the right, of an ethereal beauty, who appears imperiously as he hands the supreme proclamation to the Virgin Mary; suspended in flight, with one hand he holds the white lilies, a symbol of purity and chastity, while with the other he points to the dove radiated with light, emblem of the Holy Spirit, surrounded by small angelic figures in the clouds full of intense flashes and games of light, in full Baroque style.

The work is perfectly ascribed to the Lombard pictorial current of the seventeenth century, an extraordinarily happy artistic period which, especially in the first half of the century, saw an impressive array of leading artistic personalities succeed one another. An artistic vivacity such as to find a term of comparison only in the contemporary Roman, Bolognese and Neapolitan scenes, making Milan, in every respect, like the capitals, one of the nerve centers and most influential of Italian painting of the time.

By carefully analyzing the characteristics of style and composition, the canvas is ascribed in our opinion to the catalog of Melchiorre Gherardini (Milan 1607 - 1668), a leading name in the Lombard artistic panorama, disciple and son-in-law of Giovan Battista Crespi, known as Cerano, to which he succeeded him in the direction of the shop, earning himself the nickname of Ceranino.

Echoes of Gaudenzio Ferrari, for the grace of the attitude and the gentleness of the faces, and an evident openness to Morazzone's lesson, especially in the dynamic cut of the sacred group, accentuated in particular by the pose of the angel on the right, are combined in this he works on the typical features of Gherardini, such as the clear and refined line of the drawing that outlines the figures, the predilection for a bright chromatic range and above all the masterful use of the play of light.

Our evocative work testifies to the artistic career of Ceranino: in it the figures show his late Mannerist roots and his debt to Crespi, while in the structure of the scene that loose and brilliant painting that places him among the masters of the Milanese Baroque, at the equal of Giovan Battista Discepoli, known as the Zoppo of Lugano, Francesco Cairo and the Nuvolone brothers.

Almost a contemporary of Caravaggio, he however represents the antithesis. Not the real, not the true, but the asceticism, the ecstasy, are the pictorial vision of him, which we find perfectly in the proposed Annunciation.

The painting is in excellent condition and is complemented by an antique gilded wooden frame.


For more information on the work, you are welcome to contact us, without obligation.

Painting accompanied by a certificate of photographic authenticity in accordance with the law.

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