Il Pordenone

Il Pordenone, byname of Giovanni Antonio de' Sacchis (c. 1483 – 1539), was an Italian painter of the Venetian school, active during the Renaissance. Vasari, his main biographer, identifies him as Giovanni Antonio Licinio.

Biography

He was commonly named "Il Pordenone" from having been born in 1483 at Corticelli, a small village near Pordenone in Friuli. He ultimately dropped the name of Licinio, having quarrelled with his brothers, one of whom had wounded him in the hand; he then called himself Regillo, or De Regillo. Others say he once took up his maternal name of "Cuticelli" [cite book | first= Maria|last= Farquhar| year=1855| title= Biographical catalogue of the principal Italian painters| editor = Ralph Nicholson Wornum | pages= page 13-14| publisher= Woodfall & Kinder, Angel Court, Skinner Street, London; Digitized by Googlebooks from Oxford University copy on Jun 27, 2006| id= | url= http://books.google.com/books?q=intitle:Wornum+intitle:principal+intitle:painters | authorlink= ] His signature runs Antonius Portunaensis, or De Portunaonis. He was knighted as a "cavaliere" by Charles V.

As a painter, Pordenone was a scholar of Pellegrino da San Daniele, but a leading influence of his style was Giorgione; the popular story that he was a fellow-pupil with Titian under Giovanni Bellini is false. It was claimed that Pordenone's first commission was given him by a grocer in his home town, to try his boast that he could paint a picture as the priest commenced High Mass, and complete it by the time Mass was over; he completed the picture in the required time. [Carlo Ridolfi quoted in CathEncy|wstitle=Giovanni Antonio Pordenone] The district about Pordenone had been somewhat fertile in capable painters; but Pordenone is the best known, a vigorous "chiaroscurist" and flesh painter. The 1911 "Britannica" states that "so far as mere flesh-painting is concerned he was barely inferior to Titian in breadth, pulpiness and tone". The two were rivals for a time, and Licinio would sometimes affect to wear arms while he was painting. He excelled in portraits; he was equally at home in fresco and in oil-color. He executed many works in Pordenone and elsewhere in Friuli, Cremona, and Venice; at one time he settled in Piacenza, where one of his most celebrated church pictures, "St. Catherine disputing with the Doctors in Alexandria" is located; the figure of St. Paul in connection with this picture is his own portrait.

He was invited by Duke Ercole II of Ferrara to court; here soon afterwards, in 1539, he died, not without suspicion of poison. His later works are comparatively careless and superficial; and generally he is better in male figures than in female-the latter being somewhat too sturdy-and the composition of his subject-pictures is scarcely on a level with their other merits. Pordenone appears to have been a vehement self-asserting man, to which his style as a painter corresponds.

Three of his principal pupils were Bernardino Licinio, named "Il Sacchiense", his son-in-law Pomponio Amalteo, and Giovanni Maria Calderari.

Partial anthology of works

*"Study of the Martyrdom of Saint Peter Martyr" (1526, J. Paul Getty Museum) [J. Paul Getty Museum. [http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=222 Study of the Martyrdom of Saint Peter Martyr.] Retrieved 2008-08-27.]
*"Saint Bonaventure",(National Gallery, London) [ [http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/work?workNumber=NG4038 Saint Bonaventure] - From National Gallery website]
*"Saint Louis of Toulouse", (National Gallery, London) [ [http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/work?workNumber=NG4039 Saint Louis of Toulouse] - From National Gallery website]
*"Saints Prosdocimus & St. Peter" (1516, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh).
*"Golgotha" (1520-21, fresco, Cathedral of Cremona)
*"Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints" (c. 1525, Parish church, Susegana, Treviso) [ [http://www.nline.it/conegliano/operi.htm Opere Pittoriche Famose] ]
*"St Lorenzo Giustiniani and Other Saints" (1532, originally in S. Maria dell' Orto, now Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice)
*"Madonna and Child enthroned with Saints" (1525)
*"Saint Martin and Saint Christopher" (1528-29, Church of San Rocco, Venice)
*"San Lorenzo Giustiniani & Two Friars with Saints" (1532, Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence)
*"Saints Sebastian, Roch and Catherine" (1535, Church of San Giovanni Elemosinario, Venice) [ [http://bode.diee.unica.it/~giua/SEBASTIAN/PICS/pordenone.jpgThe Iconography of Saint Sebastian] ]
*"Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints" (1525, Parish Church, Grandcamp, France).
*"The dispute of Saint Catherine with Pagan Philosophers" (Cathedral of Piacenza) [ [http://www3.chiesacattolica.it/santuari/sm-italia/emilia-romagna/piacenza-bobbio/eu-i-piacenza4.htm Church website] ]
*"Deposition" and "Immacolata Concezione" (1530, Church of "Assunzione", Cortemaggiore)
*"San Gottardo and Saints Sebastian and Rocco" (Museo Civico d’Arte, Pordenone)
*"Saint Catherine and Martyrs" (Museo Civico di Conegliano)
*Drawings from Ambrosiana Library, Milan
*"Magi" (Treviso Cathedral) [ [http://www.arte-argomenti.org/schede/veneto/pordenone.jpgARGOMENTI ARTE & STORIA DELL' ARTE] ]

References

*1911