Niccolò Frangipane Circle, 16th century

Italian school of the 16th century. Circle of NICCOLÒ FRANGIPANE (Italy, ca. 1540/45 - ca. 1600).
"Jester with a Dog".
Oil on canvas.
Size: 72 x 58 cm.
The canvas that is now on auction is related to the circle of Niccolò Frangipane not only because of the grotesque style of the jester and the dog, with burlesque and jocular features, but also because it responds to the profane works with comic elements that the painter from Padua used to do. Frangipane's works were rooted in the Ferrara of Da Vinci and the Cremona school, particularly the work of the Campi family.
Niccolò Frangipane was probably born in Padua in the second half of the 16th century, although other sources place his birth in Udine, Venice or Rimini. The historian Liruti wrote in 1762 that Frangipane was born in Tarcento in 1555, where according to him he was a pupil of Titian, and that he died in 1600. However, more recent research maintains that he belonged to a family originally from Padua and that he was born between 1540 and 1545. In 1563 he settled in Venice, close to where Titian had had his studio since 1631. By then he was already a master painter and received his first commissions, such as the "Virgin and Child" for the high altar of the monastery of Santa Eufemia in Mazorbo. Sources state that his period of greatest activity corresponds to the period between 1656 and 1597, although his first signed painting dates from 1572-74, a "Nazarene" inspired by the one painted by Titian for the School of San Rocco in Venice. In 1583 he painted the work that was to be his definitive consecration, a "Martyrdom of Saint Stephen" for the church of the Purification in Pesaro, now in the Palazzo Mosca. In this work Frangipane's language is faithful to the classical formulas of the Venetian school, both in terms of compositions and models, particularly indebted to Giorgione and Titian. A faithful reflection of his Counter-Reformation period, he devoted his oeuvre to religious and mythological painting, always in classical language, although he also depicted secular themes derived from Giorgione, with a strong burlesque character and Flemish echoes of the work of Quentin Massys. Also to be found in this type of profane work are comic and grotesque elements with roots in the Ferrara heir of Da Vinci and in the Cremona school, particularly the work of the Campi. His whimsical and fantastic models were praised in the 17th century by the treatise writer Marco Boschini, who was, however, familiar with Frangipane's work through literary sources. In fact, this duality of style and subject matter led to great confusion during the 18th and 19th centuries and it was even thought that they were by two different painters, although this thesis was subsequently discarded. There is now a known corpus of around thirty paintings by him, many of which are signed and dated. Following the above-mentioned Venetian period, Frangipane worked in Rimini from 1585, where he executed various works commissioned by the physician Giovanni Bassani. Later, in 1593, he returned to Venice to execute one of his most famous works, the "Deposition" for the Frari sacristy. A year later he entered the Fraglia dei Pittori in Venice and executed his famous "Autumn" for the Museo Civico in Udine. Other works by Niccolò during this period are also known, but none of them have been located to date. Works by Niccolò Frangipane can now be seen in the Museo Civico in Udine, the Kunsthistorisches in Vienna, the Galleria Querini Stampali in Venice, the Doria Pamphili in Rome, the Michele Spietra collection in Venice and the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, among other collections.