JACOPINO DA TRADATE

(b. ~1380 ?, d. ~1440 Mantova)

Italian sculptor. He was the leading sculptor active in the construction site of the Cathedral of Milan in the first quarter of the fifteenth century, where remained many statues and reliefs by him. Later he moved to the Gonzaga court in Mantua. Among the best known works of Jacopino are a big relief with the figure of Pope Martin V on the throne in the ambulatory of the Milan Cathedral and a statue of the Madonna and Child preserved at the Castello Sforzesco in Milan. In the Basilica of Sant’Eustorgio, Milan, a funerary monument is attributed to Jacopino and in Ancona, a Crucifixion placed above the main altar.

In Mantua, his son, the painter Samuele da Tradate was a friend of Andrea Mantegna.

Madonna and Child

This Madonna and Child on display in Castello Sforzesco is of unknown origin and can be dated to around the 1420s. It was designed to be seen from all sides, as shown by the soft folds sculpted on the back, and the fluid, abundant drapery envelops the body of the Virgin, almost hiding it.

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Madonna and Child

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Pope Martin V

As the fifteenth century advanced, Lombard Gothic sculpture became a force in its own right, reaching its zenith in the figure of Pope Martin V commissioned by Filippo Maria Visconti in 1419 from Jacopino da Tradate. Here the statue of the Pope is set on a plinth rising from naturalistic foliage, and the features, rendered with the painstaking fidelity of late Gothic portraiture, are submerged in a rippling sea of drapery.

While adhering to the convention of a frontal and enthroned pose for the pope, Jacopino enlivened the image with cascades of drapery on the back and sides of the throne and over the majestic figure of the pontiff. Apart from the purposefully rigid pose and fixed gaze of the pope, every element has been carefully observed from nature and rendered with the utmost fidelity. Martin’s legs and hand, offering his blessing in perpetuity, extend realistically into space; his torso has weight and presence.

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