Ludovico Mazzolino (also Mazzuoli or Manzulin da Ferrera), Italian painter of the Ferrarese school. His close contacts with Ercole Roberti’s workshop are documented as are those with Boccaccio Boccaccino. His work also reflects the direct influence of Costa and the contacts with transalpine art. Later Raphaelesque tendencies, especially in his pictorial design, can be attributed to a period in Rome.
This is a characteristic example of Mazzolino’s small-scale devotional works for private patrons, a genre in which he specialized. This panel is one of the very few dated works by the artist.
In this work by Mazzolino the sharpness of line typical of the North European tradition is evident. Observe the ‘linea serpentinata’ with which the fragile figures are constructed. Certain whimsical touches of the narrative are probably due to the influence of a painter like Aspertini, whose presence is also visible in the fairy-tale mountain landscape which can be seen in the background and in the unreal cotton-wool cloud supporting a complex composition of angels in glory.
The reliefs on the front of the temple are taken from the sarcophagus with the Amazonomachia that was once in the church of Santi Cosma e Damiano in Rome.
This work is a typical example of the artist’s predilection for large, richly decorated backgrounds.
The painting is distinguished by the accentuated sumptuousness of the ornamental motifs - sphinxes, voluted brackets, bas-reliefs. Mazzolini constructs here an intricate and highly refined series of gold brushstrokes which he uses for the setting, the door-jambs and on the robe of Saint Joachim.
This panel originally was the centre section of the predella of the altarpiece on the high altar at San Giovanni in Monte, Bologna.
Though the influence of Mazzolino’s Italian masters (Ercole de’ Roberti in Ferrara and Lorenzo Costa in Bologna) was manifest for the duration of Mazzolino’s career, more prevalent in this painting is the dramatic impact of Albrecht D�rer. D�rer’s prints were readily available in Italy and the German artist even visited Ferrara while travelling to Bologna in 1512-1513.
While St Jerome is alone in contemplation, accompanied by the lion, in the background he appears again in a small vignette, accompanied by monks.
The paintings of the Ferrarese Renaissance share a particularly sensitive observation of nature and the expressive features of the landscape, which play a role in the picture, as in the refined small panels by Mazzolino. See the painting in which doubting Thomas touches Christ’s wounds, as a new vision opens before him expressed in the vibrant celestial landscape.
