ZAGANELLI, Francesco di Bosio

Italian painter, also called Francesco da Cotignola. He was possibly a pupil of Marco Palmezzano in Forlí. He primarily studied Ferrarese painting, which permeates his oeuvre and may account for certain eccentricities of style. He shared a workshop in Cotignola with his brother Bernardino Zaganelli. Their first known joint work was the Virgin and Child Enthroned with SS John the Baptist and Florian and Three Angels (signed and dated 1499; Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera). Their last, the Holy Family (1509; Bergamo, Galleria Accademia Carrara), is unusual in the prominence accorded to St Joseph.

Francesco is documented in Ravenna from 1513, with his wife and orphaned niece, and from this period date the Baptism (signed and dated 1514; London, National Gallery), painted for S Domenico, Faenza, and the Immaculate Conception (signed and dated 1513; Forlí, Pinacoteca Civica), which includes the pleasing motif of the angel leaning on his lute. The Nativity (after 1520) and Crucifixion (c. 1530; both Ravenna, Accademia di Belle Arti) were mentioned by Vasari and mark the high points of Francesco’s late career. In the Crucifixion the expressive poses of the group of weeping women and the figure of John, the attention to detail and the setting of luminous colours against earthy ones are particularly striking. After his brother’s death Francesco responded to new stimuli, including German woodcuts. He was a painter of limited technical skill and worked in an old-fashioned tempera technique, but his work, notwithstanding its provincial limitations, is characterized by a fertile imagination.