Domenico Morone

Domenico Morone ( 1442 – 1518) was an Italian painter from Verona, painting in an early Renaissance style. Much of his work has not survived, notably his fresco cycles. He was considered by Vasari to be second only to Liberale da Verona among artists in his town. His son Francesco Morone was also a prominent Veronese painter. His pupils included Michele da Verona and Girolamo dai Libri. Among the first Renaissance exponents of the Veronese school of painting, he was born into a family from Morbegno that had settled on the banks of the Adige around 1425. He was probably a pupil of Francesco Benaglio, but he was also deeply influenced by other artists of the time, such as Andrea Mantegna and Giovanni Bellini, although little is known about his training and early years of activity.

He is believed to have started as a miniatore before moving on to painting and fresco production. His earliest known works date back to 1470, such as the four panels depicting Saint Francis, Saint Bernardino, Saint Bartholomew, and Saint Roch, originally part of a polyptych, and some frescoes now detached and preserved at the Museo di Castelvecchio in Verona. Apart from the decoration of the organ shutters of the church of San Bernardino, no other works can be firmly dated to the 1480s, although it is almost certain that his workshop must have achieved a certain popularity in the city. In 1493 he signed one of his most famous works, canvas celebrating the Cacciata dei Bonacolsi (1494) (or Expulsion of the Bonacolsi in 1328, scene of Piazza Sordello, Mantua)', commissioned by the Duke of Mantua Francesco II Gonzaga, and now in the Ducal Palace of Mantua. Two small cassone panels depicting the Rape of Sabine women dated to c.1490 and attributed to Morone were bought by the National Gallery, London in 1886 and remain in its collections. From the following years, much of his production involved collaboration with his son Francesco, with whom in 1503 he completed what is considered his masterpiece: the cycle of frescoes for the Sagramoso Library in the San Bernardino convent in Verona.

Famous for the details of human figures, backgrounds, and objects, he used vibrant and luminous colors in his works, often with a rich color palette. It has been observed that the faces of his protagonists are generally sober and prosaic, unlike those of his son, described as "sweetened." In his later years, Domenico Morone became increasingly subdued and attentive to psychological subtleties, as clearly seen in his Madonna and Child painted in the 1510s. Likely a master to prominent artists, including Girolamo dai Libri, Paolo Morando and Michele da Verona (in addition to his already mentioned son Francesco), his last mention dates to 1517, and he presumably died shortly thereafter.

Biography Origins and family

Domenico Morone was born in Verona, a city where he spent most of his life. His father Agostino, originally from Morbegno (today in the province of Sondrio, Lombardy), had settled on the banks of the Adige around 1425 and worked as a "stropezzator" (leather worker) in the Braida district, as reported in a census of 1433. In 1436 he married Donna Maddalena, daughter of a certain Bertoldo, miller from Illasi, and widow of Nicolao de Alemanea. The couple moved to the San Vitale district, where Agostino is recorded in 1443 as "Agustinus pelacanus quidam Petri, per soldi 4".

The earliest mention of Domenico appears in a registry of the aforementioned district dating to 1455–1456, which recorded: «magister Augustinus pelacanuus ann. 50 - Domina Magdalena ejus uxor ann. 56 - Domincis ejus filius ann. 13 - Benvenuta ejus neptis ann. 17 - Libera filia suprascripti magistri Augustini ann. 9». According to this document, Domenico was likely born in 1442, which is the traditionally accepted date, although a 1461 document, where he is already registered as «pictor», suggests he might have been born a few years earlier, around 1438–1439. Little is known about his sister Libera, five years younger. The surname Morone was only established at the beginning of the following century, making it difficult to reconstruct more details about his family.

Around 1469, the young Domenico married Donna Cecilia, who bore him seven children: Chiara (born around 1469), Francesca and Francesco (around 1471), Gabriello (1472), Antonio (1474), Lodovico (1476), and Maria (1478). Of these children, as far as we know, only Francesco and Antonio followed in their father's footsteps and became painters, the former gaining some fame, while nothing is known of the latter.

The first known mention of Domenico Morone as a painter dates to March 28, 1461, when he was called to testify alongside Francesco Benaglio regarding a contract; his profession was again mentioned on June 20, 1466, in the will of stonemason Domenico di Bono. On January 28, 1469, before notaries Agostino Pindemonte and Cristoforo Avogaro, he emancipated from his father.

1470s and 1480s

Very little is known about Domenico's training and early production. According to Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects by Giorgio Vasari, he learned painting from some unspecified disciples of Stefano da Verona. He likely, as others of his time, started in adolescence as a miniatore; indeed, apart from this art form, the Veronese painting scene was quite limited from the death of Pisanello until Domenico began working on large-scale works.

It has been suggested that he studied under Francesco Benaglio due to certain stylistic similarities, particularly «in the fixed expression of figures, their slightly awkward proportions, the type of Child, and the way symbolic fruits are inserted, revealing dependence on the Paduan-Squarcionesque current». The similarity between the two artists was such that some Madonnas, now attributed to Benaglio, were in earlier times incorrectly associated with Domenico Morone. It has also been noted that the iconographic scheme of the library recalls Veronese manuscript illumination, particularly in the frieze, further demonstrating how Domenico mastered this technique as well.

Around the same years as the library, again with the assistance of his son, he probably painted a Madonna and Child that was long attributed to Girolamo dai Libri due to the sweetness of the Virgin’s features. In the work, the influence of Mantegna appears largely abandoned in favor of the new artistic trends. Its unusual dimensions led to the hypothesis that it was actually a fragment of a larger composition.

The works of the 1500s may have been the last created by Morone, as from the following decade only scant information is found in census records. In 1514 he was recorded as seventy years old and residing in the district of San Vitale with his family, while three years later he was listed at about 78 years old. That of 1517 was the last mention of Domenico, who probably died shortly thereafter. Vasari wrote that «he was buried in San Bernardino, where are the said works of his hand, leaving as heir of his wealth and skill his son Francesco Morone».

Style and Criticism

Domenico Morone, together with Liberale da Verona and Francesco Benaglio, was regarded as the one who, after the years of crisis following the death of Pisanello, led the Veronese school of painting from Gothic art to the Renaissance. While the Veronese works of Liberale retain intact the stylistic canons of Andrea Mantegna, according to historian Giuseppe Fiocco Domenico Morone’s art was more open to Venetian influences, while still maintaining some Gothic reminiscences.

Giorgio Vasari, in his Lives, compared Domenico with his son Francesco, concluding in favor of the latter who «in a short time became a much better master than his father had been». In the following centuries, however, scholars were able to rediscover Domenico’s works.

Although Vasari does not mention it, Domenico Morone was also an illuminator, as were most of his Veronese contemporaries; at least four of his miniatures are known today, and in some of his works, such as the Sagramoso Library, influences of this technique can be observed.