Catalogue Roberti Fine Art, TEFAF Maastricht 2026 (1) compressed - Flipbook - Page 36
Girolamo Marchesi was among the most refined exponents of early sixteenth-century painting in
Romagna and Bologna. Born in Cotignola around 1480, he trained with Francesco Francia and
absorbed the lucid compositional order characteristic of the Bolognese school. Here Saint
Catherine is shown half length against a dark ground, her head inclined upward in contemplative
ecstasy. The lifted gaze, parted lips, and softened modelling convey an interiorised devotion rather
than overt drama.
From when it was first published by Bernhard Berenson in 1897 until 1994, the panel was
attributed to Francesco Zaganelli, whose elegant style constitutes one of Cotignola’s other
important influences. That earlier attribution is revealing: the painting shares with Zaganelli a
preference for poised half-length saints, crisp profiling, and a polished, enamel-like finish. Yet it
departs from Zaganelli’s typical models in favour of a firmer construction of form and sweeter
physiognomy. In this respect, the work aligns closely with other comparable panels by Cotignola—
small, concentrated images of single figures presented against a dark, neutral field, in which
sanctity is articulated through composure and clarity rather than narrative incident: see, for
example, his Christ carrying the Cross in the Galleria Spada in Rome.
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