Cristoforo Moretti (documented in Lombardy and Piedmont 1451 – 1475) was a Lombard painter of the

quattrocento The cultural and artistic events of Italy during the period 1400 to 1499 are collectively referred to as the Quattrocento (, , ) from the Italian word for the number 400, in turn from , which is Italian for the year 1400. The Quattrocento encom ...

who worked in a late

International Gothic International Gothic is a period of Gothic art which began in Burgundy, France, and northern Italy in the late 14th and early 15th century. It then spread very widely across Western Europe, hence the name for the period, which was introduced by ...

style very similar to that of Michelino da Besozzo’s last period. Few of the unsigned works later attributed to him are attributed with perfect certainty.

Biography

Born in Soncino in the

Province of Cremona The Province of Cremona ( it, provincia di Cremona; Cremunés: ; Cremasco: ; Casalasco-Viadanese: ) is a province in the Lombardy region of Italy. Its capital city is Cremona. The province occupies the central section of Padana Plain, so the ...

, he is first recorded in 1451, working for the Borromeos in Milan. Between then and 1475 he is found variously in Milan, in

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of t ...

, in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. Th ...

, in Casale, where he decorated the chapel of the Paleologi castle, and in

Vercelli Vercelli (; pms, Vërsèj ), is a city and ''comune'' of 46,552 inhabitants (January 1, 2017) in the Province of Vercelli, Piedmont, northern Italy. One of the oldest urban sites in northern Italy, it was founded, according to most historians, ...

. (It seems that he was expelled from Milan in 1462, accused of having defamed the wife of

Bianca Maria Visconti Bianca Maria Visconti (31 March 1425 – 28 October 1468) was Duchess of Milan from 1450 to 1468 by marriage to Francesco I Sforza. She was regent of Marche during the absence of her spouse in 1448. She served as Regent of the Duchy of Milan dur ...

’s doctor.) He is documented as part of team of artists, including

Vincenzo Foppa Vincenzo Foppa ( – ) was an Italian painter from the Renaissance period. While few of his works survive, he was an esteemed and influential painter during his time and is considered the preeminent leader of the Early Lombard School. He spent hi ...

and

Giovanni Battista Montorfano Giovanni may refer to: * Giovanni (name), an Italian male given name and surname * Giovanni (meteorology), a Web interface for users to analyze NASA's gridded data * ''Don Giovanni'', a 1787 opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, based on the legend of ...

forming an estimate for the paintings of

Stefano dei Fedeli Stefano is the Italian form of the masculine given name Στέφανος (Stefanos, Stephen). The name is of Greek origin, Στέφανος, meaning a person who made a significant achievement and has been crowned. In Orthodox Christianity the ach ...

in a chapel of the Castle of Milan.Francesco Malaguzzi Valeri, page 84. His best-known work, and the only one surviving to bear his signature, is probably the

polyptych A polyptych ( ; Greek: ''poly-'' "many" and ''ptychē'' "fold") is a painting (usually panel painting) which is divided into sections, or panels. Specifically, a "diptych" is a two-part work of art; a "triptych" is a three-part work; a tetrapty ...

painted for the chapel of Sant’Aquilino next to the Milanese church of S. Lorenzo Maggiore. The work was subsequently broken up and dispersed, but most of its constituent parts were identified by Roberto Longhi in 1928. Three panels, depicting the Virgin and Child enthroned flanked by Saints Lawrence and Genesius of Rome (the latter playing a

rebec The rebec (sometimes rebecha, rebeckha, and other spellings, pronounced or ) is a bowed string instrument, stringed instrument of the Medieval era and the early Renaissance. In its most common form, it has a narrow boat-shaped body and one to fiv ...

), are today in the Museo Poldi Pezzoli in Milan. The whereabouts of the panel portraying

Saint Peter the Martyr Peter of Verona (1205 – April 6, 1252), also known as Saint Peter Martyr and Saint Peter of Verona, was a 13th-century Italian Catholic priest. He was a Dominican friar and a celebrated preacher. He served as Inquisitor in Lombardy, was kille ...

are unknown; however a fragment of that with

Saint Lucy Lucia of Syracuse (283–304), also called Saint Lucia ( la, Sancta Lucia) better known as Saint Lucy, was a Roman people, Roman Christian martyr who died during the Diocletianic Persecution. She is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church, ...

is in the

Longhi Foundation The Fondazione Roberto Longhi is an institute established by Italian scholar Roberto Longhi. It is located on Via Benedetto Fortini in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. History The headquarters is the villa "Il Tasso" which Longhi acquired in 1939. This v ...

in Florence and part of the

predella In art a predella (plural predelle) is the lowest part of an altarpiece, sometimes forming a platform or step, and the painting or sculpture along it, at the bottom of an altarpiece, sometimes with a single much larger main scene above, but oft ...

, again showing Genesius, is conserved in Bologna.

Notes

External links

.
Passage on Cristoro Moretti
from Volume 4 of Luigi Lanzi’s, ''Storia pittorica della Italia dal risorgimento delle belle arti fin presso al fine del XVIII secolo''. * Francesco Malaguzzi Valeri, ''Pittori lombardi del quattrocento'' (Milan: L. F. Cogliati, 1902)
Chapter II: Cristoforo Morreti e l’influsso di Pisanello nella scuola lombarda
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moretti, Cristoforo 15th-century births 15th-century Italian painters Quattrocento painters Italian male painters People from Soncino Painters from Lombardy Artists from the Province of Cremona