A pupil of Gian Paolo Lomazzo, Figino became an important representative of the Lombard school of painting. Best known as a draftsman, he was also a skilled portrait painter. Among the few portraits that can be traced back to Figino, the portrait of Field Marshal Lucio Foppa is one of the best known.
On January 25, 2001, his Portrait of Giovanni Angelo was auctioned at Sotheby's for US$ $1,435,750; after a high estimate of US$180,000 [1]
The organ shutters for the Cathedral of Milan were painted after 1590 by Ambrogio, Camillo Procaccini, and Giuseppe Meda, depicting the Passage of the Red Sea and the Ascencion of Christ. In the Castello Sforcesco there is a painting of his of Saint Ambrose expelling the Arians.[2] Also attributed to him is a painting of a dish of peaches, done at a time when still life was an uncommon genre in Italian art.[3]He also painted in Milan an Immaculate conception for Sant'Antonio, and a Virgin with child, saints, and donors now at Brera Gallery.
Works
The majority of Figino's works are drawings. These amount to over 430 known drawings.[4] His known works include the following.
Natività di Cristo, Passaggio degli Ebrei attraverso il mar Rosso, Ascensione (Perduta), ante d'organo del duomo di Milano, eseguite tra il 1590 e il 1595
Natività di Maria, chiesa di Sant'Antonio Abate a Milano
Incoronazione della Vergine, affresco Nella volta del presbiterio di San Vittore al Corpo
Fatti della vita di s. Benedetto,Dio Padre, Angeli in volo, Putti alati e Angeli musici, ala sinistra del transetto di San Vittore al Corpo
Cristo alla colonna, Museo civico di Busto Arsizio
Freedberg, Sydney J. (1993). Painting in Italy, 1500-1600. Pelican History of Art. Penguin Books.
Farquhar, Maria (1855). Ralph Nicholson Wornum (ed.). Biographical catalogue of the principal Italian painters. London: Woodfall & Kinder. p. 61.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Giovanni Ambrogio Figino.
External links
Description of his best known works.
The Annunciation, a drawing by Figino.
Brief bio of Figino from Web Gallery of Art
Painters of reality: the legacy of Leonardo and Caravaggio in Lombardy, an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Figino (see index)