Cinque stanze per Giovanni Battista Trotti

The discovery of a new dazzling painting by Giovanni Battista Trotti “il Malosso” at the Szépművészeti Múzeum in Budapest (formerly attributed to parmesan painter Michelangelo Anselmi, active more than half a century before) offered the opportunity to review various segments of the activity of the Cremonese painter, both at home and in the service of Ranuccio I Farnese at the ducal court of Parma. It was therefore possible to further investigate Malosso’s “Farnesian period” by analizing the operating practices of his workshop, his ability as a copyist of famous models, in the light of Bernardino Campi’s teachings, his mentor, and his latest production, in which it is documented the collaboration with his illegitimate son Aristide. He emerged as a new personality, totally neglected so far, of a non-mediocre painter, as shown by a great Crucifixion in the promontory of Portofino, definitely out of context. The last part of the essay is dedicated to the crucial relationship between Malosso and his disciples with the church of San Domenico in Cremona, in search of a lost altarpiece, possibly identifiable with a languid and bright Magdalene by Panfilo Nuvolone.