16th Century Milanese Art

Throughout the last 60 years, the career of Antonio Rimpatta, Bolognese painter of the beginning of 16th century, has been reconstructed according to various hypotheses. In some cases the corpus of paintings assembled by Zeri has been augmented with those already attributed to the anonymous Master of the Setmani Sacra Conversazione, and on other occasions with those by frate Antonio da Bologna, a painter mentioned by Vasari. The most recent tendency is to bring the three groups together under the name of Rimpatta, but this approach appears to ignore some significant problems.
  This contribution reconsiders some of the principal works from the supposed catalogue of Rimpatta, highlighting inconsistencies - especially in terms of figurative culture - that are all too evident. The concurrence between Rimpatta and frate Antonio da Bologna is confirmed: it is characterized by a manner that is essentially peruginesque and central Italian, with also some references to Boltraffio (as demonstrated by the St. Sebastian in the Walters Art Gallery of Baltimore). On the other hand, the author of the Setmani group should be kept separate. This painter proves himself to be far more significant, capable of creating masterpieces that are well-informed about the more modern painting that has its origins between Milan and Venice, and that straddles the 15th and 16th centuries.
  The evident link between Rimpatta and the Setmani Master could therefore be explained not by their being one and the same, but by a collaboration between the two painters. Such a meeting could conceivably have come about in Bologna around 1500, immediately after the creation of works such as the pala Casio by Boltraffio or the pala Scarani by Perugino.
  Finally, in order to resolve the various problems that have been brought to light it is proposed that the hand of Rimpatta may be identified in the better paintings of the Setmani group, in those weaker and less “Lombardian” parts that were already recognized by Ragghianti.

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