Studying “minor Bolognese painters born in Cinquecento”, one meets Mario Sabatini and Ottaviano Nonni called Mascherino or Mascarino. Moreover, sources mention a supposed Bolognese, Jacopo Sementa, together with Baldassarre Croce, hardly...
moreStudying “minor Bolognese painters born in Cinquecento”, one meets Mario Sabatini and Ottaviano Nonni called Mascherino or Mascarino. Moreover, sources mention a supposed Bolognese, Jacopo Sementa, together with Baldassarre Croce, hardly active before 1580, the upper limit for the present research. Considering that artists just mentioned were active for Gregorio XIII, it seems useful to propose an essay, dedicated to the sites that the Pope decorated between 1575 and 1580. In this short period, limiting analysis to fresco pieces, one faces scores of painters and hundreds of scenes. Out of this almost unlimited mare magnum, the present essay considers only Bolognese works and artists, including Lorenzo Sabatini. For Mascherino, the focus is on Prima Loggia, where he works as “quadraturista”, while some help comes from another painter, maybe of Flemish culture, such as Matthijs Bril or Jan Soens. For Mario Sabatini, no secure link exists, but a few tentative attributions are possible, because his role of supervisor might allow him some action as a “final painter”, as in Paramenti friezes. Jacopo Sementa is interesting, but the idea that he comes from Bologna has no solid support. Baldassarre Croce, very prolific after 1580, is hard to spot before that date, considering that Sala del Commendatore in Sassia is partially documented for little known Ludovico Romano, and that Mario, more than Baldassarre, was preferred by Aldrovandi family. As far as Lorenzo Sabatini is concerned, his activity in the short period after Sala Bologna, and before his death on 2 august 1576, seems devoted to supervision more than material painting.
