GIOVANNI LUTERI known as DOSSO DOSSI (San Giovanni del Dosso or Tramuschio, c. 1468 - Ferrara, 1542) Saint John the Baptist in the Landscape (c. 1522 - cf. Ballarin 1993; 1995) Oil on panel transferred to canvas in 1867 (Benson 1894), 195.5 x 116 cm Provenance: Ferrara, collection of Count Antonio Aventi Ferrara, Costabili collection Venice, Layard collection (1866) Canford Manor, Viscount Wimborne Collection (1886, United Kingdom) London, Christie's, Wimborne sale, 9 March 1923, lot 11 London, Agnew Gallery Bologna, Podio Collection Milan, Galleria Pesaro, Podio sale auction, 10 - 15 May 1937, lot 32 Genoa, Gnecco Collection (recorded here by Longhi in 1940 and by Berenson in 1968) Milan, private collection Bibliography: G. Boschini, Vite de' pittori e scultori Ferraresi scritto dall'arciprete Girolamo Baruffaldi con anntazioni, Ferrara 1844-1846, pp. 292-293 G. Baruffaldi, Vite di pittori e scultori ferraresi, I, Ferrara 1844, pp. 324 f.; II, ibid. 1846, pp. 231-249 C. Laderchi, La Pittura ferrarese, in A. Frizzi, Memorie per la storia di Ferrara raccolte da Antonio Frizzi, Ferrara 1848, ed. 1856, p. 70 R. H. Benson, Introduction , in Exhibition of Pictures, Drawings, and Photographs of works of the School of Ferrara-Bologna, 1440-1550, London 1894, p. XXXI, 2°, no. 62, p. 52 (no. 44) F. von Harck, Ausstellungen und Versteigerungen: Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, in Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft, XVII, 1894, p. 316 B. Berenson, The North Italian Painter of the Renaissance, New York-London 1907, p. 211. H. Mendelsohn, Das Werk der Dossi, Munich 1914, p. 215 Catalogue Viscount Wimborne and other Collections Sale, Christie's, 9 March 1923, p. 5, no. 11 A. Venturi, Storia dell'Arte Italiana, IX. La Pittura del Cinquecento, 3, p. 978 R. Longhi, Ampliamenti nell'officina ferrarese, in La Critica d'Arte, supplement to year IV, 1940- re-edited in Officina Ferrarese, Florence 1956 R. Longhi, in Officina ferrarese, Florence 1980, p. 158, fig. 377 A. Mezzetti, Il Dosso and Battista ferraresi, Ferrara 1965, p. 54, footnote 87; pp. 88-89, no. 69 B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: A List of the Principal Artists and their Works with an Index of Places. Central Italian and North Italian Schools, London 1968, I. p. 112 F. Gibbons, Dosso and Battista Dossi Court Painter at Ferrara, Princeton 1968, pp. 136, 179-180, n. 25 L. Benini, Descrizione della quadreria costabili, in Musei Ferraresi. Bollettino annuale. VII, 1977 [1979], no. 27 O. Orsi, in E. Mattaliano, La collezione Costabili, Venice 1998, p. 63, no. 109 A. Ballarin, Osservazioni sul percorso di Dosso, 1986 A. Ugolini, Rivedendo la collezione Costabili di Ferrara, in Paragone, XLI, 489, 1990, p. 59 A. Ballarin, 1993, pp. 468-469 A. Ballarin, Dosso Dossi. La pittura a Ferrara negli anni del Ducato di Alfonso I, Cittadella 1995, I, pp. 333-334, no. 425; vol. II, fig. 626 The painting, with its illustrious provenance and accompanied by an extensive bibliography, manifests the qualities Giovanni Luteri achieved between the second and third decade, revealing his understanding and knowledge, albeit 'elusive', of Roman and lagoon art. Already Roberto Longhi judged the work 'capital in the artist's painting for its calculated collusion of memories from classical Italian anthology' (cf. Longhi 1980), recognising the suggestions of Raphael and Leonardo in the mantle's layers, recognising in the landscape the decisive influence of Giorgione, thus suggesting its execution around 1520. In fact, it is well known that, between 1514 and 1516, Duke Alfonso I set up his studio with paintings by Giovanni Bellini and Titian, texts that undeniably influenced the artistic culture of Ferrara and, in particular, the court artist Dosso Dossi. It must also be considered that the painter visited Venice, Florence and Mantua, achieving a highly effective Lombard-Lagunar blend, without forgetting the influence of Michelangelo, an artist appreciated by the duke and whose manners were also popularised by Pordenone. This synthesis is already perceptible in the works that Dosso produced for Modena, but in the early 1920s it can be said to have been accomplished in a highly personal formula that is masterfully manifested in the Saint John presented here.