IPPOLITO SCARSELLA known as LO SCARSELLINO (Ferrara, 1550 - 1620) The Visitation Oil on canvas, 32.5X42.5 cm Provenance: Ferrara, Luigi Ughi collection (second label on the back) Florence, Sotheby's, 23 October 1974, lots 28-29 Italy, private collection Bibliography: M. A. Novelli, Scarsellino, Milan 2008. p. 326, cat. 241-242 Scarsellino is undoubtedly one of the most important artists of 16th-17th century Emilian art, and the most astute critics from the 1930s onwards (Mahon and Longhi) saw him as the reference point for the young Guercino and the Caracci, although the latter role was diminished by Volpe and Arcangeli. Also important for the maestro's collecting fortune, especially in the Anglo-Saxon and American world, were the studies of Berenson, who listed many works in his 1932 indexes, while in Italy even Longhi's impressive Officina Ferrarese failed to fully publicise his name. And the canvases under examination refer to the artist from Ferrara, which, with their still 16th-century taste, reflect the author's Baroque temperament and reveal interesting aesthetic aspects, first of all by observing the pigments and the drapery, as well as the drawing and the scenic setting, which attest to a clear homage to Veneto art and the creations of Jacopo Bassano. The artist's early interest in Venetian painting was certainly dictated by his father Ludovico, who nicknamed 'Paolo de' Ferraresi', according to Baruffaldi and Giulio Mancini spent three years in Venice attending Veronese's workshop and studying Titian, Andrea Schiavone, Tintoretto and the Bassanos. Documenting this precocious predilection for taste is the famous Supper in Simon's House housed in the Galleria Borghese in Rome, which has been documented since the 18th century under the name of Veronese and proves to be an excellent example of Ippolito's work, dating from the last decade of the century. Also very Bassanesque is the Expulsion of the Merchants from the Temple in the Capitoline Museums, which, datable to the 1780s, nevertheless reveals a scenic and narrative development that heralds the achievements of the early 17th century, and the Visitation in the Pinacoteca Vaticana, which offers the best comparison for the works under examination. Reference bibliography: G. Baruffaldi, Vite de' pittori e scultori ferraresi (1697-1730), I, Ferrara 1844, p. 193, II, 1846, pp. 65-107 G. Mancini, Considerazioni sulla pittura (circa 1617-1621) edited by A. Marucchi, L. Salerno, I, Rome 1956, p. 244 V. Lapierre, Nel segno del leone, in V. Lapierre, M. A. Novelli, La storia di Negro Sole Re del lito moro. Un esempio ritrovato della narrazione pittorica dello Scarsellino, Ferrara 2004, pp. 9-53 V. Lapierre, Scarsella Ippolito, detto lo Scarsellino, in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, 91, Rome 2018, pp. 38-385