Andrea Previtali
Andrea Previtali (c. 1480 –1528) was an Italian painter of the Renaissance period, active mainly in Bergamo. He is also called Andrea Cordelliaghi.
Biography
He was a pupil of the painter Giovanni Bellini. In Bergamo, he painted a John the Baptist preaching with other saints (1515) for the church of Santo Spirito; a San Benedetto and other saints for the Cathedral of Bergamo, and a Deposition from the Cross for Sant Andrea. Other works in Accademia Carrara.
He is perhaps best known for 'not being Giorgione'; in the 1930s Kenneth Clark bought two of his charming small panels, each with two rustic scenes for the National Gallery, London, at vastly inflated prices believing them to be by Giorgione.
Previtali's masterpiece is an astonishing Annunciation (illustrated here, but poorly) which stands over the high altar of the little-known church of Santa Maria del Meschio in Vittorio Veneto. It is an exquisite work of which his master Giovanni Bellini would have been proud.
References
- Farquhar, Maria (1855). Ralph Nicholson Wornum, ed. Biographical catalogue of the principal Italian painters. Woodfall & Kinder, Angel Court, Skinner Street, London; Digitized by Googlebooks from Oxford University copy on Jun 27, 2006. p. 134.
- The Giorgione controversy. http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/research/scenes-from-tebaldeos-eclogues