Ippolita Scarsella Scarsellino

Bio

Scarsellino started his studies at an early age under the tutelage of his father Sigismondo, who was both a well-known painter and described as an able architect. In his early works, Ippolito shows that he adhered to the traditional Ferrarese palette which, from Garofalo and Dosso onwards, had always been inspired by Venice. He also betrays a knowledge of Parmigianino’s elegant draughtsmanship probably through the influence of Girolamo da Carpi. Thus he combined late Mannerist elements from both the Ferrara and Parma schools.

An early visit to Venice circa 1570 enabled him to appreciate the Venetians use of colour which after Titian and Veronese had been elaborated by Schiavone, Bassano and Tintoretto. Tradition has it that Ippolito spent four ears in Veronese’s studio where Baruffaldi states he acquired the nickname ‘Paolo de’ Ferraresi’. A reconstruction of the artist’s early output is complicated by a lack of documented works which only appear with any frequency in the last decade of the ‘500. Yet Ippolito’s substantial output of mythological or profane subject matter with scenes from courtly life was probably executed early in his career, and was appreciated by a wide range of collectors thereby establishing the artist’s reputation. These often incorporated the female nude, such as Susanna, Venus or Bathsheba and were frequently set against a backdrop of a rose coloured sunset sky. Nevertheless Ippolito found time for an extended number of official commissions – at his death he left more than fifty altarpieces many of which had been commissioned for Ferrarese churches restored after the calamitous earthquake of November 1570 or for new convents or religious orders which proliferated after the Duchy reverted to the Papacy in 1598.

One of Ippolito’s first securely dated pictures is his Elijah taken to Heaven on a Fiery Chariot which graces the apse of San Paolo, Ferrara and which is documented before January 1592. This work was quite remarkable for its extensive landscape element and may lay claim to be the most modern forward looking work executed in Emilia before the turn of the century. In 1592-3 Ippolito executed several canvases for a ceiling in Palazzo Diamanti commissioned by Borso d’Este – the Carracci sent four ovals for the same ceiling from Bologna.

After 1598 Scarsellino was compelled to adapt his style to the new circumstances dictated by Bishop Giovanni Fontana. Gone was the fashion for brightly coloured, often profane subject matter, replaced instead by the rigorous ideals imposed by the Counter Reformation. Fontana was a zealous disciple of Carlo Borromeo and he commissioned the artist to decorate his chapel in Ferrara cathedral. In his later works Scarsellino shows an ever growing awareness of developments in nearby Bologna and particularly those of the Incamminati. Yet Scarsellino always retained a sense of colour and freedom of style which reveals his Venetian heritage though after 1600 his major works verge on the proto-baroque. As Carlo Volpe has stated ‘Scarsellino’s contribution to the Emilian pictorial tradition was due firstly to a complete assimilation of his Venetian experiences which he combined with neo-Dossesque elements: this was a combination which was to prove of vital importance to early seventeenth century Emilian painting’.