18/10/2001
by Elena de Luca

A quick glance at the artistic production of the Bolognese artist Prospero Fontana (1512-1597), shows just how diverse his work was – everything from secular themes like mythologies, landscapes and portraits, to intimate and monumental religious scenes and executed in a variety of mediums: frescos, oil on canvas, copper panels, and drawings. Prospero was extremely interested in Roman antiquity, particularly the architectonic, sculptural and iconographic elements derived from the classics and these influences crop up in the artist’s work.

Prospero Fontana worked in Rome where he painted frescos at the Castel Santa Angelo and the Villa Giulia from 1544 to 1545. However it was not until he had met the art writer and painter Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) in 1547, that he developed a distinctively tense linearity of draughtsmanship in his paintings, typical of Florentine art, which he combined with what he saw in Rome and his Bolognese background. The influence of Antique sources can be seen in works such as a drawing attributed to Fontana and called Two satyrs attending a drunken old man, inspired by an antique relief known as Bacchus visiting the poet Icarius. This relief was of Hellenistic origin, and copied by the Romans, was later a source of inspiration for artists like Giovanni Da Udine (1487-1591) in his work for the Logge Vaticane (1517-1519).

The artist has yet to make a significant impact on the international markets however and prices are thus moderate. A Fontana drawing went up for auction in April 1992 at Christie’s, London, and was sold for $ 5,400 (€ 5,970) against an estimate of $ 2,900-4,300 (€ 3,210-4,750). Another classically inspired work, Phaeton receiving the chariot of the sun from his father Apollo, a pen and ink with chalk on paper measuring 21.6 x 31 cm was sold last July at Christie’s, London for $ 11,880 (€ 13,140) against an estimate of $ 4,500-7,000 (€ 4,980-7,740). Other evidence of his literary interests was shown with A figure walking along tightrope in a room, balancing two tablets inscribed in Greek with the motto of the stoics, a drawing in pen and ink (11.7 x 8.4 cm) which sold at Sotheby’s, New York in January 1992 for $ 2,200 (€ 2,430).

Prospero Fontana was also well connected with the Church hierarchy and leading intellectual figures of the time particularly with Cardinal Gabriele Paleotti and Cardinal Giovanni Maria Del Monte. Last year at Philips, London a charcoal drawing on panel, entitled Portrait of Giulio De Medici in a monk’s habit (69 x 55 cm) "attributed to Fontana" sold for $ 36,130 (€ 40,000) just under its low-end estimate of $ 44,000 (€ 48,650). Also on the market, a Portrait of Giorgio Gherardo aged 56 years, seated in his study (166 x 107 cm) attributed to Prospero Fontana, was unsold at Christie’s, Rome in October 1991 against an offer of $ 3,000-3,200 (€ 3,320-3,540).

Fontana’s religious altarpieces are sophisticated compositions, typically majestic in size, with a vibrant colour range. An example being The Madonna in Glory with the four Patron Saints of Bologna, which went unsold against an estimate of $ 43,400-72,350 (€ 48,000-80,000) at Christie’s, London in April 1993. Bar this unsold, results over the last decade have been very strong: The Virgin Mary, infant Saint John the Baptist and a Bishop Saint (79 x 68.5 cm) sold for $ 46,200 (€ 51,130) against an estimate of $ 12,000-16,000 (€ 13,270-17,690) at Sotheby’s, New York. A year later Holy family with Saint Catherine of Alexandria, an oil on board, was sold at Finarte, Milan for $ 42,439 (€ 46,920). More recently in January 1996 Madonna and Child with the infant Saint John the Baptist, oil on canvas (27.9 x 24.8 cm) went for $ 60,250 (€ 66,610) at Sotheby’s, New York whilst in May 1998 Immacolata in Gloria (11 x 90 cm) was sold for $ 12,900 (€ 14,260) at Christie’s Rome.

Look out for the artist’s oil on coppers which can enter the market at low to mid prices. A copper attributed to the circle of Prospero Fontana entitled The Virgin Mary with the Christ child between Saint Paul and Saint Bernard (29 x 24 cm) and offered at Tajan auctioneers in Paris, sold for $ 13,000 (€ 14,390) in March 1995. Three months later at the same auction house The vision of Saint Francis, with a donor (28.5 x 22.5 cm) fetched $ 5,258 (€ 5,820) against an estimate of $ 5,000-7,000 (€ 5,530-7,750). Another oil on copper, Portrait of a couple in an interior (19 x19 cm) attributed to the circle of Fontana, was sold by Audap-Solanet (Godeau-Veillet) back in December 1995 for $ 19,000 (€ 21,030) against an estimate of $ 4,000-5,000 (€ 4,430-5,530).