page_title: Francesco Bonsignori
section_title: Bonsignori and Andrea Mantegna
hierarchical_section_title: Francesco Bonsignori / Mantua period / Bonsignori and Andrea Mantegna
caption_attribution_description: English: Madonna and Child
context_page_description: Francesco Bonsignori, also known as Francesco Monsignori, was an Italian painter and draughtsman, characterized by his excellence in religious subjects, portraits, architectural perspective and animals. He was born in Verona and died in Caldiero, a city near Verona. Bonsignori's style in early period was under the influence of his teacher Liberale da Verona. After becoming the portraitist and court artist to the Gonzaga family of Mantua in 1487, his style was influenced by Andrea Mantegna, who also worked for Francesco Gonzaga from the 1480s. They collaborated to execute several religious paintings, mainly with the theme of Madonna and Child. The attribution of the portrait of a Venetian Senator was debatable until the last century because of the similarity in techniques used by Bonsignori and his teacher Mantegna. During the phase of his career in Mantua, there is an undocumented period between 1495 and July 1506 with no official record regarding his activities by the court of Mantua. Bonsignori's late style was decisively influenced by Lorenzo Costa in terms of form and color.
context_section_description: Mantegna spent most of his life working for the Gonzaga family as court painter to the Gonzagas. Since he mainly focused on decorating their castles with frescoes in a small town in Mantua, he did not produce many paintings, but still devoted time to his workshop and traditional apprenticeship. Bonsignori was one of his few students in his workshop in Mantua.
  
  Bonsignori was already a master with a modest reputation when he came to Mantua and joined Mantegna's workshop in 1490. Between 1491 and 1492, Bonsignori worked as Mantegna's assistant at Marmirolo, Mantua. They collaborated on several works during this period. In 1491, The Napoleon Madonna – Madonna and Child (Philbrook Museum of Art) was painted by Mantegna with Bonsignori's assistance. The provenance of this painting can be traced to the collection of the Palais Royal in Paris. It was sold by Prince Jerome Napoleon is 1872, and was exhibited in Burlington House in 1880 and 1894. Stylistic evidence suggests that Mantegna designed and outlined the composition, and painted the Child and the medallion on the parapet. The composition of the Napoleon Madonna is exactly the same as the Madonna and Child (Kaiser Friedrich Museum, Berlin) which Mantegna completed in his middle period. Mantegna then left the painting unfinished as he was busy with the decorations of Gonzaga palace in the 1490s. His assistant Bonsignori completed the painting. A similar collaboration can be observed in the Portrait of a Warrior in the Widener Collection (Lynnewood Hall, Philadelphia), where Bonsignori executed the portrait while Mantegna designed and painted in his studio. During his apprenticeship under Mantegna, Bonsignori also painted the Head of a Female Saint (Poldi-Pezzoli Museum, Milan), the Portrait of Youth (Metropolitan museum, New York) and the Madonna with four Saints (1490–1510, The National Gallery, London). The facial expressions in the pictures are notably similar to that of the Napoleon Madonna, which signifies the influence of Mantegna on his style. Certain morphological details such as the nose, mouth, and eyes are painted identically in terms of modelling and shape. Less learned and correct in his design than Mantegna, Bonsignori is more modern in his style and his coloring has more morbidezza. He excelled in painting animals, which he was fond of introducing in the background of his compositions. His paintings portraying animals were alleged to deceive dogs and birds, and he was termed "the modern Zeuxis" (after an ancient Greek animal painter). One of his pictures representing Saint Louis is preserved in the Brera at Milan. There are some perspective views in the refectory of the church of the Franciscans at Mantua, demonstrating that he was a master of that branch of art.
caption: Mantegna and Bonsignori: Madonna and Child (1491), Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, Oklahoma
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