Lot 26: Luca Mombello

Luca Mombello
Orzivecchi 1518 - after 1588
the wedding feast at cana
oil on canvas
118 by 105.5 cm.; 46 1/2 by 41 1/2 in.
Mombello was a pupil of Moretto da Brescia, in whose workshop he is believed to have entered initially as a frame-carver though he soon became an assistant and would later become one of Moretto's foremost followers. Mombello imbued Moretto's sober style with a propensity of decorative elements: from adorning his figures with jewelry and elegant hairstyles, to clothing them in patterned materials, silks and brocades, Mombello also introduced a large quantity of flowers and objects as decorative elements in his compositions (so too in this painting, where he has taken delight in depicting the various still life elements at the wedding feast).
Although very little biographical information is known on the artist, his works are well represented in the Pinacoteca Tosio e Martinengo in Brescia, where his best known altarpiece showing The Presentation of Christ in the Temple is housed (reproduced in A. Venturi, Storia dell'Arte Italiana. La Pittura del Cinquecento, vol. ix, part vii, Milan 1934 (1967 ed.), p. 320, fig. 186). The physiognomical types of the figures, inspired by Moretto's own, and the slightly incongruous architectural background are elements also to be found in the present canvas. These contorted figures and unnaturalistic are characteristic of Mombello's apparently naive and highly idiosyncratic style.