Giovanni Canavesio (before 1450 – 1500) was an Italian artist, documented as a "master artist" in 1450 . He was proficient in polyptychs or panels, monumental paintings, and book illuminations. He was active in Liguria and southern France later in his life but documents of his activities before 1450 are missing.
Career
Canavesio was born in Pinerolo, Piedmont. The earliest document about Canavesio dates to 1450, when he was recorded as a "master artist" in the Piedmontese town of Pinerolo. However, there are still doubts about when Canavesio started his career. Between the registration in Piedmontese in 1450 and his first documented work in 1472, Canavesio became a priest. Later in his life, Canavesio is referred to as a "presbiter", a priest in Latin, in almost all of the documents and signed works. In Canavesio's career as a painter, Dominicans of Taggia, a major art center, patronized his art works. He completed several wall paintings and polyptychs in their houses and chapels. He was also commissioned wall paintings and polyptychs for chapter houses and refectories in the towns of Albenga, Luceram, La Brigue, Pigna, and Pornassio. Due to the chemical particularities of wall painting, he developed a seasonal schedule: panel painting in colder months and wall paintings in the warmer months, with the exception of places with mild and stable climate. For example, he finished the wall paintings of Virle and Crucifixion in Taggia in Spring. In some periods of his life, Canavesio collaborates with Giovanni Baleison whose signature appears with Canavesio's under the painting. They divided the decoration in parts and each take their own responsibility.
Works Giovanni Canavesio appeared on documents with different orthographic names: Johannis, Johanes, de Canavexiis, Canavexi, Canavesis, or Canavesius. In French studies, he is known as Jean Canavesi while in Italy he is known as Giovanni. He often executed more than one commission per site. He based his work in the pictorial culture of western Piedmont. Canavesio had a novel approach to paintings. He borrowed design aspects from artwork in Italy, the southern Netherlands, and northern France. He was influenced by northern Piedmont paintings which often contain vivid hues, an intense light source, and an expressionistic approach to figure drawing. His style embodies pathetic and violent expression, often depicting painful, jerky gestures and movements, with cruel and horrific realism at times. He developed such style from the influence of Giacomo Jaquerio, the pioneer of an independent Piedmontese school, and shared his expressive beliefs to further consolidate his own conviction in art. His works are also composed of Germanic style which suggests his learning in Schongauer's workshop or from artists in Colmar region. Growing influence of Provençal and Niçois influence Canavesio to take approach with progressive softening of Piedmontese elements of his painting. Works created in the last few years of his career show that he was further influenced by Lombard and became closer to Ligurian art.
Canavesio used distortion of anatomy and perspective for expressive purposes in creating narrative scenes that would be understood by the public, but he was a capable artist, as shown from his tender treatment on depicting the Virgin Mary.
Notre-Dame des Fontaines
Canavesio started his work in the Chapel of Notre-Dame des Fontaines, near La Brigue, with eleven displays of Virgin's life and Christ's childhood: the Nativity of the Virgin, her Presentation in the Temple, her Marriage, the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Nativity of Christ, his Circumcision, the Adoration of the Magi, the Massacre of the Innocents, the Flight into Egypt, and the Presentation in the Temple. For some paintings, he collaborated with Jean Baleison, for example in the ones of the choir that were discovered under a layer of whitewash in the 1950s. The inscription of the paintings on the north wall documented Canavesio's craft and completion in October 1492 but was fallen and covered by a new one that indicated Canavesio's involvement. However, it did not articulate that all the paintings were done by Canavesio, not mentioning workshops or collaborations but the general conception of the Passion Cycle would be done by Canavesio himself. The scene depicting the Virgin in the paintings of the triumphal arch would also be his collaboration with another artist. Canavesio executed the nave paintings following the tradition of Italian Renaissance practices.Stefanaggi, Marcel and Callede, Bernard(1974), Report 95B The gold and tinfoil he used now turned black due to oxidation but was restored around 1849.
Passion Cycle of Christ The depiction of different scenes in Passion Cycle demonstrates Canavesio's ability to modulate his artistic expression according to the situation needed. One of the characteristics of Notre-Dame's Cycle is the diversity: no two soldiers are dressed the same, the architectural settings vary, and even the devils are envisaged with varied anatomical structures. A wide variety of actions are depicted in a single panel and often one actor is manifesting more than one action at a time. When some scenes are described in the same setting, Canavesio endowed different architectural context. Such complexity does not exist in Canavesio's treatment in Pigna. Similar to diverse motions in his figures, architectural elements also follow different perspective reasoning. Walls, arches, and pieces of furniture form a contradictory relationship with the floor on which they seem to float. He departed from objective and observed reality but by exaggerating facial expressions and postures and space, he appealed to viewers' psychological state and provoked their feelings.
The Last Supper depicted by Canavesio draws distinction between apostles, contrasting the sleeping St. John with Judas's abhorrent expression. Judas is the only person portrayed with messy hair and accentuated facial features such as wrinkles, veins, and protruding nose with a mole, all drawing attention to his character as traitor.
In the Arrest of Christ, the serenity of Christ's face poses a dramatic contrast to the fiendish faces of his enemies. Prominent in the crowd are the grimacing action of Judas and the tumbling Malchus with dehiscent wound spouting blood. Other soldiers and villains are also painted with grotesque features such as bared teeth and bold head, alluding to their bestial character. An opening of mouth and displaying of teeth is a feature of Canavasio's painting to indicate Christ's enemy or to show the crudeness of his enemies. Specifically, Caiaphas opens his mouth and exposes his teeth in anger; Annas with only one tooth left; and men from Ecce crowd shouting for Christ's condemnation. His delineation of a dramatic contrast between Christ's resignation and the fierce of his enemies is based on text sources, for example, in Isaiah 53:7 "He shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter, and shall be dumb as a lab before his shearer, and he shall not open his mouth", and in Jeremias 11:19 "And I was a meek lamb, that is carried to be a victim."
Canavesio depicted some figures in iconography profile, which in Christian art often indicates evil characters, accentuating a caricatured meaning and also preventing veneration. For example, in his painting of Last Supper, Pact, kissing Christ at the Arrest, and returning the silver coins at the Temple, Judas is always depicted in a profile view. The same treatment is used for Malchus in the scene of Christ before Annas, and John in the Arrest.
Another characteristic of Canavesio can be identified in the angularity of postures: arms and legs are bent often at right angles, especially in violent scenes. Movement in opposite directions is also frequent, as can be observed in Judas leading the soldiers into the garden and Peter in his Denial, in which his head turned 180-degrees when grabbed by a soldier. The psychological turmoil can be observed in the Remorse of Judas, in which his legs and head presented in profile, the latter facing left contrast to his body turned in opposite direction facing the viewer.
The Entry into Jerusalem The Entry into Jerusalem is the first panel in the cycle. It follows the traditional composition of the theme with apostles on the left and Christ on the colt in the center, and crowds on the right under the gate to Jerusalem. The details of the man on the ground, trees with men, and posture of Christ are as well conventional.
The original detail appears at the man who puts a hand up on his head at the entrance gate, a motif also appears in Canavesio's first Passion Cycle at Pigna and Chieri. The similar gesture can be observed on Joseph in the Adoration of the Magi at Notre-Dame des Fontaines. Comparison with Jan van Eyck's painting The Virgin and Child with Canon van der Paele suggests the influence of Netherlandish painting. Another possible reference is the representations of Moses confronting the Burning Bush, as an expression of the awareness of being in front of God.
The Last Supper This classical motif chosen by Canavesio was when Christ announces his coming betrayal and indirectly hints on Judas as the traitor. Both Christ and Judas reach their arms toward the tray in the center while Christ holds a piece of food. The traitor is revealed as well in the illustrations of Matthew (26:23)—Judas dipping his hand in the dish—and John (13:26)—Judas receiving the soup. The interaction of Christ and Judas is signified by Christ extending his right hand and Judas his left. That Peter holding a knife can frequently be interpreted as his combative mood that is often presented in theatrical episode, Canavesio has no intention of showing this motif but is influenced by Savoyard Passion Cycle.
The Washing of the Feet Besides the traditional interaction between Peter and Christ, an additional scene was added to the one in Notre-Dame des Fontaines. Judas was depicted as putting his scandals back on, alluding that he is the first one to have his feet washed. This is rather often displayed in Passion plays such as the fourteenth-century Passion Sainte-Genevieve, the fifteenth-century Passion de Semur, and Arnoul Greban's Passion. His position close to the door suggests that he is about to leave and conveys a successive setting between panels. In an early-sixteenth-century miniature by Simon Bening, Judas wears the same colors as he does in Notre-Dame des Fontaines: a yellow robe with a green coat. These were colors worn by the actors of the theatrical genre of the Sottie.
The Pact of Judas
Canavesio took advantage of two iconographic traditions: the representation of the Pact per scene, with Judas concluding it the priests, and the payments of the thirty silver coins. The representation of payment prevails in earlier Savoyard cycles, and the conclusion of Pact with the priests also appears in paintings in the chapel of the castle of La Manta. In the first part, Canavesio represents Judas offering to deliver Christ to the Jews while he raises his finger with a scroll issuing from his mouth and shakes hands with a priest. A devil hanging from his belt pushes Judas and holds his moneybag, in accordance with the Gospel of Luke (22:3) that says "Satan entered into Judas" just before Judas met with the priests. This detail does not appear in the other Savoyard cycle.
Canavesio's invention of combining two separate scenes into one panel influenced some early-sixteenth-century Ligurian arts. One example is Pietro Guidi who followed this treatment in his 1515 paintings at Rezzo.
The Agony in the Garden