Michelangelo Anselmi
Italian, c. 1492 - 1554/56
Italian painter and draughtsman. He was arguably the most imaginative painter in Parma in the early 16th century after Correggio and Parmigianino. However, he was trained in Siena, though his only surviving work there, a Visitation in the church of Fontegiusta, shows the importance of Sodoma in the formation of his art. Anselmi’s family was apparently from Parma, but he is not securely documented there until 1520. In that year he began to paint in S Giovanni Evangelista, where he decorated the ribs of the nave vaults, the apses of both transepts and at least two chapels: the chapel in the north transept, with frescoes of SS Agnes and Catherine, and the sixth chapel on the left of the nave, with frescoes of the Four Doctors of the Church. It has also been suggested that he executed the frescoes of SS Nicholas and Hilary in the fourth chapel on the left, which have been attributed to Parmigianino. In 1525 Anselmi was one of the group of prominent artists consulted about the construction of S Maria della Steccata, Parma, where his most extensive works in fresco were subsequently painted. These comprise the Coronation of the Virgin (1541–2, altered 1547) in the main apse, a commission that was given to him after the death of Parmigianino in 1540 and for which he was required to work from a ‘coloured drawing’ by Giulio Romano, and, on the facing apse and vault over the west door, an Adoration of the Magi and Four Prophets, which were completed by Bernardino Gatti.
In 1522 Anselmi was one of the select group who received commissions from the cathedral authorities; his task was to decorate the vault of the south transept, but the work was not completed until the signing of a second contract of 1548. The frescoes do not survive but were replaced by what appear to be accurate copies. As a fresco painter, he also decorated the dome and pendentives of the oratory of the Immaculate Conception in Parma, where the role of his collaborator Francesco Maria Rondani must have been a distinctly subsidiary one; he also executed a series of grisaille Apostles and four biblical narratives for the Palazzo Lalatta (now Collegio Maria Luigia) in Parma and a cycle of the Church Fathers for the chapel of the Immaculate Conception in the collegiate church at Busseto. Furthermore, both documents and preparatory drawings reveal that he executed a steady stream of coats of arms for external display.
In conjunction with his activity as a fresco painter, Anselmi produced a considerable number of altarpieces and smaller-scale religious works. The majority of the altarpieces seem to have been executed for churches in Parma. Three of the best remain in situ: Christ Carrying the Cross in S Giovanni Evangelista, and a Virgin and Child with Four Saints and a St Agnes both in the cathedral. The one notable exception outside Parma is the Baptism in S Prospero, Reggio Emilia , which is probably his most successful altarpiece. A single Cupid (ex-Agnew’s, London, see Ghidiglia Quintavalle, fig.) is his sole surviving generally accepted mythological painting, but the drawings of Leda and Hercules and Cacus (both Paris, Louvre) suggest a wider interest in this type of subject, as does a Lucretia (Naples, Capodimonte), traditionally given to Bedoli, which has all the hallmarks of Anselmi’s style. A productive and extremely stylish draughtsman, he almost invariably employed red chalk, generally with great fluency and at times with extraordinary tonal richness (e.g. London, BM; Paris, Louvre).
The works from Anselmi’s early years in Parma mark him as a genuine original, and it may be that between 1520 and 1525 he had more to teach Correggio and Parmigianino than to learn from them, especially concerning boldly luminous colour and daring sfumato. In terms of style he remained his own man, but later there are occasional compositional borrowings from Correggio and Parmigianino, as well as a gradual but undeniable fading of inspiration. His reputation has not been helped by the fact that his one major work outside Italy, an altarpiece of his maturity, the Virgin and Child with SS John the Baptist and Stephen (Paris, Louvre), is not usually exhibited.
David Ekserdjian. "Anselmi, Michelangelo." In Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online, http://www.oxfordartonline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/subscriber/article/grove/art/T003129 (accessed March 21, 2012).
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