Carlo Cairati

Pavia 1477: a beginning for Zenale CARLO CAIRATI A newly discovered document on Bernardo Zenale casts some light on the beginnings of the painter from Treviglio, and opens up new lines of research. At the end of the 1470s, the young artist was living in Pavia – a fact so far unknown in his biographies – where he established contacts with Bonifacio Bembo and Giacomino Vismara, and with the group of painters responsible for the decoration of the partition in the church of San Giacomo della Vernavola. Zenale’s beginnings should then be found in this important center in Lombardy, where Foppa and his fellow painters were the main actors in a daring milieu strongly influenced by the culture of Ferrara and Bologna.