The Cover Section Editor: M. Therese Southgate,
MD, Senior Contributing Editor.
Within a span of just 30 years, from 1452 to 1483, the three greatest
painters of the Italian High Renaissance—Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo
Buonarroti, and Raffaelo Sanzio—were born. And then there was Bernardino
Luini (c 1480-1532): it should have been the best of times, but for him it
probably seemed more like the worst of times, like being the unimaginative
middle child in a family of geniuses. Two years older than Raphael, six years
younger than Michelangelo, and 30 years younger than Leonardo, he found everything
had already been done. How does one go beyond the beyond? And so he imitated
the masters, trying to explain them to the public, to make them more accessible.
To his own native Milanese traditions, he added characteristics of the work
of the Florentines. He quoted freely from Leonardo; he used his technique
of sfumato as well as his compositional devices.
He borrowed facial types, the use of chiaroscuro, and the medium of red chalk.
So good was he at the art of imitation that for years some of Luini's works
were attributed to Leonardo. (Binaghi Olivari MT. Luini, Bernardino in Grove Dictionary of Art. Available at: http://www.groveart.com. Accessed April 24, 2001.)
Southgate MT. Portrait of a Lady. JAMA. 2001;285(23):2950. doi:10.1001/jama.285.23.2950