Bendedeo di Niccolò (alias Maestro del trittico di Imola) e Baldassarre d'Este: due pittori del Quattrocento al servizio dei cavalieri di San Giovanni tra Ferrara e Reggio Emilia

The essay investigates the relationship between the Este family and some hospitallers commanders who in the XV century commissioned important artworks in Ferrara and Reggio Emilia. The first case is that of Avanzo de’ Ridolfi, preceptor in Ferrara in Lionello and Borso’s time, he renewed the decoration of the Santissima Trinità. The study of documents and the artistic analysis have support the identification between Bendedeo di Niccolò, a ferrarese painter, with the Master of the Imola triptych: in the past some frescoes, already in the mansion, were already attributed to this artist. The second case is that of Girolamo degli Ardizzoni, a prestigious hospitaller of Reggio Emilia, linked with Borso and Ercole d’Este. The association with the ducal family is perhaps further confirmed by the prestigious choice of commissioning the decoration of a chapel in the church of his commendery to the ducal painter Baldassare d’Este, illegitimate son of Niccolò III. The essay analyzes the large fresco fragments survived in Santo Stefano and formulates new hypotheses on the iconography and their dating.

L’intervento che vado a presentarvi deriva dai miei studi sulla committenza ar-tistica degli Ordini religioso-cavallereschi in area emiliana e pone l’attenzione su due aspetti fondamentali del contesto quattrocentesco: la dialettica tra i cavalieri di San Giovanni e la casa d’Este e la conseguente ed eccezionale qualità sia dei committenti che degli artisti coinvolti nella decorazione delle due commende di Ferrara e Reggio Emilia