Dodici telette del Chiaveghino per la "Scola del Rosario" in San Biagio di Codogno

This article pieces together the history of the decorations in the chapel of the Confraternity of the Rosary in the parish church of San Biagio in Codogno, founded in 1570. The members of the Confraternity spent a good deal of effort, time and money on decorating the chapel, which was completed in 1690 with a splendid Baroque scheme for the altar. Among the items from the early phase are the twelve small canvases with the Mysteries of the Rosary by Andrea Mainardi called II Chiaveghino, a Cremonese painter and pupil of Bernardino Campi, signed and dated 1601. The twelve paintings belong to a happy and prolific phase of Mainardi's career; as ivell as offering proof of the lessons learned from the Campi, they show an interest for naturalistic, everyday details derived from Northern Europe, and even glimpses of Moretto and Romanino. The latter may be put down to the influence of Luca Cattapane, with whom Mainardi worked in the Hieronymite abbey of Ospedaletto Lodigiano and the churches of San Domenico and San Pietro al Po in Cremona. The final work is the Assumption of Christ: the remaining three were either not done by Mainardi at all or else subsequently lost, so the series was completed - around 1625 - by Benedetto Marini from Urbino, who also painted the two large canvases of the Adoration of the Magi and the Slaughter of the Innocents in the vault.