THE LAND to the east of Milan was for many centuries a frontier territory where patterns of artistic patronage were often determined by political allegiance. Only thirty-three kilometres away, beyond the Adda that flows from Lake Como towards the Po, is Treviglio, with its great campanile to which the road from the west is aligned. Treviglio was twice controlled by Venice (in 1445–54 and 1499–1509), but her traditional fealty was to Milan. The town drew on the agricultural riches of the plain, and it is fitting that there is now a tractor depot on the outskirts.
Treviglio preserves her ancient core. This centres on the Collegiata of San Martino, the late Settecento front of which is rather put out of countenance by the massive Romanesque campanile of brick at its northern angle. The church retains its Quattrocento plan, but the interior has been much altered. The choir is flanked by intelligent canvasses, the Last Supper and the Fall of Manna, by Giovanni Battista Moroni’s most plausible follower, Giovanni Paolo Cavagna. But it is not for these that we have come. On the right wall is the former high altarpiece, the polyptych by Bernardino Butinone and Bernardino Zenale, which, as Berenson wrote, ‘still lights up with splendour the sordid market town of Treviglio, where both were born’. This is in some ways the most characteristic achievement of Milanese painting of the time it was ordered, 26 May 1485, just before the impact of Leonardo’s arrival was felt.
The altarpiece is in three tiers above a predella: Saint Martin and the Beggar are flanked by panels with three saints below; above are the Madonna and Child with angels between further trios of saints; and at the apex, seen in perspective in a roundel in the pediment, is the Risen Christ. The gilding of the frame is echoed by that of the fictive arcade within which the figures are set. The painters knew when to be extravagant in colour, yet also understood the power of restraint. This is beautifully demonstrated in the main panel: Saint Martin’s charger is white, as are his armour and the beggar’s drawers, their pallor only emphasized by the orange of the horse furniture and the sharp green of the festoon. In the background is a walled town with a great gateway, presumably Tours, while the campanile of Treviglio itself is seen, beside Saint Peter, in the adjacent panel. The artists knew of the achievement of Mantegna, of the Ferrarese, and above all of Foppa, but had digested these in their own manner.
Treviglio, although not sordid, is, as it were, a one-polyptych town. But before leaving take the road from the north-west angle of the piazza to the sanctuary of the Beata Vergine delle Lacrime. On the left of the presbytery is a predella by an associate of Butinone with a view of the Collegiata in its Quattrocento state.
Duomo, the Campanile.
