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signed l.l.:James Holland / 1839

oil on canvas

LITERATURE AND REFERENCES

W.M. Thackeray, Fraser's Magazine, 1840;
Hugh Stokes, 'James Holland', Walker's Quarterly, 1927, No.23, p.15
CATALOGUE NOTE

Holland first travelled to Italy in 1835 and made a great number of sketches which formed the basis of the paintings exhibited at the London galleries in the years following. He regularly returned to Italy and exhibited a number of Italian subjects at the British Institution in 1839. For such an impressive composition it is surprising not to find this work listed as an exhibit, but it must surely be the painting referred to by Thackeray in Fraser's Magazine in 1840 as "a large, raw, clever picture of Milan Cathedral". Thackeray had yet to achieve fame as a novelist with Vanity Fair, and he was a strong advocate of Holland's work. In 1839 he referred to Holland as "a welcome addition to the landscape painters. His drawings are not quite so glib and smooth as those more practical hands; but they are, perhaps more like Nature, and certainly less mannered than the excellent, though exaggerated, performances of some of the seniors in the art".

Milan Cathedral is one of the grandest examples of Gothic architecture. Begun in 1387 work was not completed until the early nineteenth century when the current facade was finished. Visible in the right hand corner of the composition is the tomb of Santo Carlo Borromeo (1538-1584). Carlo Borromeo was the nephew of Pope Pius IV, and in 1563 he became Archbishop of Milan. He was canonised in 1610 and against his wishes a memorial was erected in the cathedral. For his piety and industry he is widely regarded as a "second Ambrose". His saint's day is celebrated on 4th November.