Schedoni, Bartolomeo

(1578-1615)

   Caravaggist painter from Modena, Italy, whose career was cut short when he committed suicide at the age of 37 after a night of heavy gambling losses. Schedoni was the son of a maskmaker who worked for the d' Este dukes in Modena and for the Farnese in Parma. Having recognized Schedoni's talent, Duke Ranuccio I Farnese sent the 17-year-old to Rome to train as painter. There Schedoni entered the studio of the Mannerist Federico Zuccaro, but an illness forced him to return to Parma where he spent the rest of his life. Schedoni was described by his contemporaries as an ill-tempered individual who engaged in violence more than once; in 1600 his hostile behavior caused his temporary banishment from Parma. Among his most notable works is the Entombment (c. 1613; Parma, Galleria Nazionale), painted for the Capuchin convent at Fontevivo in the Parmese countryside, founded by Ranuccio in 1605. The work relates to Caravaggio's Entombment (1603-1604; Vatican, Pinacoteca) in the use of sculptural forms, crude figure types, dark background, emphasis on diagonals, and dramatic chiaroscuro. Mary Magdalen's gesture with arms raised denotes that Schedoni's was a deliberate reinterpretation of Caravaggio's version. Other important works by Schedoni include his Charity (1611) at the Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte in Naples and The Two Maries at the Tomb (1613) in the Galleria Nazionale in Parma.