Narcissus at the Fountain

Altobello Melone, a Cremonese painter active in the early sixteenth century, depicted Narcissus at the Fountain around 1510. Working in Cremona alongside Boccaccio Boccaccino and the young Romanino, Melone developed an expressive style that combined local Lombard traditions with influences from Venice and the Emilian school. The tempera medium required careful preparation on a gessoed panel and a disciplined layering technique that produced precise, durable surfaces suited to the intricate detail expected of devotional painting.

The mythological panel shows Melone's distinctive warm palette and soft modeling, with the contemplative mood and landscape integration characteristic of northern Italian painting of this period.