It is well worth, while awaiting the Monteverdi Festival, delving into the imaginative Cremonese interplay between art and music at the heart of Cremona, spanning from the mid-sixteenth to the mid-seventeenth century. In this golden century, distinguished painters were skilled in creating gentle melodies, while at the same time renowned composers, in vogue, dedicated their works to the geniuses of painting.

A focal point and crucial junction of this remarkable mosaic was the Accademia degli Animosi: an institution that hosted the final glimmers of sixteenth-century polyphonic tradition while simultaneously serving as the cradle of mature vocal and instrumental Baroque.

Founded around 1560 under the guidance of Bishop Nicolò Sfondrati, among its main figures was Marc’Antonio Ingegneri—also known as Marc’Antonio dal Violin or dalla Viola—maestro di cappella of the Cathedral and, notably, teacher of Claudio Monteverdi. The “Divine” Claudio himself, before his departure to the Gonzaga court in Mantua, would also join the Academy.

It was precisely at the turn of the two centuries, however, that the union between art and music became particularly intense. In the 1630s, Luigi Miradori—known as Genovesino—arrived in Cremona from Genoa. At the same time, Tarquinio Merula, a composer from Busseto and a proponent of the emerging Baroque style, rose to prominence within the institution. As Lia Bellingeri recalls (Genovesino e Cremona, 2009), Miradori likely frequented and perhaps even joined the Academy, where music played a central role. A concrete clue can be found in his Stories of Saint Roch(Cremona Cathedral, after 1644), specifically in the Procession scene, where an instrumental ensemble is depicted consisting of a bassetto, a trombone, a transverse flute, and a violin. This instrumentation aligns with the performance of Merula’s compositions, particularly his numerous collections of Canzoni.

There is also a kind of historical confirmation within Merula’s own repertoire. In his Fourth Book of Canzoni (1651), he dedicates one piece to the painter, titling it La Miradora. Moreover, the composer often named his works after individuals connected to the Academy. In his First Book of Canzoni (Venice, 1615), one finds La Pellegrina (likely referring to Giovanni Battista Pellegrino, one of the founders of the Animosi), La Monteverdi (addressed to the famous composer), and L’Orbina (referring to “l’Orbino” of the cornetto, active in the Chapel of Laudi in Cremona and within the Academy itself).

The connection with Miradori becomes even more intriguing. The historian Giovanni Battista Biffi, in his Memorie per servire alla storia degli artisti cremonesi (critical edition by Luisa Bandera Gregori, 1989), writes of the Ligurian painter: “He played the colascione excellently […], and I may not be far from the truth in supposing that from his knowledge of music he derived theories for his art and pictorial canons.” Thus, in the Cremona of that time, Genovesino was not only a refined connoisseur of music but also a highly skilled performer who may have played within the select circle of the Academy.

The colascione, after all, was an instrument requiring a sophisticated understanding of polyphony; in learned circles it was also used for continuo playing. It was a kind of long-necked lute with a somewhat harsh sound, widespread in Italy during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and commonly used in Neapolitan musical traditions of the seventeenth century.

This tradition associated with Genovesino influenced subsequent masters of Cremonese art well into the following century. It is enough to recall that Giovanni Battista Zaist and Angelo Borroni (eighteenth century), in frescoing the dome of the Church of Sant’Omobono, depict in the hands of an angel an instrument bearing all the structural characteristics of the colascione: an extremely long neck (which could reach two meters) and a soundbox resembling that of a mandolin, though smaller in size.