Gaudenzio
Ferrari

Italia • 1475−1546

Biography and information

Gaudenzio Ferrari (ital. Gaudenzio Ferrari) (1475, Valduggia, Tuscany — 1546, Milan) — Italian painter and sculptor of the Northern school. He studied in Milan and Florence, worked in Rome. Was friends with Raphael. From the very beginning in his paintings shows the influence of Milanese artists of the XV century, from Bramante to Leonardo.

About where and from whom he acquired artistic knowledge, until recently, were common wrong information; it is now clarified just what it was formed in Vercelli, and then improved under the influence of Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael. F. was a very prolific artist, working mainly in Varallo, and recently in Milan, wrote as murals and easel paintings. In his first works, featuring a sweetly pious mood, what are the great altar of the icon "the Nativity" in the Church. mountains. Arona, the "Madonna with saints" in the Church. San gaudenzio in Novara, and the "betrothal of St. Catherine" in there the Cathedral, something markedly calcitonin Umbrian school. Subsequently, borrowed from Leonardo, Raphael, and other masters he developed his own, somewhat realistic style, which characterize the complexity of the composition, the vividness of the figures, the peculiar attractiveness of their figure is correct, but a few hard, frequent panache difficult angles, colours bright, shining, but not always harmonious. This style of fresco F. in the Church. Santa Maria delle Grazie in Varallo ("Candlemas", "Circumcision" and scenes of the passion of Christ), in the San Cristoforo in Vercelli (scenes from the life of the virgin, her assumption into heaven, etc.), in Santa Maria presso San Celso in Milan (Epiphany), the frescoes painted in other Milanese churches, and moved now to the gallery of Brera, refectory monastery in Saronno, near Milan, etc., as well as many easel paintings, of which the most remarkable "the Lamentation of Christ the Savior" and "Madonna on the throne between St. Mauritius and Martin" in the Turin Gal., "The torment of St. Catherine" in Gal. Brera and "Christ carrying the cross in the Church. town of Cannobio on Lago Maggiore". Works of F. in other cities of Italy, except Pawnshops, almost never occurs, and in the rest of Europe the reliability of his paintings is not available. Of students F. main — Giuseppe di Amadeo Giovenone, Bernardino Lanini and Giovanni Battista della Worms.