Girolamo Romani

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Girolamo Romani (Romanino) (c.1484-1487 - 1562) was an Italian High Renaissance painter of Venice and the region of Lombardy, near Brescia. His long career brought forth different styles.

[edit] Biography

Romani's early training and life is not well-documented. A Quattrocento-esque Pieta, painted for the church of San Lorenzo of Brescia, dated from 1510 is present in the Accademia. He took up residence in Venice in his twenties, at the latest by 1513. He was commissioned to complete a Madonna enthroned with four saints for the church of San Giustina in Padua in 1513^[1]. The coloration of the painting is of Venetian style, but the duller visages in bejeweled setting recalls styles of previous generations.

Romanino completed four frescoes in the nave of the cathedral of Cremona in 1519-1520 depicting stories of the Passion of Christ. His paintings have eclectic influences using Venetian coloration with Florentine-Lombard modeling. In the Cremona frescoes, the Lombard influence of Altobello Melone is strong, in the narrative and decorative elements of the fresco^[2]. By 1521, Romanino was replaced by Pordenone in the decoration of the church.

He then returned to Brescia to work (1521-1524) with Alessandro Bonvicino in the decoration of the "Cappella del Sacramento" in San Giovanni Evangelista. His St. Matthew and the Angel depicts the apostle at work under candlelight, and represents one of the first such nocturnes in Italian painting, a device which Correggio and Cambiaso would soon pursue^[3]. He also helped decorate the Palazzo Averoldi.

In 1531 to 1532, he worked with Dosso Dossi in fresco decoration of Castel Buonconsiglio in Trento. He completed organ shutters for the church of Asola on Augustus and the sibyl, and Sacrifice of Isaac. He died between 1559-1561. His main pupils were his son-in-law Lattanzio Gambara, Girolamo Muziano, and Stefano Rosa^[4].