13 Facts About Giovanni Lanfranco

Giovanni Lanfranco was an Italian painter of the Baroque period.

Giovanni Gaspare Lanfranco was born in Parma, the third son of Stefano and Cornelia Lanfranchi, and was placed as a page in the household of Count Orazio Scotti.

Giovanni Lanfranco participated in the fresco decoration of San Gregorio Magno and of the Cappella Paolina in Santa Maria Maggiore.

Giovanni Lanfranco produced paintings and altarpieces in Orvieto, Vallerano, Leonessa and Fermo.

Unlike Domenichino, Giovanni Lanfranco was fairly eclectic in terms of style but preferred a visionary, theatrical approach suitable for the ceiling paintings gaining currency in the early 17th century.

Soon, Lanfranco became the pre-eminent painter of the circle of Pope Paul V He painted frescoes for the Palazzo Costaguti and a large ceiling fresco in quadratura at the Villa Borghese, The Gods of Olympus or called Council of the Gods.

Giovanni Lanfranco's crowning masterpiece and one of the major church fresco decoration of the late 1620s, was his Assumption of the Virgin frescoed on the dome of Sant'Andrea della Valle.

Giovanni Lanfranco was influenced by Correggio's pioneering decoration of the Duomo di Parma.

Urban VIII commissioned him a large fresco portraying St Peter Walking on Waters, for which Giovanni Lanfranco gained the title of Knight of the Order of Christ.

In 1631, Giovanni Lanfranco was named Prince of the Academy of Saint Luke, the artist's guild in Rome.

Giovanni Lanfranco died in Rome in 1647, where his last work was apse of San Carlo ai Catinari.

Giovanni Lanfranco was a versatile and eclectic trainee of the Carracci, and continued their tradition with dramatic flair compared to the often restrained Domenichino, who mimicked mainly Annibale's grand manner.

Giovanni Lanfranco explored new styles, bridged traditions, painted in both mannerist and baroque styles, using a tenebrist and the colorist palette.