Gianfrancesco Penni (1488/1496–1528), called il Fattore, was an Italian painter. His brother Bartolommeo was an artist of the Tudor court of

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is known for his Wives of Henry VIII, six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. ...

, and another brother,

Luca Luca or LUCA may refer to: People * Luca (masculine given name), including a list of people * Luca (feminine given name), including a list of people * Luca (surname), including a list of people Places * The ancient name of Lucca, an Etruscan ...

, ended up as one of the Italian artists of the

School of Fontainebleau The School of Fontainbleau () () refers to two periods of artistic production in France during the late French Renaissance centered on the royal Palace of Fontainebleau that were crucial in forming Northern Mannerism, and represent the first majo ...

.Luca Penni
Getty Museum website.

Life

Born in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

to a family of weavers, Penni entered

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), now generally known in English as Raphael ( , ), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of paintings by Raphael, His work is admired for its cl ...

's workshop very early in his life, and collaborated with him on several works, including the famous

Rooms In a building or a ship, a room is any enclosed space within a number of walls to which entry is possible only via a door or other dividing structure. The entrance connects it to either a passageway, another room, or the outdoors. The space is t ...

of the

Vatican Palace The Apostolic Palace is the official residence of the Pope, the head of the Catholic Church, located in Vatican City. It is also known as the Papal Palace, the Palace of the Vatican and the Vatican Palace. The Vatican itself refers to the build ...

, as well as the frescoes of

Villa Farnesina The Villa Farnesina is a Renaissance suburban villa in the Via della Lungara, in the district of Trastevere in Rome, central Italy. Built between 1506 and 1510 for Agostino Chigi, the Pope's wealthy Sienese banker, it was a novel type of suburb ...

, both in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

Heinrich Wölfflin Heinrich Wölfflin (; 21 June 1864 – 19 July 1945) was a Swiss art historian, esthetician and educator, whose objective classifying principles (" painterly" vs. "linear" and the like) were influential in the development of formal analysis in ...

and some other writers credited him with the entire execution of the

Raphael Cartoons The Raphael Cartoons are seven large cartoon paintings on paper for tapestries, surviving from a set of ten cartoons, designed by the High Renaissance painter Raphael in 1515–1516. Commissioned by Pope Leo X for the Sistine Chapel in the ...

, with Raphael only creating the initial design, though more recent writers believe Raphael did much of the work himself. After the premature death of Raphael, Penni collaborated with

Giulio Romano Giulio Pippi ( – 1 November 1546), known as Giulio Romano and Jules Romain ( , ; ), was an Italian Renaissance painter and architect. He was a pupil of Raphael, and his stylistic deviations from High Renaissance classicism help define the ...

to the completion of works such as the Hall of Constantine, the '' Transfiguration'', the ''Assumption and Coronation of the Virgin'' (1525) in Monteluce, and the Palazzo Te of

Mantua Mantua ( ; ; Lombard language, Lombard and ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Italian region of Lombardy, and capital of the Province of Mantua, eponymous province. In 2016, Mantua was designated as the "Italian Capital of Culture". In 2 ...

. Penni also provided designs for the tapestries of the ''life of Christ'' for

Clement VII Pope Clement VII (; ; born Giulio di Giuliano de' Medici; 26 May 1478 – 25 September 1534) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 19 November 1523 to his death on 25 September 1534. Deemed "the most unfortunate of ...

for the decoration of the '' Sala del Concistoro'' in the

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Geography * Vatican City, an independent city-state surrounded by Rome, Italy * Vatican Hill, in Rome, namesake of Vatican City * Ager Vaticanus, an alluvial plain in Rome * Vatican, an unincorporated community in the ...

. In 1526, he left Rome and joined back up with Giulio Romano, who had arrived in Mantua in 1524. According to Vasari, he was not well received in Mantua (though he did work with Romano on the frescoes at the Palazzo Te) and so soon began a long journey to Naples via Lombardy and Rome. He died in Naples in 1528. His pupils included Leonardo da Pistoia (Grazia).

Notes

References

* * * Freedberg, S. J. (1993). ''Painting in Italy, 1500–1600''. The Pelican History of Art. New Haven: Yale University Press.

External links

"Giovan Francesco Penni"
''Artcyclopedia'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Penni, Gianfrancesco 15th-century births 1528 deaths Italian Renaissance painters 15th-century Italian painters Italian male painters 16th-century Italian painters Painters from Florence