Girolamo Romani, known as Romanino ( – ), was an Italian High Renaissance painter active in the

Veneto Veneto, officially the Region of Veneto, is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the Northeast Italy, north-east of the country. It is the fourth most populous region in Italy, with a population of 4,851,851 as of 2025. Venice is t ...

and

Lombardy The Lombardy Region (; ) is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in northern Italy and has a population of about 10 million people, constituting more than one-sixth of Italy's population. Lombardy is ...

, near

Brescia Brescia (, ; ; or ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the region of Lombardy, in Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Lake Garda, Garda and Lake Iseo, Iseo. With a population of 199,949, it is the se ...

. His long career brought forth several different styles.

Biography

Romani was born in

. His early training and life are not well documented. A

Quattrocento The cultural and artistic events of Italy during the period 1400 to 1499 are collectively referred to as the Quattrocento (, , ) from the Italian word for the number 400, in turn from , which is Italian for the year 1400. The Quattrocento encom ...

-esque ''Pietà'', painted for the church of ''San Lorenzo'' of Brescia, dated from 1510, is exhibited 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 Santa Giustina in

Padua Padua ( ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Veneto, northern Italy, and the capital of the province of Padua. The city lies on the banks of the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice and southeast of Vicenza, and has a population of 20 ...

in 1513. The coloration of the painting is of Venetian style, but the duller visages in bejeweled setting recalls styles of previous generations. He completed series of frescoes for Niccolò Orsini's Palace in

Ghedi Ghedi (Brescian: ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Brescia, in Lombardy, Italy. It received the honorary title of city with a presidential decree on November 24, 2001. Ghedi is known for a base of the Italian Air Force, Ghedi Air Base ...

and an altarpiece for San Francesco, Brescia. Romanino completed four frescoes in the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

of the

cathedral of Cremona Cremona Cathedral (, ''Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta''), dedicated to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is a Catholic Church, Catholic cathedral in Cremona, Lombardy, northern Italy. It is the seat of the Bishop of Cremona. Its bell t ...

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. By 1521, Romanino was replaced by Il Pordenone in the decoration of the church. He then returned to

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 Antonio Allegri da Correggio (August 1489 – 5 March 1534), usually known as just Correggio (, also , , ), was an Italian Renaissance painter who was the foremost painter of the Parma school of the High Renaissance, who was responsible for som ...

and Cambiaso would soon pursue. He also helped decorate the Palazzo Averoldi. A series of frescoes in the Castle of Malpaga, near

Bergamo Bergamo ( , ; ) is a city in the Alps, alpine Lombardy region of northern Italy, approximately northeast of Milan, and about from the alpine lakes Lake Como, Como and Lake Iseo, Iseo and 70 km (43 mi) from Lake Garda, Garda and Lake ...

(1520-1530s), celebrating the life of

Bartolomeo Colleoni Bartolomeo Colleoni (; 1400 – 2 November 1475) was an Italian condottiero who served as the captain-general of the Republic of Venice. Colleoni gained a reputation as one of the foremost tacticians and disciplinarians of the 15th century.'' ...

, is attributed to him. In 1531 to 1532, he worked with

Dosso Dossi Giovanni di Niccolò de Luteri, better known as Dosso Dossi ( 1489–1542) was an Italian Renaissance painter who belonged to the School of Ferrara, painting in a style mainly influenced by Venetian painting, in particular Giorgione and early Tit ...

in fresco decoration of Castello del Buoncosiglio in

Trento Trento ( or ; Ladin language, Ladin and ; ; ; ; ; ), also known in English as Trent, is a city on the Adige, Adige River in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol in Italy. It is the capital of the Trentino, autonomous province of Trento. In the 16th ...

. He completed organ shutters for the church of Asola on ''Augustus and the sibyl'', and ''Sacrifice of Isaac''. Around 1545 he produced '' The Feast in the House of Simon the Pharisee'', still in Brescia. He died between 1559 and 1561. His main pupils were his son-in-law

Lattanzio Gambara Lattanzio Gambara (c. 1530 – 18 March 1574) was an Italian painter, active in Renaissance and Mannerism, Mannerist styles. It is likely that Gambara is the same 16th century painter referred to as ''Lattanzio Cremonese'' or ''Lattanzio da Cremo ...

, Girolamo Muziano, and Stefano Rosa. He is also known to have influenced artists such as Giulio Campi.

Stolen painting

Shortly after the 1940 Nazi invasion of France, Romanino's painting ''Christ Carrying the Cross'' was stolen from the household of Frederico Gentili di Giuseppe, an Italian Jew. In 2012, it was discovered among items lent to an American museum from an Italian museum. Through the help of an anonymous tip,

Interpol The International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL (abbreviated as ICPO–INTERPOL), commonly known as Interpol ( , ; stylized in allcaps), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and crime cont ...

and the

United States Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. United States federal executive departments, federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the Interior minister, interior, Home Secretary ...

, it was eventually returned to Gentili's heirs. Presently it is insured for US$2.5 million."474-year-old painting stolen by Nazis given to owner's heirs"
from

MSNBC MSNBC is an American cable news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Launched on July 15, 1996, and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, the channel primarily broadcasts r ...

References

Sources

External links

Painters of reality: the legacy of Leonardo and Caravaggio in Lombardy
an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Romani (see index) {{DEFAULTSORT:Romani, Girolamo 1480s births 1560s deaths 15th-century Italian painters Italian male painters 16th-century Italian painters Italian Renaissance painters Painters from Brescia