Bernardino Campi
| Bernadino Campi | |
|---|---|
Sofonisba Anguissola, Bernardino Campi Painting a Portrait of Sofonisba Anguissola Anguissola, c. late 1550s.
| |
| Born | 1522 Reggio Emilia |
| Died | 18 August 1591 (aged 68–69) Reggio Emilia |
| Occupation | Painter |
Bernadino Campi (1522–1591) was an Italian Renaissance painter from Cremona, who worked in Reggio Emilia. He is known as one of the teachers of Sofonisba Anguissola and of Giovanni Battista Trotti (il Malosso). In Cremona, his extended family owned the main artistic studios. Giulio Campi and Antonio Campi, half-brothers, were distant relatives of Bernardino; the latter is generally considered the most talented of the family. All were active and prominent painters locally. Influences on Bernardino include local Cremonese such as Camillo Boccaccino and artists from neighbouring regions such as Correggio, Parmigianino and Giulio Romano. He made a number of sets of copies of the Eleven Caesars by Titian, then in the Gonzaga collection, adding one of Domitian, which he based on a work by Giulio Romano. Titian's originals were all lost in an 18th-century fire in Madrid.
Bernardino was commissioned by Vespasiano Gonzaga to lead a team of artists including Pietro Martire Pesenti in the interior decoration, including frescoes by Bernardino, of the Palazzo del Giardino in Sabbioneta, near Mantua.
Among his pupils were Giovanni Antonio Morandi (active 1585), Andrea Mainardi, and Pietro Martire Pesenti, both active in the Palazzo of Guastalla.[1]
From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia
Bernardino Campi — An Italian painter of the Lombard School, b. at Cremona, 1522; d. at Reggio, about 1590. His father, Pietro Campi, was his first teacher and instructed the boy in his own art, the goldsmith's; but whenBernardino saw Titian's drawings, and prints, and designs for tapestries, the youth at once abandoned plastic art to study painting. Giulio Campi was his teacher at Cremona; later at Mantua, he was Ippolito Corta's pupil. He commenced painting when nineteen years old, and soon excelled his masters. Deeplyimpressed by the works of Correggio, Titian, Raphael, and Romano, he endeavoured-as did his teacher Giulio-to unite all their merits into a "style" and extablish a standard of excellence. Finally, however, Bernardino acquired a vigorous style of his own, painted excellent portraits, and decorated many of the Lombardy churches. When he added a Cæsar to the eleven Cæsars of Titian it was difficult to distinguish his picture from those of the great Venetian. His masterpiece is at Cremona in the cupola of S. Sigismondo. Here are depicted the multitude of saints and the blessed, with their symbols. This prodigious composition, exhibiting great invention, variety, and harmony, he finished in seven months; and so successfully did he manage the drawing and perspective that the figures seem to be natural size, whereas they are ten feet high. In 1580 or 1584 he published at Cremona a quarto, "Parere sopra la pittura", a book full of valuable information for the artist. Bernardino had many pupils, and his influence on Italian art in the sixteenth century was the most healthful and invigorating. He was buried in San Prospero, at Reggio, a church he was engaged in decorating with frescoes when he died. Noteworthy among his works are the "Descent from the Cross" in the Brera gallery at Milan, "Mater Delorosa" in the Louvre at Paris, and the frescoes in the cupola of S. Sigismondo at Cremona.
Crowe and Cavalcaselle, History of Painting in North Italy, II; Burckhardt, Art Guide to Painting in Italy (London, 1883); Jameson, Sacred and Legendary Art (London, 1850); Blanc, Histoire des peintres de toutes les écoles: Ecole Lombarde (Paris, 1877).
References
- Back to citation Gli artisti italiani e stranieri negli stati estensi catalogo storico... By Giuseppe Campori, page 325 and 367.
Bibliography
- R. Miller, in (I Campi. 500 Years of Cremonese Artistic Culture (I Campi. Cultura artistica cremonese del 500), a cura di M. Gregori, Milan, 1985, pp. 154–170
- Freedberg, Sydney J. (1993). Painting in Italy, 1500-1600. Penguin Books Ltd. pp. 583 & 590–1.
- M. Tanzi, I Campi, Milan, 2005
External links
- "Bernardino Campi". Catholic Encyclopedia.
- Italian Paintings: North Italian School, a collection catalog containing information about Campi and his works (see index; plate 72).