From Gaudenzio Ferrari to Bernardino Lanino

Born in Valduggia, in the Duchy of Milan between 1475 and 1480, he was the most informed Lombard figurative painter who revealed his Piedmontese (Spanzotti-inspired) roots, as in the frescoes found in Santa Maria delle Grazie, in Varallo. He also worked on the Sacro Monte, again in Varallo, and on reaching Rome came into contact with the Italian art avant-garde. In about 1515 he completed the decorations for the Madonna di Loreto chapel, in Roccapietra. Also in the second decade of the 1500s he contributed to the polyptychs in Arona’s collegiate church and Novara’s San Gaudenzio. He painted the polyptych of Saint Gaudentius for the collegiate church of Varallo and the Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine for Novara Cathedral. Next were frescoes for San Cristoforo in Vercelli and the Baptism of Christ in the sacristy of Casale Cathedral. Bernardino Lanino trained with him and pursued his teacher’s style in the Mannerist period.