Marco Palmezzano
Encyclopedia
Marco Palmezzano was an Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

 and architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

, belonging to the Forlì painting school
Forlì painting school
The Forlivese school of art was a group of Italian Renaissance painters and artists, a lot of them born in Forlì or near Forlì, between the 14th and the 18th centuries...

, who painted in a style recalling earlier Northern Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...

 models, and was mostly active near Forlì
Forlì
Forlì is a comune and city in Emilia-Romagna, Italy, and is the capital of the province of Forlì-Cesena. The city is situated along the Via Emilia, to the right of the Montone river, and is an important agricultural centre...

.

Biography

Palmezzano was born in Forlì
Forlì
Forlì is a comune and city in Emilia-Romagna, Italy, and is the capital of the province of Forlì-Cesena. The city is situated along the Via Emilia, to the right of the Montone river, and is an important agricultural centre...

, Romagna
Romagna
Romagna is an Italian historical region that approximately corresponds to the south-eastern portion of present-day Emilia-Romagna. Traditionally, it is limited by the Apennines to the south-west, the Adriatic to the east, and the rivers Reno and Sillaro to the north and west...

.

After his initial training with the painter Melozzo da Forlì
Melozzo da Forlì
Melozzo da Forlì was an Italian Renaissance painter and architect. His fresco paintings are notable for the use of foreshortening. He was the most important member of the Forlì painting school.- Biography :...

 — who had collaborated with Piero della Francesca
Piero della Francesca
Piero della Francesca was a painter of the Early Renaissance. As testified by Giorgio Vasari in his Lives of the Artists, to contemporaries he was also known as a mathematician and geometer. Nowadays Piero della Francesca is chiefly appreciated for his art. His painting was characterized by its...

 and was widely esteemed as a master of perspective
Perspective (graphical)
Perspective in the graphic arts, such as drawing, is an approximate representation, on a flat surface , of an image as it is seen by the eye...

 and foreshortening techniques— Palmezzano went to Rome in the early 1490s.

It is rumored that Palmezzano may have then traveled to Jerusalem to join the team painting fresco
Fresco
Fresco is any of several related mural painting types, executed on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Greek word affresca which derives from the Latin word for "fresh". Frescoes first developed in the ancient world and continued to be popular through the Renaissance...

es at the Holy Cross church there, but no documentary evidence exists. He is, however, noted in property records as residing in Venice in 1495. Shortly thereafter, Palmezzano returned to Forlì
Forlì
Forlì is a comune and city in Emilia-Romagna, Italy, and is the capital of the province of Forlì-Cesena. The city is situated along the Via Emilia, to the right of the Montone river, and is an important agricultural centre...

, where he spent the rest of his long life—apparently with only brief excursions connected with commissions in other places in the region—until his death in 1539.

Work

Palmezzano's studio was prolific in producing altarpieces, most commonly featuring the iconic arrangement of an enthroned Virgin with child on her lap, while below, symmetrically sited in the foreground are flanking saints. Venetian painting, in general, and the work of Giovanni Bellini
Giovanni Bellini
Giovanni Bellini was an Italian Renaissance painter, probably the best known of the Bellini family of Venetian painters. His father was Jacopo Bellini, his brother was Gentile Bellini, and his brother-in-law was Andrea Mantegna. He is considered to have revolutionized Venetian painting, moving it...

 and Cima da Conegliano
Cima da Conegliano
Giovanni Battista Cima, also called Cima da Conegliano was an Italian Renaissance painter.-Biography:Giovanni Battista Cima was born at Conegliano, now part of the province of Treviso, in 1459 or 1460...

, in particular, were to remain the most powerful influences on Palmezzano's output. Moreover, he remained faithful to the Venetian style of the later 15th and early 16th century. Mannerism
Mannerism
Mannerism is a period of European art that emerged from the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520. It lasted until about 1580 in Italy, when a more Baroque style began to replace it, but Northern Mannerism continued into the early 17th century throughout much of Europe...

 entirely passed him by, and he seemed immune to subsequent developments in Venetian painting. One of the most attractive facets of Palmezzano's oeuvre are the distinctive and suggestive landscapes that form the backdrops of many of his altarpiece
Altarpiece
An altarpiece is a picture or relief representing a religious subject and suspended in a frame behind the altar of a church. The altarpiece is often made up of two or more separate panels created using a technique known as panel painting. It is then called a diptych, triptych or polyptych for two,...

s. These are a blend of the ideal and lyrical, and of the observed reality of the Apennine
Apennine
-Other places on Earth:*The Apennine or Italian peninsula*Apennins, a department of the first French Empire-Plants and animals:*The Apennine , a modern breed of domestic sheep.*Apennine Shrew, an insectivore endemic to Italy...

 foothills and mountains to the south of Forli for which Palmezzano clearly had a real affection. These landscapes are also employed to subtle and imaginative effect to convey the symbolic religious messages of the works.

Chronology of work

  • Crucifixion
    Crucifixion
    Crucifixion is an ancient method of painful execution in which the condemned person is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross and left to hang until dead...

    (early period) in the Pinacoteca Civica of Forlì.
  • Virgin with Child between Saint John the Baptist and Saint Margaret (1492)
  • Decorations in the Chapel Feo in Church of San Biagio at Forlì, destroyed in bombing during World War II
    World War II
    World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

     (1493-34)
  • Annunciation
    Annunciation
    The Annunciation, also referred to as the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary or Annunciation of the Lord, is the Christian celebration of the announcement by the angel Gabriel to Virgin Mary, that she would conceive and become the mother of Jesus the Son of God. Gabriel told Mary to name her...

    altarpiece for Forlì's Carmelite church (1495-57)
  • Virgin and Child with Saints Giacomo and Michele (1490s)
  • Madonna and Child with Saints (1493) Pinacoteca di Brera
  • Virgin and Child with Saints John the Baptist and Filippo Bennizi -Gallery of Antique Art of Cassa di Risparmio di Cesena
  • Virgin and Child with Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Catherine of Alexandria, created in Matelica
    Matelica
    Matelica is a comune of the Province of Macerata in the Italian region of Marche. Located about 60 km southwest of Ancona and 35 km west of Macerata, it extends over an area of 81.0 km² and has a population of 10,316 .The municipality of Matelica comprises the hamlets of Balzani,...

     (1501)
  • Crucifixion between Gualberto and Mary Magdalene
  • Holy Communion of Apostles (1506) - Oil on wood, Pinacoteca Civica, Forlì
    Forlì
    Forlì is a comune and city in Emilia-Romagna, Italy, and is the capital of the province of Forlì-Cesena. The city is situated along the Via Emilia, to the right of the Montone river, and is an important agricultural centre...

  • The Dead Christ in the Tomb with the Virgin Mary and Saints (1506) - Oil on wood, National Gallery, London
  • Virgin and Child Enthroned between Saints John the Baptist and Jerome (1510) - Oil on wood panel, Vatican Picture Gallery
  • Dead Christ with Two Angels
    Dead Christ (Palmezzano)
    The Dead Christ Held by Two Angels is a painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Marco Palmezzano, finished in 1510. It is housed in the Musée du Louvre of Paris, France....

    (1510) - Tempera on panel, 81 x 79 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris
    Paris
    Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

  • Holy Family with Saint Elizabeth and the Infant Saint John (1515) - Oil on wood panel, Vatican Picture Gallery
  • Hospital Beaten for Forlì (1517)
  • The Baptism of Christ (1535) - Oil on panel, 90 x 70 cm, Pinacoteca Civica, Forlì
    Forlì
    Forlì is a comune and city in Emilia-Romagna, Italy, and is the capital of the province of Forlì-Cesena. The city is situated along the Via Emilia, to the right of the Montone river, and is an important agricultural centre...

  • Virgin and Child Surrounded by Saints (1537) - Oil on wood panel, Vatican Picture Gallery
  • Christ Bearing the Cross - Oil on wood panel, Vatican Picture Gallery
  • Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist - Oil on panel, 65 x 52 cm, Private collection
  • The Annunciation with City by the Sea - Oil on wood panel, Vatican Picture Gallery
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