280px, ''Beheading of the Baptist'', Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice Callisto Piazza (1500–1561) was an Italian painter.

Biography

Callisto, a member of the Piazza family of painters, was born in Lodi, Lombardy. In 1523 he was working in

Brescia Brescia (, locally ; lmo, link=no, label= Lombard, Brèsa ; lat, Brixia; vec, Bressa) is a city and ''comune'' in the region of Lombardy, Northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Garda and Iseo ...

. His first dated and signed work is from the following year, and shows a typical Brescian style. This style was then emerging, and included artists such as

Romanino Girolamo Romani, known as Romanino (c. 1485 - c. 1566), was an Italian High Renaissance painter active in the Veneto and Lombardy, near Brescia. His long career brought forth several different styles. Biography Romani was born in Brescia. Hi ...

and Moretto. Piazza shows influences from contemporaries such as

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 T ...

and Ludovico Mazzolino of the Ferrarese school, as well as Giovanni Agostino da Lodi. In 1526–1529 Piazza worked in

Val Camonica Val Camonica (also ''Valcamonica'' or Camonica Valley, Eastern Lombard dialect, Eastern Lombard: ''Al Camònega'') is one of the largest valleys of the central Alps, in eastern Lombardy, Italy. It extends about from the Tonale Pass to ...

, at Erbanno, Borno, Breno,

Esine Esine ( Camunian: ) is a ''comune'' in the province of Brescia, in the Italian region Lombardy, in the Camonica valley, located north of Brescia. It is bounded by other communes of Berzo Inferiore, Bovegno, Cividate Camuno, Darfo Boario Terme, ...

and

Cividate Camuno Cividate Camuno ( Camunian: ) is an Italian ''comune'' of 2,774 inhabitants (2011), in Val Camonica, province of Brescia The Province of Brescia ( it, provincia di Brescia; Brescian: ) is a Province in the Lombardy administrative region of nor ...

. In 1529 he returned to his native Lodi where he formed a workshop with his brothers Cesare and Scipione (died 1552). In 1538, while in

Crema Crema or Cremas may refer to: Crema * Crema, Lombardy, a ''comune'' in the northern Italian province of Cremona * Crema (coffee), a thin layer of foam at the top of a cup of espresso * Crema (dairy product), the Spanish word for cream * ''Cremà ...

, he married the noblewoman Francesca Confalonieri. Later Callisto moved to

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

, where he received numerous commissions, such as the decoration of the San Girolamo chapel in Santa Maria presso San Celso (1542); the decoration of the refectory of the convent of Sant'Ambrogio (1545); the frescoes for the Saletta Negra in the Castello Sforzesco; and the decoration of the Simonetta chapel in San Maurizio al Monastero Maggiore (1555), largely executed with the assistance of his son Fulvio. He also worked in Lodi at the Incoronata (1454),

Novara Novara (, Novarese: ) is the capital city of the province of Novara in the Piedmont region in northwest Italy, to the west of Milan. With 101,916 inhabitants (on 1 January 2021), it is the second most populous city in Piedmont after Turin. It i ...

, at the Abbey of Chiaravalle and other areas of Lombardy. His graphic style is often confused with that of

, who exerted a deep influence on his work. Callisto returned to Lodi in 1551 and died there ten years later.

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 Piazza (see index) *Carl Brandon Strehlke,
''Musical Group'' by Callisto Piazza (cat. 234)
" in
The John G. Johnson Collection: A History and Selected Works
', ''a'' Philadelphia Museum of Art free digital publication. {{DEFAULTSORT:Piazza, Callisto 1500 births 1561 deaths People from Lodi, Lombardy 16th-century Italian painters Italian male painters Painters from Milan