Ercole Gennari (10 March 1597 - 27 June 1658) was an Italian

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...

drawer and painter. Son of the painter

Benedetto Gennari Benedetto Gennari (1563–1610) was an Italian painter of the early- Baroque period, active mainly in Ferrara and Cento. His birthplace is poorly recorded. He adopted a style influenced by Caravaggio, and by age 19, was working in the househol ...

and Julia Bovi, Ercole was baptized in the collegiate church of San Biagio, in

Cento The Middle East Treaty Organization (METO), also known as the Baghdad Pact and subsequently known as the Central Treaty Organization (CENTO), was a military alliance of the Cold War. It was formed in 24 February 1955 by Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Tur ...

. He originally studied to be a surgeon. However his lifetime association with the painter

Guercino Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (February 8, 1591 – December 22, 1666),Miller, 1964 better known as Guercino, or il Guercino , was an Italian Baroque painter and draftsman from Cento in the Emilia region, who was active in Rome and Bologna. The vi ...

, including the marrying his sister Lucia in 1628, and the guidance and influence of his father and his older brother the painter Bartolomeo Gennari (1594-1661), led Ercole to choose the profession of painter. His style puts him in the Bolognese School of painting. He painted ''Madonna and Child with St. Felix of Cantalice'' and ''Trinity with Saints Ursula, Francesco and Antonio'', preserved in the Pinacoteca Comunale di Cesena. After the death of Paul Anthony, the brother of Guercino who was the assistant principal and administrator of the painting workshop, Ercole went to live with his wife and sons

Benedetto Benedetto is a common Italian name, the equivalent of the English name Benedict. Notable people named Benedetto include: People with the given name * Benedetto Accolti (disambiguation), several people * Benedetto Aloi (1935–2011), American ...

and

Cesare Cesare, the Italian language, Italian version of the given name Caesar (title), Caesar, may refer to: Given name * Cesare, Marquis of Beccaria (1738–1794), an Italian philosopher and politician * Cesare Airaghi (1840–1896), Italian colonel ...

, in

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 1 ...

, in the house of Guercino, who, without a family of his own, needed someone to maintain the relationships with customers and administer the property, which he bequeathed to the young grandchildren to whom he had also taught him to paint. Ercole Gennari was buried in the family chapel of the Bolognese church of St. Nicholas of Albari.

References

* JA Calvi, News of the life and works of the knight Giovanni Francesco Barbieri Guercino, Bologna 1808 * The School of Guercino, edited by E. Negro, M. and N. Pirondini Roio, with a preface by DM Stone, Modena 2004 Italian Renaissance painters 1597 births 1658 deaths Italian male painters People from Cento 17th-century Italian painters {{Italy-painter-17thC-stub