La Vierge au voile, by Raffaello Sanzio, from C2RMF retouched

Gianfrancesco Penni (1488/1496–1528), also known as Giovan Francesco, was an Italian painter. His brother Bartolommeo was an artist of the Tudor court of

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...

, and another brother,

Luca The last universal common ancestor (LUCA) is the most recent population from which all organisms now living on Earth share common descent—the most recent common ancestor of all current life on Earth. This includes all cellular organisms; th ...

, ended up as one of the Italian artists of the

School of Fontainebleau The School of Fontainbleau (french: École de Fontainebleau) (c. 1530 – c. 1610) refers to two periods of artistic production in France during the late Renaissance centered on the royal Palace of Fontainebleau that were crucial in forming the No ...

.Luca Penni
Getty Museum website.

Life

Born in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

to a family of weavers, Penni entered

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of works by Raphael, His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of ...

's workshop very early in his life, and collaborated with him on several works, including the famous Rooms of the Vatican Palace, as well as the frescoes of Villa Farnesina, both in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

. Heinrich Wölfflin and some other writers credited him with the entire execution of the Raphael Cartoons, with Raphael only creating the initial design, though more recent writers believe Raphael did much of the work himself. After the premature death of Raphael, Penni collaborated with Giulio Romano to the completion of works such as the Hall of Constantine, the '' Transfiguration'', the ''Assumption and Coronation of the Virgin'' (1525) in Monteluce, and the

Palazzo Te or is a palace in the suburbs of Mantua, Italy. It is a fine example of the mannerist style of architecture, and the acknowledged masterpiece of Giulio Romano. Although formed in Italian, the usual name in English of Palazzo del Te is not that ...

Mantua Mantua ( ; it, Mantova ; Lombard language, Lombard and la, Mantua) is a city and ''comune'' in Lombardy, Italy, and capital of the Province of Mantua, province of the same name. In 2016, Mantua was designated as the Italian Capital of Culture ...

. Penni also provided designs for the tapestries of the ''life of Christ'' for Clement VII for the decoration of the ''

Sala del Concistoro The Sala del Concistoro (Hall of the Consistory) is a large hall on the third loggia of the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican City. The room is in the residential wing of the palace, added by Pope Sixtus V. It was decorated by Pope Clement VIII. Cleme ...

'' in the Vatican. In 1526, he left Rome and joined back up with Giulio Romano, who had arrived in Mantua in 1524. According to Vasari, he was not well received in Mantua (though he did work with Romano on the frescoes at the

) and so soon began a long journey to Naples via Lombardy and Rome. He died in Naples in 1528. His pupils included

Leonardo da Pistoia Leonardo da Pistoia, also known as Leonardo Grazia, (1502 – ca. 1548) was an Italian painter of the Mannerism school. Biography Da Pistoia was born in the city of Pistoia, Tuscany, and died in Naples. According to Benezit, he is often confu ...

(Grazia).

Notes

;Attribution *

References

* * Freedberg, S. J. (1993). ''Painting in Italy, 1500–1600''. The Pelican History of Art. New Haven: Yale University Press.

External links

"Giovan Francesco Penni"
''Artcyclopedia'' 15th-century births 1528 deaths Italian Renaissance painters 15th-century Italian painters Italian male painters 16th-century Italian painters Painters from Florence {{Italy-painter-15thC-stub