Lattanzio Gambara

Lattanzio Gambara
Self-portrait
Born	1530
Died	18 March 1574
Nationality	Italian
Known for	Painting
Movement	Italian Renaissance and Mannerism

Lattanzio Gambara (c. 1530 – 18 March 1574) was an Italian painter, active in a Renaissance and Mannerist styles. It is likely that Gambara is the same 16th century painter referred to as Lattanzio Cremonese or Lattanzio da Cremona^[1]

Birth of Christ.

Biography

Born in Brescia, as a 15-year-old he initially apprenticed with Giulio Campi in Cremona, by 1549, he is working alongside Girolamo Romanino, who became his father-in-law. An altarpiece of S. Maria in Silva dates to 1558. He frescoed for the Villa Contarini in Asolo. He would become influenced by il Pordenone. He painted a cycle of frescoes on the History of the Apocalypse that decorated the Loggia of Brescia, until they were destroyed by bombing in 1944.

In these years the artist returns to Brescia to work with Romanino in a series of generally lost frescoes for Sant'Eufemia and Saint Lorenzo in Brescia. He painted altarpieces for the abbey of Saint Benedict in Polirone.^[2] He also decorated Palazzo Mayo in Cadignano (Lama Mocogno, in collaboration with Giulio and Antonio Campi). In 1565 he worked briefly in Venice. He painted a Nativity for the church of San Faustino in Brescia,.^[3]

In 1566, Gambara completed the fresco cycle in the parish church of S. Stefano in Vimercate, with Life of the saint in the inferior part of the apse and God the Father, Christ, Virgin and angels in the half-dome. In 1567-73, he completes his masterpiece, the frescoes in the nave of the Cathedral of Parma, in collaboration with Bernardino Gatti.

During the last few years, after the decoration of the drum of the cupola of Santa Maria of the Steccata in Parma, Gambara executed various others frescoes for palaces in Brescia and Parma, including a Deposition (1568) for the church of San Pietro al Po in Cremona. He fell off a scaffold, dying before completing the frescoes of the cupola of S. Lorenzo in Brescia.

One of his pupils was Giovita Brescianino.

Notes and references

1. Notizie istoriche de' pittori, scultori ed architetti Cremonesi, Opera ... by Giambattista Zaist, page 100.
2. all but one lost
3. Brescia commune homepage

External links

• Gambara biography on artcyclopedia.
• Getty biography.