Castello del Buonconsiglio monumenti e collezioni provinciali

Girolamo Romanino (1484/87-1562?)

The date of birth is uncertain of the artist known as Romanino, called Girolamo Romani. It can be estimated around 1484-7 in Brescia. There are also few details concerning his formation in the decade at the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th centuries. Romanino was familiar with Venetian painting (especially that of Giorgione), but was also influenced by Lombard painting (especially that of Bramantino). In his first works (he dated and signed only three works in his entire life) he demonstrated a preference towards German art which he had been acquainted with Venice with Altobello Melone, an artist from Cremona. In 1517 he completed the frescoes started by Altobello in the Cathedral of Cremona. The 1520s were difficult for Romanino, as the work of another artist (Moretto) dominated the city forcing him to work in outlying towns (Capriolo, Salò and Asola). His success arrived at the start of the 1530s when he decided to show his works to the Prince-Bishop of Trento, Bernardo Cles, who was looking for skillful artists to decorate his new residence at that time. In a letter at the start of the summer in 1531, Cles speaks favourably of the artist, calling him “that excellent painter from Brescia”. It was an opportunity for Romanino to not only express his style of anti-classic language (already experimented on the walls of the Cathedral of Cremona), but to also discover points in common with the artistic tradition from the other side of the Alps. He worked on various areas of Buonconsiglio Castle, frescoing the most important places, such as that of the Loggia, work originally assigned to Dosso Dossi, and the adjacent areas (corridor to the kitchen and to the bathroom, stairs to the garden). He was original and rapid in carrying out his work, decorating also the Audience Chamber and the frieze in the Prince-Bishop’s bedroom of his private apartment with cherubs and busts of Roman emperors. When he returned home he also frescoed churches and palaces in the region of Brescia (S.Maria della Neve in Pisogne, S.Antonio in Breno, S.Maria Annunciata in Bienno), and decorated numerous organs. Enormous success also came in the 1540s from the work on another organ in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Trento, which led to many new commissions, especially in Brescia (Duomo Nuovo and S.Nazaro and Celso), and in Verona (S.Giorgio in Braida). The documentation of contracts stipulated in this period show the presence of many helpers, one of whom was Stefano Rosa. Romanino struck up a special collaboration with the young Lattanzio Gambara, a promising artist who soon became trusted helper, and also son-in-law, to the old maestro.
The exact date of Romanino’s death is unknown, although a document dated 1562 states that the artist had died two years before.