Giovan Paolo Lomazzo

1538 – 1600

Italian painter, poet and art critics. He was born in Milan from a family emigrated from the town of Lomazzo. His early training was with Giovan Battista della Cerva in Milan. He was influenced by Michelangelo and Raphael. His few paintings include a large Allegory of the Lenten Feast for San Agostino in Piacenza (1567), an elaborate dome with Glory of Angels for the Capella Foppa in San Marco in Milan, the Fall of Simon Magus in the wall of the chapel. Lomazzo became blind in 1571, and turning to writing, produced two complex treatises that are milestones in the development of art criticism. His first work, Trattato dell'arte della pittura, scoltura et architettura (1584) was the most extensive treatise on art written during the 16th century. It consisted of seven volumes and was nicknamed The Bible of Mannerism. The manuscript was translated and published in English in 1598. His less practical and more metaphysical Idea del tempio della pittura ("The ideal temple of painting", 1590) offers a description along the lines of the "four temperaments" theory of the human nature and personality, containing the explanations of the role of individuality in judgment and artistic invention. Giovanni Ambrogio Figino was one of his pupils.

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