Giovanni Battista Moroni

Background

Giovanni Battista Moroni was born in Albino, then the Republic of Venice, in 1524, to the architect Andrea Moroni.

Education

Moroni was a pupil of the local painter Alessandro Bonvicino "Il Moretto" da Brescia, who strongly influenced Moroni’s manner in painting religious compositions.

Career

Moroni started his career as the main studio assistant for Alessandro Bonvicino "Il Moretto" in the 1540s, and during his life worked primarily in Trent, Bergamo and his home town of Albino, near Bergamo, where he was born and died. His two short periods in Trento coincided with the first two sessions of the Council of Trent, 1546–48 and 1551–53. On both occasions, Moroni painted a number of religious works (including the altarpiece of the Doctors of the Church for the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, Bergamo) as well as the series of portraits for which he is remembered.

During his stay in Trent, he got acquainted with Titian and the Count-Bishop, Cristoforo Madruzzo, whose own portrait is by Titian but for whom Moroni painted portraits of his sons. There were nineteenth-century claims that he was trained by Titian at Trento; however, it is improbable he ever ventured to the Venetian's studio for long, if at all.

Moroni's period as the fashionable portraitist of Bergamo, nowhere documented but in the inscribed dates of his portraits, is unexpectedly condensed, spanning only the years ca. 1557–62, after which Bergamo was convulsed in internecine strife and Moroni retired permanently to Albino, (Rossi, Gregori et al.) where, in his provincial isolation, he was entirely overlooked by Giorgio Vasari.

Achievements

• Working in the Italian Mannerist style, Giovanni Battista Moroni became known as one of the best-known portraitists of the 16th Century, as well as painting religious subjects. He was also the one who painted the first ever Italian full-length portrait, in 1526 (London’s National Gallery has it). His pupil borrowed both the full-length and the three-quarter-length style and took them to new heights.
  
  Some of his religious works were painted for the Verona Cathedral, the Sant’Alessandro della Croce, and his unfinished piece in the Church of Gorlago in Bergamo.
  
  Some of his best-known portraits are currently in the Uffizi Gallery, including Portrait of Pietro secco Suardo, Portrait of a Man with a Book, and Portrait of the Poet Giovanni Antonio Pantera, as well as in the National Gallery of London, including Il Sarto (The Tailor). There are also a number of museums around the world holding his work.

Works

More photos

• painting

  • The Tailor

    1570

  • The Portrait of a Gentleman

    1556

  • Portrait of a Lady ('La Dama in Rosso')

    1560

  • Portrait of a Man holding a Letter

    1570

  • Titian's Schoolmaster

  • Portrait of Bartolomeo Bonghi

    1553

  • Gian Lodovico Madruzzo

    1552

  • Isotta Brembati

  • A Knight with his Jousting Helmet

    1558

  • The Orator Giovan Pietro Maffeis

  • Abbess Lucrezia Agliardi Vertova

  • Gian Federico Madruzzo

  • Portrait of a young Woman

  • Portrait of a Man with Raised Eyebrows

    1575

  • The Sculptor Alessandro Vittoria

    1552

  • Bust Portrait of a Young Man with an Inscription

    1560

  • Portrait of a Gentleman ('Il Gentile Cavaliere')

    1565

  • Canon Ludovico di Terzi

    1560

  • The Vestal Virgin Tuccia

    1555

  • Ritratto di Marco Antonio Savelli

  • Le Gentilhomme en noir

    1567

Views

Moroni emphasized a sitter’s dignity and nobility by means of natural, unforced poses and masterful compositions and infused his portraits with physiognomic individuality and psychological depth. Despite their impassive facial expressions, many of his portraits impart a sense of gentle melancholy that is reinforced by predominantly gray tonalities and by a restrained treatment of the textures of cloth and draperies. Moroni’s simple yet subtle style of portraiture was clearly influenced by that of Titian, who himself commended Moroni’s work. Among Moroni’s other more-notable portraits are the Portrait of Pietro Secco Suardo (1563) and the Portrait of Gian Gerolamo Grumelli (c. 1560).

As S.J. Freedberg notes, while his religious canvases are "archaic", recalling the additive compositions of the late Quattrocento and show stilted unemotive saints, his portraits are remarkable for their sophisticated psychological insight, dignified air, fluent control and exquisite silvery tonality.

Connections

Father:

Andrea Moroni

pupil:

Giovanni Paolo Cavagna