Benedetto Gennari was an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 painter of the early-Baroque

Baroque

The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...

 period, active mainly in Ferrara

Ferrara

Ferrara is a city and comune in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital city of the Province of Ferrara. It is situated 50 km north-northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream of the Po River, located 5 km north...

 and Cento

Cento

Cento is a city and comune in the province of Ferrara, part of the region Emilia-Romagna . In Italian "cento" means 100.-History:The name Cento is a reference to the centuriation of the Po Valley...

.

His birthplace is poorly recorded: it is known he entered the studio of his brother-in-law Guercino in Bologna

Bologna

Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...

 at the age of 16. He adopted a style influenced by Caravaggio

Caravaggio

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was an Italian artist active in Rome, Naples, Malta, and Sicily between 1593 and 1610. His paintings, which combine a realistic observation of the human state, both physical and emotional, with a dramatic use of lighting, had a formative influence on the Baroque...

, and by age 19, was working in the household of Mirandola in Cento

Cento

Cento is a city and comune in the province of Ferrara, part of the region Emilia-Romagna . In Italian "cento" means 100.-History:The name Cento is a reference to the centuriation of the Po Valley...

. In that town, he helped decorate the Palazzo della communita and the church of Spirito Santo. His nephews Benedetto II Gennari

Benedetto Gennari II

Benedetto Gennari II , Italian painter active during the Baroque period.- Biography :Belonging to a dynasty of painters, Gennari was a student of Guercino, the grandson of Benedetto Gennari and older brother of Cesare Gennari. His father was Ercole Gennari and mother Lucia Barbieri...

 and Cesare Gennari

Cesare Gennari

Cesare Gennari was an Italian painter of Baroque period. His Saint Mary Magdalene is in the Pinacoteca Civica di Cento...

, sons of his brother Ercole, were also painters.