Bernardino Gatti was an Italian painter of the Renaissance

Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...

, active mainly in Parma

Parma

Parma is a city in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna famous for its ham, its cheese, its architecture and the fine countryside around it. This is the home of the University of Parma, one of the oldest universities in the world....

 and Cremona

Cremona

Cremona is a city and comune in northern Italy, situated in Lombardy, on the left bank of the Po River in the middle of the Pianura Padana . It is the capital of the province of Cremona and the seat of the local City and Province governments...

.

Born in or near Pavia

Pavia

Pavia , the ancient Ticinum, is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy, northern Italy, 35 km south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It is the capital of the province of Pavia. It has a population of c. 71,000...

 or Cremona

Cremona

Cremona is a city and comune in northern Italy, situated in Lombardy, on the left bank of the Po River in the middle of the Pianura Padana . It is the capital of the province of Cremona and the seat of the local City and Province governments...

. He is also commonly called il Sojaro. His early apprenticeship is unclear, though he is influenced by the pre-eminent local painters: Pordenone

Pordenone

Pordenone is a comune of Pordenone province of northeast Italy in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region.The name comes from the Latin "Portus Naonis" meaning the port on the river Noncello - History :...

, alongside whose works are many of Gatti’s frescoes, as well as Correggio

Antonio da Correggio

Antonio Allegri da Correggio , usually known as Correggio, was the foremost painter of the Parma school of the Italian Renaissance, who was responsible for some of the most vigorous and sensuous works of the 16th century...

. Gatti worked for 12 years, 1560–72, in the fresco decoration of the cupola of the duomo of Parma

Parma

Parma is a city in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna famous for its ham, its cheese, its architecture and the fine countryside around it. This is the home of the University of Parma, one of the oldest universities in the world....

, where he was assisted by Bartholomaeus Spranger. His major works are the large fresco in the refectory of San Pietro in Cremona from 1552, frescoes in the dome of the Santa Maria della Steccata (1560–66) in Parma, and his Assunta in the Duomo of Cremona. He also worked in Pavia (1531) and Piacenza

Piacenza

Piacenza is a city and comune in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Piacenza...

 (1543). Among his most famous pupils is Sofonisba Anguissola

Sofonisba Anguissola

Sofonisba Anguissola was an Italian painter of the Renaissance.-The Anguissola family:...

 and his nephew, Gervasio Gatti

Gervasio Gatti

Gervasio Gatti was an Italian painter, active during the late-Renaissance, active in Parma, Piacenza, and Cremona. Gatti trained with his uncle Bernardino Gatti. He helped decorate the salons in the Rocca of San Secondo Parmense....

.

Partial anthology of works

• Last Supper and Resurrection, (1529, Cathedral of Cremona)
• Madonna of the Rosary, (1531) (Cathedral of Pavia)
• Life of the Virgin, (1543, S.M. di Campagna, 1543, Piacenza)
• Crucifixion with Mary Magdalen, Sant'Agata, San Bernardo degli Uberti, and angel, (1566–1574, chapel of Sant'Agata in the Duomo of Parma).
• Assumption of Virgin, 1560-1572 (Santuario di Santa Maria della Steccata, Parma).
• Pietà, (Louvre)
• Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes (Refectory in San Pietro al Po, Cremona)
• Coronation Virgin with Saints Benedetto and Bernardo, (1572, Abbey of Chiaravalle, Milan).
• Assunta, (1572; Duomo of Cremona)

Sources

• Getty Museum biography on GattiISBN 0-14-056035-1