. He began his apprenticeship in Lombardy

Lombardy

Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...

, probably in Milan

Milan

Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

, Bergamo

Bergamo

Bergamo is a town and comune in Lombardy, Italy, about 40 km northeast of Milan. The comune is home to over 120,000 inhabitants. It is served by the Orio al Serio Airport, which also serves the Province of Bergamo, and to a lesser extent the metropolitan area of Milan...

 and Verona

Verona

Verona ; German Bern, Dietrichsbern or Welschbern) is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy, with approx. 265,000 inhabitants and one of the seven chef-lieus of the region. It is the second largest city municipality in the region and the third of North-Eastern Italy. The metropolitan area of Verona...

, possibly under the master Isodoro Bianchi, related to his mother. Other possibilities are Giovanni Stefano Danedi (1608-1689), Giuseppe Danedi, Giovanni Battista Lampugnani (active between 1619 and 1653) and Carlo Francesco Nuvolone

Carlo Francesco Nuvolone

Carlo Francesco Nuvolone was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active mainly in Lombardy.He was born in Milan to a Cremonese father and mannerist painter, Panfilo Nuvolone. After working with his father, he studied under Giovanni Battista Crespi in the Accademia Ambrosiana in Milan...

. His works shows also influences from the Bolognese, Roman and Venetian schools.

He began in 1655 as a fresco painter, under the direction of the Italian architect-engineer Filiberto Luchese, in the Pálffy castle at Červený Kameň

Cervený Kamen Castle

Červený Kameň Castle is a castle in southwestern Slovakia in the Little Carpathians near the village of Častá.-History:A stone castle was built in the 13th century as part of the chain of country frontier defense castles ranging from Bratislava to Žilina. This castle was completely rebuilt as a...

 (now Slovakia

Slovakia

The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...

). Through these paintings he was influential in introducing the Early Baroque style in Central Europe.

An early painting can be found in the Palazzo Terzi in Bergamo

Bergamo

Bergamo is a town and comune in Lombardy, Italy, about 40 km northeast of Milan. The comune is home to over 120,000 inhabitants. It is served by the Orio al Serio Airport, which also serves the Province of Bergamo, and to a lesser extent the metropolitan area of Milan...

. In 1659 he gets a commission from the Benedictine Lambach Abbey

Lambach Abbey

Lambach Abbey is a Benedictine monastery in Lambach in Austria.-History:A monastery was founded in about 1040 by Bishop Adalbero of Würzburg , which since 1056 has been a Benedictine abbey. During the 17th and 18th centuries a great deal of work in the Baroque style was carried out, much of it by...

 in Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

 for a number of frescoes in the presbitary of the monastery church. In 1660-61 he decorated the palace of the Count von Abensperg and Traun in Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

. These no longer exist.

In the period 1662-65 he was back in Italy, painting the altar canvas in the San Giacomo church and a fresco for the Palazzo Solza, and the Palazzo Terzi, all in Bergamo.

Between 1665 and 1667 he's back in Vienna decorating the rooms of the new Leopold wing of the Hofburg palace (no longer in existence) and he even became the court painter of Eleonore Gonzaga

Eleonore Gonzaga

For other women of the same name, see Eleanor Gonzaga Eleonora Gonzaga was the second wife of Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor, Archduchess consort of Austria, Queen of Germany, Queen consort of Hungary and Bohemia.- Biography :Born in Mantua in 1598, Eleonora was the youngest daughter of duke...

 (1630-1686), widow of Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor

Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor

Ferdinand II , a member of the House of Habsburg, was Holy Roman Emperor , King of Bohemia , and King of Hungary . His rule coincided with the Thirty Years' War.- Life :...

.

As he became more and more famous, the number of his important patrons grew among the upper clergy and aristocracy in Vienna, Moravia

Moravia

Moravia is a historical region in Central Europe in the east of the Czech Republic, and one of the former Czech lands, together with Bohemia and Silesia. It takes its name from the Morava River which rises in the northwest of the region...

, Styria and Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

. And he got more and more commissions.

Between 1666-67 he decorated the Petronell castle of the Count Ernst III von Abensperg-Traun with a number of mythological frescoes. A few are left, the others haven been lost in a fire in 1683 during the Battle of Vienna

Battle of Vienna

The Battle of Vienna took place on 11 and 12 September 1683 after Vienna had been besieged by the Ottoman Empire for two months...

. The Heiligenkreuz Abbey

Heiligenkreuz Abbey

Heiligenkreuz Abbey is a Cistercian monastery in the village of Heiligenkreuz in the southern part of the Vienna woods, c. 13 km north-west of Baden in Lower Austria...

 invited him to decorate their new sacristy. Again these frescoes were lost in a fire in 1683.

Between 1668-69 he decorated several churches in Vienna: the Servites church, Franciscan church, Dominican church. In 1670 he's at work in the hall and the chapel of the Trautenfels castle in the Styria, decorating it with mythological frescoes. At about the same year he decorated the Eisenstadt

Eisenstadt

- Politics :The current mayor of Eisenstadt is Andrea Fraunschiel ÖVP.The district council is composed as follows :* ÖVP: 17 seats* SPÖ: 8 seats* Austrian Green Party: 2 seats* FPÖ: 2 seats- Castles and palaces :...

 castle of the House of Esterházy.

His major works are to be found in Slovakia, Moldavia

Moldavia

Moldavia is a geographic and historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester river...

, Austria, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 and the Czech Republic:

• In the monasteries of Lambach, Heiligenkreuz
• Episcopal palaces of Olomouc
  Olomouc
  Olomouc is a city in Moravia, in the east of the Czech Republic. The city is located on the Morava river and is the ecclesiastical metropolis and historical capital city of Moravia. Nowadays, it is an administrative centre of the Olomouc Region and sixth largest city in the Czech Republic...
  
  
• Episcopal palace of the Prince-Bishop Karl II von Liechtenstein-Kastelkorn
  Karl II von Liechtenstein-Kastelkorn
  Karl II von Liechtenstein-Kastelkorn was a Catholic priest and prince-bishop. In 1655 he was ordained priest in the Prince-Archbishopric of Salzburg . Between 1664 to 1695 he served as Prince-Bishop of Olomouc in the Moravia...
  
   (1664-1695) in Kroměříž
  Kromeríž
  Kroměříž is a town in the Zlín Region of the Czech Republic. The town's main landmark is the Baroque Kroměříž Bishop's Palace, where some scenes from Amadeus and Immortal Beloved were filmed...
  
  : the architect was his brother Giovanni P. Tencalla, who invited him for extensive frescoes and paintings. Only the paintings in the rotunda have survived.
• Cathedral of Passau
  Passau
  Passau is a town in Lower Bavaria, Germany. It is also known as the Dreiflüssestadt or "City of Three Rivers," because the Danube is joined at Passau by the Inn from the south and the Ilz from the north....
  
   (1679-1685): frescoes for the nave and choir. Here he painted over more than one bay, without being stopped by stucco framings. This was a first north of the Alps.
• About 1675 he decorated the apse around the main altar of the Dominican church
  Dominikanerkirche (Vienna)
  The Church of St. Maria Rotunda, also known as Vienna's Dominican Church , is an early Baroque parish church and minor basilica in the historic center of Vienna, Austria...
  
  , Vienna, with two historic paintings of Christian victories, ascribed to power of the Rosary: the Battle of Muret (1213) and the Battle of Lepanto
  Battle of Lepanto (1571)
  The Battle of Lepanto took place on 7 October 1571 when a fleet of the Holy League, a coalition of Catholic maritime states, decisively defeated the main fleet of the Ottoman Empire in five hours of fighting on the northern edge of the Gulf of Patras, off western Greece...
  
   (1571). Tencala also added some paintings on the walls of the side chapels.

After his death in 1685, at Bissone, his son-in-law Carlo Antonio Bussi

Carlo Antonio Bussi

Carlo Antonio Bussi was a Swiss painter.Bussi was born in Bissone. He primarily painted church interiors. In 1682 he married Margarete, the daughter of another Swiss painter Carpoforo Tencalla. After his father-in-law's death in 1685, Bussi completed some of Tencalla's projects...

completed his work at the cathedral of Passau and in the San Carpoforo church in Bissone.

External links

• Biography