Moretto da Brescia

Moretto da Brescia (c. 1498–1554), born Alessandro Bonvicino, came from the territory of Brescia and worked mostly in the city itself, with commissions also in Bergamo, Milan and Verona. His training is uncertain: he is said to have studied first under Fioravante Ferramola, and may have been apprenticed to Titian in Venice. In 1521 he worked alongside Girolamo Romanino in the Old Cathedral of Brescia. He was chiefly a painter of calm altarpieces for churches in and around Brescia, many of which remain where they were painted. He looked to Titian and Palma the Elder for colour, while his classical serenity earned him comparison with Raphael. His portraits were fewer but more influential: a full-length Portrait of a Man of 1526, now in the National Gallery in London, seems to be the earliest independent full-length portrait in Italian painting, and his chief assistant Giovanni Battista Moroni took up the format. He was known in Brescia as a pious citizen and belonged to at least two of its leading confraternities. Here: Christ blessing Saint John the Baptist.