PAOLO

See also:

• PAOLO FARINATO (1522–1606)

FARINATO (1522–1606)  , Italian painter and architect, was a native of Verona . He is sometimes named Farinato degli Uberti, as he came from the ancient Florentine stock to which the Ghibelline leader Farinata degli Uberti, celebrated in Dante's Commedia, belonged . He flourished at the same time that the art of Verona obtained its greatest lustre in the works of -Paolo Cagliari (Paul Veronese), succeeded by other members of the Cagliari family, of whom most or all were outlived by Farinato . He was instructed by Niccolo Giolfino, and probably by Antonio Badile and Domenico del Riccio (Brusasorci) . Proceeding to Venice, he formed his style partly on Titian and Giorgione, though he was never conspicuous as a colourist, and in form he learned more from the works of Giulio Romano . His nude figures show knowledge of the antique; he affected a bronzed tone in the complexions, harmonizing with the general gravity of his colour, which is more laudable in fresco than in oil-painting . Vasari praised his thronged compositions and merit of draughtsmanship . His works are to be found not only in Venice and principally in Verona, but also in Mantua, Padua and other towns belonging or adjacent to the Venetian territory . He was a prosperous and light-hearted man, and continually progressed in his art, passing from a comparatively dry manner into a larger and bolder one, with much attraction of drapery and of landscape . The " Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes," painted in the church of S . Giorgio in Verona, is accounted his masterpiece; it was executed at the advanced age of seventy-nine, and is of course replete with figures, comprising those of the painter's own family . A saloon was painted by him in S .

Maria in Organo, in the same

city, with the subjects of " Michael expelling Lucifer " and the "Massacre of the Innocents "; in Piacenza is a " St Sixtus "; in Berlin a " Presentation in the Temple "; and in the communal gallery of Verona one of his prime works, the " Marriage of St Catherine." Farinato executed some sculptures, and various etchings of sacred and mythologic subjects; his works of all kinds were much in request, including the wax models which he wrought as studies for his painted figures . He is said to have died at the same hour as his wife . His son Orazio was also a painter of merit .