GIAMBATTISTA

MORONI (c. 1510-1578)  , Italian portrait-painter of the Venetian school, was born at Albino near Bergamo about 1513 ()I perhaps a few years later), and became a pupil of Bonvicino named I1 Moretto . Beyond the record of his works very few particulars regarding him have reached us . Titian, under whom also Moroni, while still very young, is said to have studied (but this appears hardly probable), had at any rate a high opinion of his powers; he said that Moroni made his portraits " living " or " actual " (veri) . In truthful and animated portraiture Moroni ranks near Titian himself . His portraits do not indeed attain to a majestic monumental character; but they are full of straightforward life and individuality, with genuine unforced choice of attitude, and excellent texture and arrangement of draperies . There is a certain tendency to a violet-tint in the flesh, and the drawing and action of the hands are not first-rate . The earliest inscribed date discovered for any of his works is 1553 . As leading samples may be mentioned—in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence the " Nobleman pointing to a Flame," inscribed " Et quid volo nisi ut ardeat ? " ; in the National Gallery, London, the portraits of a Tailor, a member of the Fenaroli family, Canon Ludovico de' Terzi, and others; in the Berlin Gallery, his own portrait; and in Stafford House, the seated half-figure of the Jesuit Ercole Tasso, currently termed " Titian's Schoolmaster "—not as indicating any real connexion between the sitter and Titian, but only the consummate excellence of the work . Besides his portraits, Moroni painted, from youth to his latest days, the ordinary round of sacred compositions; but in these he falls below his master II Moretto . One of the best is the " Coronation of the Virgin," in S . Alessandro della Croce, Bergamo; also in the cathedral of Verona, " SS Peter and Paul," and in the Brera of Milan, the " Assumption of the Virgin." Moroni was engaged upon a " Last Judgment," in the church of Corlago, when he died on the 5th of February 1578 .

(W . M .