Ceiling of San Nicolò dei Mendicoli, Venice
Biography of Francesco Montemezzano by Ridolfi

Francesco Montemezzano or Monte Mezzano (Verona, 1555 – after 1602) was an Italian painter of the late-Renaissance or Mannerist period.

Life and career

He was born near Verona, and appears to have been a follower, if not a pupil, of Paolo Veronese.[1] He was active both in Venice and the mainland, painting mainly sacred subjects.[2]

He completed some of the panels for the church of San Nicolò dei Mendicoli in the Venetian district of Dorsoduro. Ridolfi in a short biography notes that Francesco gave himself excessively to the pleasures of love, fell in love with expensive objects and this led to an early death by poisoning.[3]

In media

He was featured in an episode of the BBC One television programme Fake or Fortune? that aired on 19 July 2015 (Series 4, Episode 3), in which a large painting of the Lamentation of Christ at an English church (St John the Baptist Church in Tunstall, Lancashire) was investigated and verified as being by the artist.[4]

References

  1. Metropolitan Museum Collections.
  2. Enciclopedia Treccani, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 76 (2012), entry by Giorgio Tagliaferro
  3. Le Maraviglie dell'arte: overo le vite de gl'illustri pittori Veneti, Volume 2, By Carlo Ridolfi, 1648, page 334.
  4. "BBC One – Fake or Fortune?, Series 4, A Mystery Old Master".


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