Giovanni Gerolamo Savoldo (Brescia, Italy, ca. 1480/5? - post. 1548)

The date of the painter's birth is unknown; in a deed of 1508 he is mentioned as the son of a Jacopo, in turn the son of a Piero 'de Savoldis de Brescia'. There is no certain information regarding Savoldo's training and the geographical context in which it took place. Active between 1520 and 1540, his early works are completely lost, but he is documented in Parma in 1506, and in Florence two years later, where he enrolled in the Arte dei Medici e Speziali.

Around 1520 he moved to Venice, where in that year he signed a panel in the Gallerie dell'Accademia. The following year he was in Treviso. In Venice he was influenced by the work of Giorgione, although he remained deeply attached to Brescian naturalism and Nordic painting of nocturnal settings, with refined chiaroscuro studies of figure naturalism.

In 1526 the artist made his will, leaving everything to his wife, an action that indicates either his departure for a long journey or the beginning of his illness. Some documentary evidence shows him in Milan in 1530, working for Francesco II Sforza, Duke of Milan. The Milanese experience was short-lived, and in 1532 the artist returned to Venice and in the following years moved between Verona and Brescia.

He is assumed to have died after 1548, as a letter from Pietro Arentino, addressed to a Brescian painter, mentions him as still alive but very old.

 Photo UniCredit Group (Sebastiano Pellion di Persano)