Giovan Paolo Lomazzo pittore milanese (1538-1592)

The artistic activity of Giovan Paolo Lomazzo has been very little studied. Scholars have given their preference to his written work, published as a world famous poet (in Italian and in Lombard Dialect; the Grotteschi and the Rabisch, both published in 1587) and as art theorist (above all the Trattato dell'Arte della Pittura, 1584 and the Idea del Tempio della Pittura, 1590).\r\nLomazzo was also a very important painter, one of the most Famous in Milan between 1560 and 1571, when he was compelled to stop his activity for a sudden eyes illness, which made him almost totally blind. He executed many portraits, which are almost totally lost (except from his two autoportraits, now in Brera and at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Wien), and many religious paintings for important churches of Milan, such as two Crucifixions for S. Giovanni in Conca (now in Valmadrera, Parish Church and at Brera Gallery), the altarpiece in San Barnaba and the Pietà for San Vittore all'Olmo (now at the Hospital Church in Inzago). He worked also in Piacenza, Lodi and Caronno, near Varese.