Giovanni Lanfranco

Happy Birthday Giovanni Lanfranco! Italian born in 1582, Lanfranco was a Baroque painter who apprenticed under Agostino Carracci. He painted frescoes on walls, ceilings and altar panels in various chapels. His Assumption of the Virgin, located in the dome of church Sant Andrea della Valle, in Rome, is considered one of Baroque’s key works. He experimented with other styles, Mannerism, for example and used a colorful but tenebrist palette.



Fresco is a painting technique of painting tempera on wet plaster, creating a very strong bond. This is the technique Michelangelo used when painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling.


Tenebrist is similar to chiaroscuro; only the darkness is complete negative space…lacking any color or shape. The positive shapes in the light take on a much more substantial, solid quality.