One of the earliest painters in this school was an obscure artist of
the Old Lombard school named Martino Spanzotti. He was the master of
Gaudenzio Ferrari (1471-1546), whose frescoes are easily recognisable
by the crude colour, exuberant imagination, and forceful, almost
brutal, realism which have caused him to be termed, somewhat loosely,
the Rubens of Italy. A very late work by him is the _St. Paul_ (No.
1285), which is signed and dated
1543
GAUDENTIUS.
Another of Spanzotti’s pupils was Sodoma, who was born at Vercelli in
Piedmont, in 1477. He is best known for the large amount of work that
he executed at Siena. This prolific artist, like a number of other
painters of this unimportant school, is not represented in the Louvre.
He died in 1551.
A faint echo of the teaching of Spanzotti may at times be detected in
the works of Defendente Ferrari (fl. 1500-1535) and Girolamo Giovenone
(fl. 1513-1527), who are not represented in the Louvre.
[Illustration:
PLATE XV.—CORREGGIO
(1494-1534)