Giulio
Romano
Probably born in the mid-1490s in Rome, Giulio joined
Raphael's workshop around 1516 and rapidly became
his most trusted assistant. He and Raphael, however,
had different artistic personalities and after Raphael's
death, Giulio rapidly moved towards a more expressive
and mannered style. Having inherited joint control
of Raphael's workshop, Giulio soon found himself as
pressured as Raphael had been, and in 1524 he accepted
employment at the Gonzaga court in Mantua. Giulio's
primary role there was as a designer. He rarely worked
as a painter, and his projects were mainly executed
by assistants following his drawings. The attraction
of his drawings lies in the fertility of Giulio's
imagination and the panache of his pen-work. He enjoyed
an artistic monopoly in Mantua for two decades until
his death in 1546. The many prints made from his designs
ensured a fame as great as Raphael's throughout Europe.
Perino
del Vaga
Born in Florence in 1501, Perino moved to Rome around
1516 and entered Raphael's workshop, apparently as
an assistant on the Vatican loggia. After Raphael's
death, Perino worked independently of the studio but
retained a strong connection with it. He quickly established
himself as a fresco specialist, executing paintings
in the Vatican and Palazzo Baldassini in collaboration
with Polidoro da Caravaggio. Perino left for Genoa
during the 1527 Sack of Rome, but returned to a recovered
Rome by 1538. His status as an heir of the heroic
Raphael helped him obtain new commissions. Work for
Pope Paul III in the Vatican and in the Castel Sant'Angelo
established Perino as the leading decorative painter
in Rome, controlling a studio approaching the size
and complexity of Raphael's thirty years earlier.
His biographer Vasari attributed his death in 1547
to overwork.
Polidoro
da Caravaggio
Born around 1499 in northern Italy, Polidoro moved
to Rome around 1515 and was probably first engaged
in Raphael's workshop in 1517. After Raphael's death,
Polidoro soon began to specialise in painting friezes
on Roman palace façades with his partner Maturino.
After the Sack of Rome in 1527, when Maturino was
killed, Polidoro went first to Naples and then to
Sicily. Isolated from the artistic developments in
central and northern Italy, his drawing and painting
style developed into an individual, expressive idiom
totally opposed to Raphael's rationalism. Polidoro
was allegedly murdered in 1543 by an assistant for
the savings that he had withdrawn to return to Rome.
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