Simone Peterzano

Simone Peterzano was an Italian Mannerist painter. Born in Bergamo, he stressed his links to Venice where he probably trained. He is mostly known as the teacher of Caravaggio.

Life Peterzano called himself a pupil of Titian and would sometimes sign his works Titiani alumnus. In 1589 Peterzano is recorded in Milan, when he took part in the competition for the cathedral organ doors, a commission won by himself and Camillo Procaccini.

His cycle of frescoes depicting scenes from the Life of St. Anthony of Padua (Sant'Angelo, Milan), painted after 1591, accentuated the interest in narrative already evident at Garegnano, and this was developed with greater monumentalism in his frescoes of biblical stories in the Monastero Maggiore, Milan, which are indebted to the colossal art of Giovanni Ambrogio Figino and Giuseppe Meda. His altarpiece depicting St. Ambrose between St. Gervase and St. Protase (1592; Milan, Pinacoteca Ambrosiana) exemplifies the clarity and directness of his late art, which fulfilled the propaganda demands of the reformed Milanese church, led by Charles and Federico Borromeo.

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