Girolamo Genga

Girolamo Genga

A painter, born at Urbino in 1476; died at the same place, 1551. This talented craftsman was apprenticed in his fifteenth year to Luca Signorelli, whom he assisted in many of his works, especially at Orvieto. He then attached himself to Perugino, in whose school he was for three years, becoming the intimate friend of Raphael. After a residence in Florence and Siena he returned to Urbino to carry out some work for the duke, Guidobaldo II. Later on he resided at Rome, where he painted an altar-piece for the church of St. Catherine of Siena, but, in 1012, returned to Urbino at the request of the then duke, Francesco Maria, with whom eventually he went into banishment at Cesena, and for whom he painted his chief altar-piece, "God the Father, the Virgin, and Four Fathers of the Church", now in the Brera at Milan. He was not only a painter and sculptor, but a modeller in wax, clay, and terra-cotta, and some of the drinking-cups he executed in wax were used as models for finished works in silver. He designed vestments and musical instruments, and was an admirable musician himself. Vasari speaks of him as "an admirable inventor" and again as "a man of the most upright character, insomuch that a bad action committed by him was never heard of." In the Pitti Palace at Florence there is "Holy Family" which was painted by Genga.

GEORGE CHARLES WILLIAMSON