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(1) Giulio Campi
(b Cremona, c. 1508; d 5 March 1573). Painter and architect. He probably trained with his father, Galeazzo Campi. His first signed and dated painting, the altarpiece of the Virgin and Child with SS Nazarius and Celsus (1527; Cremona, S Abbondio), shows the influence of the Brescian painting of Moretto and Romanino. His development was rapid, and within a few years he showed an interest in the art of Pordenone, Giulio Romano and Raphael. This is evident in two altarpieces, Nativity with Saints and Virgin and Saints with a Marchese Stampa as Donor (1530; both Milan, Brera), and in the frescoes (1530) in S Maria delle Grazie, Soncino. Apart from a few works of interest such as the Game of Chess (Turin, Mus. Civ. A. Ant.), in the 1530s Giulio concentrated on an important fresco cycle for S Agata, Cremona, with scenes from the Life of St Agatha (1537); and from 1539 to 1542 he decorated the two transepts of S Sigismondo, Cremona. The rich and varied style of these works, which combined elements from Mannerism and the work of Pordenone, influenced Cremonese painting in the following decades. In a major commission to decorate the whole of S Margherita, Cremona, which he also probably rebuilt (1547), he attained a high degree of sophistication and complexity. With his brother, (2) Antonio Campi, he then painted some canvases for the Palazzo della Loggia, Brescia, illustrating Stories of Justice (in situ and dispersed in Brescia, Pin. Civ. Tosio-Martinengo; Budapest, Mus. F.A.). He probably visited Rome in the mid-1550s; his subsequent decoration (1557) of the first bay of S Sigismondo, Cremona, with the Pentecost and two Prophets shows a new monumentality and daring illusionism. In the 1560s he painted a large Crucifixion for S Maria della Passione, Milan, an altarpiece with SS Philip and James (1565) for S Sigismondo, Cremona, and St Lawrence for Alba Cathedral (all in situ). In his last years Giulio executed numerous works for Cremona Cathedral, including the vast organ shutters. These paintings show a gradual transition from complex compositions to simpler ones, reflecting the requirements of the Counter-Reformation. At his death he left incomplete the decoration of the presbytery of S Maria di Campagna, Piacenza, and of S Abbondio, Cremona.
Part of the Campi family
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