(b Castelfranco Veneto, c. 1500; d ?1570). Italian painter. He was known to contemporaries as Bazzacco, Bozzato or Brazzacco. Between 1537, when he is first recorded as living in Borgo Bastia Nova, Castelfranco Veneto, and probably 1543, when his protector Cardinal Francesco Cornaro died, Ponchino was in Rome. During this Roman sojourn he studied Michelangelo’s works and later boastfully claimed to have been his pupil. Ponchino is first recorded in the Veneto in 1546, and in 1548 he is documented at the Villa Barbaro in Maser, near Treviso, home of Daniele Barbaro and Marc’Antonio Barbaro. In 1551 he was in Castelfranco Veneto, where he designed and executed an altarpiece for the high altar of the church of the Pieve (destr.), depicting Christ Liberating the Souls from Purgatory (Castelfranco Veneto, S Liberale), for which a contract dated 21 July 1551 exists. Associated with this work are the St George and St Liberale (both Castelfranco Veneto, S Liberale). Further lost frescoes executed in Castelfranco Veneto and attributed to Ponchino are recorded by Melchiori (b 1671; d after 1735): a Judgement of Paris on the façade of the Palazzo Piacentini, Venus with Three Amorini in one of the rooms, and frescoes in the Palazzo Soranzo. In 1553 Ponchino was in Venice, where he was commissioned to paint the decorations in the Doge’s Palace. Vasari stated that he gained this important commission because of his connection with the influential Grimani family, but then, at Ponchino’s invitation, Paolo Veronese and Battista Zelotti became involved in the project. His work in the Sala del Consiglio dei Dieci (1553–5) comprises Mercury and Minerva, Neptune Drawn by Sea Horses and grisailles of a personification of Venice and male nudes (all in situ). In the Stanza dei tre Capi dei Dieci, Ponchino executed the Allegory of the Expulsion of Heresy and Allegory of Justice (both c. 1555–6). In 1556 he was again in Rome, where in 1558 he was paid for work on a panel for Pope Paul IV; of this work nothing further is known. By 1560 he had returned to Venice and was documented again at the Villa Maser on 11 November of that year. In 1564 he received a payment of 21 gold ducats for frescoes (destr.) on the façade of S Monte di Pietà, Castelfranco Veneto, for which church he also executed two canvases: St Mark the Evangelist and St Liberale (both destr.). Also attributed to Ponchino (Battilotti and Puppi) are a Self-portrait and a Portrait of an Architect (both Treviso, Mus. Civ. Bailo). Ponchino’s importance lies in his supposed role in introducing Veronese and Zelotti to Venice and transmitting Michelangelo’s style in the Veneto.

• Ponchino, Giambattista
  • Veronese, Paolo, §I, 2(i): Venice and Verona, 1553–60: Major decorative commissions
  • Zelotti, Battista