Francesco Brizio

Who was Francesco Brizio?

Francesco Brizio was an Italian painter and engraver of the Bolognese School, active in the early-Baroque.

He was also known as Nosadella and was born in Bologna. He was initially a pupil of Bartolommeo Passarotti, but then became a pupil under Agostino and Ludovico Carracci. He helped paint, along with Lucio Massari and Leonello Spada, stories of Torquato Tasso's epic in the loggias of the Bentivogli palace. He also frescoed a ceiling for the signori Conti Boschetti in Modena and in the Oratorio della SS Trinità in Pieve di Cento. In Bologna, he painted a Coronation of the Madonna del Borgo for the church of San Petronio. He also frescoed in the cloister of San Michele in Bosco. His son Filippo became a pupil of Guido Reni. Another pupil was Domenico Ambrogi.

In engraving he was instructed by Agostino Carracci, and he is said to have forwarded some of the plates of that master. He died at Bologna. Among his works as an engraver:

A large Landscape from his own design.

St. Roch after Parmigianino.

The flight to Egypt after Ludovico Carracci.

The Holy Family after Correggio.

Portrait of Cinthio Aldobrandini; after Ludovico Carracci.

A Frontispiece; inscribed Explicatione del sacro lenzuolo; after the same.