Giovanni Serodine

Who was Giovanni Serodine?

Giovanni Serodine was an Italian painter of the early Baroque period.

Born to a Lombard family of stuccoists in Ascona in Canton Ticino, he gravitated while in Rome and there developed an idiosyncratic expression of Carravaggist style. His style has the loose brushstroke and luminosity of some of the northern Caravaggisti, such as Lys, Strozzi, and Fetti, who were active in Venice; however, some of Serodine's canvases show a provincial eccentricity, for example Coronation of the Virgin in Ascona. Baglione found in his art a great vivacity, although he noted Serodine appears to have made few friends and patrons in Rome. In his short mature career, he produced a handful of intensely emotional tenebrist canvases such as a Jesus among the Masters; Jesus and the Tribute money; Saint Lawrence distributing alms; Decapitation of Saint John the Baptist; Saint Michael and Transfiguration of Christ; Road to Emmaus and Sons of Zebedee; Portrait of his father; and Portrait of a Philosopher.