Alessandro Turchi

Who was Alessandro Turchi?

Alessandro Turchi was an Italian painter of the early Baroque, born and active mainly in Verona, and moving late in life to Rome. He also went by the name Alessandro Veronese or the nickname L'Orbetto.

Turchi initially trained with Felice Riccio in Verona. By 1603, he is already working as independent painter, and in 1606-1609, Turchi paints the organ shutters for the Filarmonica Academy of Verona. When Brusasorci dies in 1605, Turchi and his fellow painter Pasquale Ottino complete a series of their deceased master's canvases. In 1610, he completes an Assumption altarpiece for the church of San Luca of Verona. In 1612, the Veronese Guild of the Goldsmiths commissions from Turchi an altarpiece, today lost, of the Madonna and Saints. On leaving the school of Riccio, he went to Venice, where he worked for a time under Carlo Cagliari.

By 1616, Turchi travels to Rome and participates in the fresco decoration of the Sala Reggia of the Quirinal Palace, and painting a Christ, Magdalen, and Angels for cardinal Scipione Borghese. In competition with Andrea Sacchi and Pietro da Cortona, he painted some pictures in the church of Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini.