Lorenzo De Ferrari

Who was Lorenzo De Ferrari?

Lorenzo De Ferrari was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active mainly in his native city of Genoa.

Lorenzo was the son of the painter Gregorio De Ferrari and Margherita Piola, the daughter of another famous Genoese painter, Domenico Piola. He studied by making copies of work by Guido Reni and Anthony van Dyck, and accompanied his father to Marseille at the age of twelve, where he worked as his assistant for two years. Upon their return to Genoa, it is also probable he assisted in the restoration of Andrea Ansaldo's dome in the Basilica della Santissima Annunziata del Vastato.

According to Jane Turner's The Dictionary of Art, his style was "...influenced by the graceful, elongated figures, spiraling movements and elaborate quadratura of his father." He was also influenced by the more refined and academic work of several contemporary Genoese artists who had worked in Rome, such as Paolo Girolamo Piola and Domenico Parodi. He often used elements established by the Piola family in his ceiling decoration, such as pairs of ignudi and corner ornaments.

His earliest dated work, Allegory in Honour of Doge Lorenzo Centurione, was completed in 1717 and engraved by Maxmilian Joseph Limpach. Its complexity attests to a high degree of skill when he began working with his father on the decoration of the SS. Camillo e Croce, where he painted an altar piece in his father's style, SS Nicholas, Matthew and Lucy. He also collaborated with Gregorio in the decoration of the cupola, the Triumph of the Holy Cross. He also painted the lunette fresco, Heraklios Carrying the Cross to Jerusalem, simplifying his father's designs.