Simone Peterzano: The First Great Baroque Painter

"Angelica and Medoro," circa 1560–1596, by Simone Peterzano. Oil on canvas. Private Collection. Public Domain

Except among some specialist art historians, Simone Peterzano is generally known only as the teacher of Caravaggio: the notable, great master of Baroque painting. Beyond that, he tends to be dismissed as a competent but unexceptional artist. On closer inspection, though, he becomes a fascinating example of how such artists can lay the foundations on which great masters build—a man who took some of the first steps toward the style that Caravaggio would one day perfect.

A self-portrait, 1589, by Simone Peterzano. Public Domain

Born circa 1535, Peterzano began training as a painter in Venice when the city was becoming Europe’s greatest center of artistic life. Titian and Tintoretto were at the height of their careers and would soon be joined by Veronese. Florence, long the capital of Renaissance art, had fallen to more modest status with the death of all but one of its greatest artists: Michelangelo (1475–1564). So too had Rome, to which Florentine artists had migrated a few decades earlier.

Throughout his life, Peterzano would stress his Venetian connections, often describing himself as a student of Titian. For centuries, the transparency of that marketing ploy led many to question the authenticity of the artists’ relationship.

Recently discovered evidence from the 2020 exhibition “Titian and Caravaggio in Peterzano” at the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo, Italy, suggests that Peterzano did indeed serve his apprenticeship under Titian. It is also possible that occasional employment as an assistant in Titian’s workshop or some informal relationship led Peterzano to consider him his true teacher.

Other evidence from the exhibition indicated that Peterzano lived in Venice for some time before his apprenticeship. It may even have been his native city rather than Bergamo, as was traditionally believed. Full details are lacking, but the overall picture is clear enough: Peterzano was precisely what he claimed to be—a minor painter who learned his profession from great Venetian masters.

Didactic Narratives

"Angelica and Medoro," circa 1560–1596, by Simone Peterzano. Oil on canvas. Private Collection. Public Domain

As the location of artistic life changed, the aesthetics of Italian art began to evolve. Florentine art had emphasized idealization and symbolism. Venetian painters, on the other hand, favored greater realism and were given a boost by the Catholic Church’s 1545–1563 Council of Trent (Catholic Revival) and its new Jesuit order. The Jesuits went beyond the Church’s longstanding influence as a major patron. Until Peterzano’s time, that influence had concerned subject matter rather than style. The enactments of Trent and the moral influence of the Jesuits led the clergy to actively direct stylistic development in a way never seen before or since.

The Council of Trent opened a quarter century after the High Renaissance had begun to decline. Many of the bishops at the council were from the most cultured segments of society, and Jesuits received thorough classical educations. Although the average person of the time probably had a greater artistic sensibility than many people today, most of the population still lacked the requisite education to understand the complex symbolism detailed in the art of the High Renaissance. Only the upper echelon of the educated society fully recognized the intricate and covert symbolism embedded in classical paintings.

Trent’s bishops decreed that future ecclesial art should be self-explanatory, even didactic—then supported efforts to ensure that such art reached the height of aesthetic perfection. This shift was solidified by the Jesuits’ highly imaginative method of meditation, which required visualizing some religious scene as though personally present. In the new atmosphere, narrative and drama began to replace intellectually assessed symbols and allegories in secular as well as religious art.

The Foundations for Baroque Art

"Christ in the Garden," circa 1580–1590, by Simone Peterzano. Oil on canvas. Diocesan Museum of Milan, Italy. Public Domain

Among the most enthusiastic proponents of the didactic aesthetic was St. Charles Borromeo. From 1564 to 1584, he served as archbishop of Milan: the city that Peterzano moved to in 1572,  near the town where Caravaggio spent his childhood. Borromeo also exemplified a combination of high culture and religious fervor. His mother had been born into the Medici family—arguably the greatest of all Renaissance patrons. Highly influenced by the Jesuits, Borromeo ran his bishop’s palace like a monastery. Not surprisingly, he wrote a book on religious art and actively guided local artists in their work.

None of the artists active in Milan during Borromeo’s lifetime would achieve more than minor status in their profession. However, they collectively embraced the narrative and dramatic emphases called for by the religious renewal, which became foundational for Baroque art. The pervasiveness of their works in the region’s churches assuredly contributed to Caravaggio’s interest in art and choice of profession.

Within that admittedly limited world, Peterzano was in high demand and painted dozens of large-scale works. The best of these foreshadow Caravaggio in their tenebrism (where certain features of the main subjects are highlighted through contrast with darker background objects). It is hard to look at “Christ in the Garden,” the “Flagellation,” or “Angelica and Medoro” without seeing the basis for the aesthetics that Caravaggio perfected in his works like “David and Goliath” and “Narcissus.”

"David and Goliath," 1600, by Caravaggio. Oil on canvas. The Prado Museum, Spain. Public Domain

Of course, such similarities do not mean that Caravaggio merely put Peterzano’s aesthetic principles into practice in a brilliant way. An artist of Caravaggio’s genius undoubtedly had a more refined grasp of aesthetic theory as well as greater technical skill. But that Peterzano provided Caravaggio with the basic framework that allowed him to refine his understanding should be just as certain. While there is no question of Peterzano’s being a great artist, his life demonstrates how minor painters can play important, if secondary, roles in the history of great art.