Francesco Torbido

Francesco Torbido

Often called IL MORO (The Moor).

Veronese painter and engraver, b. at Verona about 1486; the date of his death is unknown, but in a letter of Aretino he is spoken of as still living in 1546. He studied at Venice under Giorgione, and later returned to his native place, where he married a daughter of Count Zenovello Giusti. He then became a pupil of Liberale, who adopted him as his heir. Torbido seems to have remained at Verona, executing commissions for portraits, and painting frescoes in churches and on the fronts of houses, as was the Veronese fashion of those days. His work shows the varying influences of his Venetian master and of the Veronese artists, which he finally blended into a distinct style of his own, but retained the rich, glowing colour schemes acquired from the great Giorgione. Fine examples of his frescoes may still be seen at Verona, in the cathedral ("Nativity" and "Assumption," signed and dated 1534) and in the Church of St. Fermo ("Virgin and Child in Glory"), whilst others are in St. Eufemia and St. Zeno. His portraiture can be studied at Naples, at Venice, and in the Brera Gallery. Two portraits represent the artist himself, one at Munich, signed and dated 1516, the other, a red chalk drawing, in the Christ Church Collection.

LANZI, Storia pittorica della Italia (Bassano, 1509); VASARI, Le vite de' pittori (Milan, 1811).

GEORGE CHARLES WILLIAMSON