CARPI, Girolamo da

(b. 1501 Ferrara, d. 1556 Ferrara)

Girolamo da Carpi (original name Girolamo Sellari) was an Italian painter of the Ferrarese school. According to Vasari he had apprenticeship under Garofalo whose style he did not adopt, however. He orientated towards Correggio, Parmigianino, Raphael, and in particular Dosso, to whom he was probably also an assistant. At Ferrara, after Dosso’s outburst of Venetian and northern fantasy and Benvenuto da Garofalo’s classicism, Carpi enriched the local tradition with echoes of Michelangelo.

Landscape with Magicians

In this painting, attributed to Girolamo da Carpi, echoes of Bosch’s surreal world are evident.

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The Rape of Ganymede

This painting comes from the apartments of Duke Ercole II in the Palazzo del Corte in Ferrara. In 1543-44 Girolamo da Carpi collaborated with Battista Dossi in paintings decorated the apartments. The Ganymede was intended to hang above a window or door like Battista Dossi’s Times of the Day paintings.

Girolamo portrays Ganymede as a beautiful, nude adolescent, who clutches a glass ewer as a symbol of future role as cupbearer to the gods, as Jupiter in the form of an eagle carries him through the sky to Mount Olympus. Girolamo’s figure reflects the inspiration of Parmigianino in its elongated refinement, and in the fluent calligraphic rhythms of the hair and draperies.

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