FERRARI, Lorenzo de'

Italian Painter, son of Gregorio de’ Ferrari, grandson of Domenico Piola. He evolved an independent style based on his grandfather’s and father’s work. He studied by making copies after the work of Guido Reni and Anthony van Dyck, and at the age of 12 he accompanied his father to Marseille, where he worked as his assistant. He probably also assisted Gregorio in the restoration of Andrea Ansaldo’s dome in SS Annunziata, Genoa.

Lorenzo’s early work was influenced by the graceful, elongated figures, spiraling movement and elaborate quadratura of his father. He also responded to the more academic and balanced style of Genoese artists who had worked in Rome with Carlo Maratti and Giovanni Battista Gaulli ( Baciccio), such as Paolo Girolamo Piola, and Domenico Parodi. In his ceiling decoration he often used formulae established by the Casa Piola, such as pairs of ignudi and corner ornament.

In the 1720s and 1730s he painted numerous frescoes in the churches and palaces in Genoa.

Never married, Lorenzo sometimes wore clerical garb and was nicknamed l’Abate de’ Ferrari.