BEMBO, Bonifacio and Gianfrancesco. — Bonifacio, a painter of the 15th century of Brescian origin, was a notable portraitist who worked especially in Cremona, Milan, and Pavia Castle, where he painted large genre scenes together with Vincenzo Foppa (1447–48). The only surviving works are the central section of a Coronation of the Virgin (Cremona Museum) of distinctly Gothic derivation, and the two figures of Francesco Sforza and Bianca Maria Visconti (1462, S. Agostino, Cremona), traditionalist despite an attempt to approach Renaissance forms.
Gianfrancesco, nephew of the former, also a painter, settled in Cremona, perhaps in 1526. According to Vasari’s tradition, he would have worked on some decorations in the home of Cardinal Francesco Soderini in Rome, where he is said to have gone with Boccaccino. The influence of the Roman milieu, especially the Vatican rooms, and that of Giorgione is evident in the eclectic decoration of Cremona Cathedral, already begun by Boccaccino (the signed Adoration of the Magi and the Presentation in the Temple date to 1515) and in the altarpiece of S. Pietro in Cremona (1524).
