BEMBO, BONIFACIO and GIANFRANCESCO. - BONIFACIO, a painter of the fifteenth century of Brescian origin, a noteworthy portraitist, worked especially in Cremona, Milan, and the Castle of Pavia, where he painted large genre scenes together with Vincenzo Foppa (1447-48). The only works surviving are the central part of a Coronation of the Virgin (Cremona Museum), clearly derived from the Gothic style, and the two figures of Francesco Sforza and Bianca Maria Visconti (1462, S. Agostino in Cremona), traditionalist despite the attempt to approach Renaissance forms.
GIANFRANCESCO, nephew of the preceding, also a painter, settled in Cremona, perhaps in 1526. According to Vasarian tradition, he took part in certain decorations in the house of Cardinal Francesco Soderini in Rome, where he is said to have gone with Boccaccino. The influence of the Roman milieu, especially of the Vatican rooms, and that of Giorgione is evident in the eclectic decoration of Cremona Cathedral, already begun by Boccaccino (the Adoration
of the Magi, signed, and the Presentation at the Temple date from 1515), and in the altarpiece of S. Pietro in Cremona (1524).