BENFATTO, LUIGI (ALVISE). — Painter, born in Verona around 1544, as deduced from the parish necrology which states he died at the age of about 65, in Venice in 1609. Nephew and mediocre imitator of P. Veronese, he later adhered to Palma the Younger and Tintoretto, remaining superficial and coarse. His principal works in Venice include the Battle of Constantine and Maxentius (in S. Apollinare), Christ before Pilate and the Communion of the Apostles (in S. Luca), the Centurion Begs Christ (1587, signed, in the church of the Archangel Raphael), and the frescoes in S. Niccolò de' Mendicanti.
BIBL.: Anon., s. V. in Thieme-Becker, III, pp. 324-25 (with bibliography); G. Fiocco, Paolo Veronese, Bologna 1928, p. 65; A. Venturi, Storia dell’arte, IX, IV, Milano 1929, pp. 1109-12. For the dates of birth and death cf.: E. Cicogna, Delle iscrizioni veneziane, III, Venezia 1880, pp. 275-76. Elsa Gerlini