BOCCACCINO, BOCCACCIO. — Painter, born in Ferrara around 1467, died in Cremona in 1524 or 1525. He received his initial artistic training in his native city from the examples of Ercole Grandi and Ercole de' Roberti; then, in Venice, he followed Alvise Vivarini and Cima da Conegliano. He derived elements from Costa, Foppa, and Bramantino, and was influenced by Dürerian motifs.
B.’s major work consists of the frescoes in Cremona Cathedral (1506: Christ and Saints, in the apse; 1515–19: Stories of the Virgin, in the left nave), in which, especially in the typology of the figures, the superficial intervention of Perugino is evident. Among B.’s other paintings are the Marriage of s. Caterina (executed under the influence of Cima), significant for the balance of its composition and the brilliance of its colour; the frescoes in Ferrara Cathedral, where B. worked with L. Costa and Grimaldi (1498–99); and the Zingarella in the Uffizi. Although little original, B.’s personality exerted a considerable influence on contemporary Cremonese painting. B.’s pupil was his son CAMILLO (died in 1546), who painted in the Duomo of Cremona itself, imitating Pordenone, and in the apse of S. Sigismondo.
Emporium, 86 (1937), pp. 631–42. For a list of the works cf.: B. Berenson, Pitture italiane del Rinascimento, Firenze 1938, pp. 75–76. Elsa Gerlini