DAMIANO of Bergamo. — Born Zambelli D., a marquetry friar, he was born in Bergamo between 1490 and 1500, and died in Bologna on 30 August 1549.
His early works are said to include the choir stalls of the Bergamasque church of S. Bartolomeo, originally in that of S. Domenico, of a design still distinctly fifteenth-century, so much so as to justify the belief that they date from the hand of Bramantino and Zenale. Having become a friar (1528), he worked in Bologna in the church of the Dominicans, executing the choir stalls and some marquetry panels now in the sacristy of the church, which are most beautiful. In 1546 he was in Genoa, where he produced for the Cathedral three marquetry panels, one of which is signed and dated.
A highly renowned and admired artist in his own time, he combined rare craftsmanship with a distinctive taste for graduated chromatic harmonies, deriving in his marquetry from the varying tones of the wood grain.