FERRARI (de Ferrari), Defendente. — A Piedmontese painter of the 16th century, works by whom are known from 1500 (Assumption in the Budapest Museum) to 1535 (triptych of Sts Crispin and Crispinian, Avigliana, S. Giovanni). In a document he is described as originally from Chivasso (“Defendente de Ferraris de Clavaxio”) and from his earliest works it is evident that he is a follower of Martino Spanzotti, of whom he must be considered a pupil.
Some of his early works were indeed variously attributed to Spanzotti and to F., such as the Baptism of Christ (Turin, sacristy of the Cathedral) and the Adoration of the Magi (Florence, Contini collection). Even in his earliest works there are elements of Franco-Flemish taste based on the Lombard tradition of Spanzotti.
Around 1510 he abandoned Nordic motifs (Nocturnal Nativity, in the Civic Museum of Turin), with similarities that have led to the supposition of connections with some late painter of the school of Cologne. Around 1520–30 Mannerism entered F.’s art, harmonizing with Franco-Flemish taste, and finally, in his last works, the artist repeated himself and exhausted his pictorial vein.
