GIROLAMO da SANTACROCE. - Painter, born probably around 1480, died perhaps in July 1556. He may be identified with the “Jerolimo, de maistro Bernardin, depentor” to whom Gentile Bellini, in his will of 18 February 1507, bequeathed several drawings. Traces of this pupil’s training under Gentile may be found in the profile of a young man in the Museo Poldi Pezzoli.
He subsequently entered the workshop of Giovanni Bellini, and the influence of that master is indeed found in many of his works, such as the Sacra Conversazione in Liverpool and the Madonna between St. Joseph, the Baptist, and a Donor (signed Giovanni Bellini) in the Accademia of Turin. Other works instead reveal the influence of Cima (St. Gregory and St. John the Evangelist in the National Gallery, London), while in 1542 he is recorded among the assistants of Lorenzo Lotto. Zanetti mentions a great many of his paintings in Venetian churches: a Last Supper in S. Francesco dalla Vigna; a Madonna with Monks and Saints at the Frari; Four Saints in S. Giovanni Crisostomo; a Coronation in S. Giuliano; and a St. Thomas of Canterbury with the Baptist, and a St. Francis and Musical Angels in S. Silvestro (1520). Other works, all executed with that eclecticism which betrays the many influences to which the painter was subject during his life, are to be found, besides in towns and cities of the Veneto, in numerous collections in Italy and abroad.