Biography
Lanfranco was born in Parma. He began his career as an apprentice to the Bolognese Agostino Carracci and his school of painting, and formed part of team that decorated the ceiling (1605) of the Casino or Palazzetto Borghese in a manner derived entirely from the Farnese Gallery. After the death of Agostino Carracci, he went to Rome to work under Annibale Carracci. Here Lanfranco worked at the Herrera Chapel in San Giacomo degli Spagnoli (1602-1607), and collaborated with Guido Reni and Sisto Badalocchio.In 1610, he returned to Parma, where he painted the altarpiece for the Ognissanti church. Towards the end of 1612 he was back to Rome. His works of this period included frescoes in the Palazzo Mattei and the decoration of the Buongiovanni Chapel in Sant'Agostino (1616), as well as altarpieces in Piacenza, Orvieto, Vallerano, Leonessa and Fermo.
In the following year, Lanfranco was employed together with Agostino Tassi and Carlo Saraceni to decorate the Sala Regia of the Palazzo del Quirinale in Rome. His formal ''Presentation at the Temple'' has the sunlit Carraci-like style http://www.quirinale.it/palazzo/luoghi/immagini/annunziata/a-pm-dc-b-0002-23.htm. After the leaving of Guido Reni, Francesco Albani and Domenichino from Rome, he became the favourite painter of Pope Paul V. The latter's successor, Gregory XV, preferred Guercino and Domenichino: Lanfranco received anyway the commissions for the Crucifix Chapel in Santa Maria in Vallicella and for his masterwork, the dome of Sant'Andrea della Valle, for which he completed an ''Assumption of the Virgin'', painted in ''sotto in su'' perspective by 1627.
Urban VIII commissioned him a large fresco portraying ''St. Peter Walking on Waters'' (1628, now fragmentary), for which Lanfranco gained the title of Knight of the Order of Christ.
From 1633-1634 to 1646 he was in Naples. Lanfranco began decorating the Jesuit church of the Gesù Nuovo in Naples in 1634, he stayed there for 12 years after. He died in Rome in 1647, where his last work was apse of San Carlo ai Catinari.
The is also a fresco by Giovanni Lanfranco above the monument of Pope Clement VIII in Santa Maria Maggiore (Rome).
Lanfranco is known for keenly competing against fellow Carracci trainee, Domenichino and ultimately accusing him of plagiarism for his painting of the ''Confession of St. Jerome'', now in the Vatican.
References
*''Domenichino Affair'', Elizabeth Cropper, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art.Lanfranco, Giovanni
Biography courtesy of the brilliant Wikipedia!
