Francesco Maffei

Francesco Maffei (* 1600 in Vicenza, † July 2, 1660 in Padua ) is an Italian painter of the Baroque.

He was educated in the Mannerist style in the workshop of Alessandro Maganza in Vicenza, and was also influenced by Tintoretto, Jacopo Bassano and Paolo Veronese. Maffei moved before 1638 to Venice. By completion of the ceiling frescoes in the Chiesa degli Incurabili ( between frescoes by Bernardo Strozzi and Padovanino ) he succeeded in Venice breakthrough. In the 1640s he developed his own style, partly bizarre trains ( Vertova described him as the most imaginative representative of the Baroque style in Venice). His paintings are often populated with rich characters and full of action, show a resolution of the contours and twisted characters in unusual perspectives.

In addition to religious subjects he painted mythological motifs and portraits and copied classical works by Titian and Tintoretto, for example, in free style. Among his works are images in the Rotonda of Rovigo ( 1644-1655 ) and in the Palazzo del Podesta in Vicenza.

He painted except in Venice and Vicenza also in other places such as northern Italy Rovigo, Brescia and Padua, where he moved three years before his death.

Perseus and Medusa