\paperw4140 \margr0\margl0 \plain \fs20 \f1 Of Milanese origin, though active chiefly in Liguria, the painter \b \cf4 \ATXht1200 Carlo Braccesco\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 was one of the m
ost significant figures with links to the region of Lombardy at the end of the fifteenth century. He was also in close contact with Franco-Provenτal and Flemish currents. Though sometimes assigned to the anonymous figure of the \b \cf4 \ATXht1185 ôMaster
of the Louvre Annunciationö\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 , the altarpiece with this title in the Louvre, one of the finest examples of the Ligurian and Lombardian painting of the time, is generally considered to be a work from the latter part of BraccescoÆs career.
\par
The great renewal of the Lombardian school took place following \b \cf4 \ATXht1199 Leonardo da Vinci\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 Æs stay in Milan, where he worked for Duke Ludovico il Moro from 1482 to 1499 as a military and hydraulic engineer and constructor of arms
, as well as architect, sculptor and painter. In his painting he returned to the rigorous standards of construction and perspective applied in the Renaissance, introducing a new approach to chiaroscuro and \i sfumato\i0 , which he used to soften the hard
outlines of forms, making them blend into the atmosphere and lending them a new vitality.\par
Among Leonardo da VinciÆs pupils were \b \cf4 \ATXht1204 Bernardino Luini\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 , who proposed measured and simplified compositions in a calm classi
cal style, and \b \cf4 \ATXht1198 Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio \b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 who, in addition to religious scenes, painted fine portraits in which he paid great attention to the psychological interpretation of the sitter.\par
In Umbria, \b \cf4 \ATXht1206 Perugino\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 took up the ideas of Renaissance painting, combining the lesson of Piero della Francesca with the Florentine one of Verrocchio and the masters of the early fifteenth century. He produced orderly compositions in which the figu
res are rhythmically arranged, in devout attitudes, set in vast spaces and limpid, typically Umbrian landscapes. PeruginoÆs apprentice was the young \b \cf4 \ATXht1201 Raphael\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 , who soon came under the spell of the innovations proposed by
Leonardo and Michelangelo, whose work the artist saw during his stay in Florence at the very beginning of the sixteenth century. Moving to Rome subsequently, in the service of the popes, Raphael attained the highest peaks of sixteenth-century classicism
in his works, as well as initiating a trend that, spread through Italy by his pupils, would give rise to the more tormented and complicated current of Mannerist painting.\par
Also influenced by PeruginoÆs classicism were the painters\b \cf4 \ATXht1203
Lorenzo Costa \b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 and \b \cf4 \ATXht1207 Francesco Francia\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 , in Bologna, who proposed balanced compositions in a soft and relaxed style.\par
In Parma, a center of great importance for the Emilian painting of the Cinquecento
, \b \cf4 \ATXht1202 Correggio\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 applied his keen intelligence to the development of one of the richest and most original pictorial languages to come out of the artistic renewal that took place at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Hi
s broad and complex cultural background permitted him to produce a style that charms the observer through the delicacy of the figuresÆ attitudes, the splendor of the colors and the freshness of carefully-laid out and airy compositions. Another artist fro
m Parma was \b \cf4 \ATXht1205 Francesco Marmitta\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 , who for the most part painted precious miniatures characterized by vivid imagination and elegant stylization, influenced by the work of the Ferrarese painter Ercole de' Roberti.
