\paperw19995 \margr0\margl0 \plain \fs20 \f1 Italian painter.\par
Fetti probably received his initial training from his father, who introduced him to the work of the Ca
rracci. He continued his studies in Rome under the influence of Caravaggio, Cigoli and Rubens. In 1610 he made contact with the fathers of the Congregation of the Oratory in Rome, who offered him his first commission: a portrait of Philip Neri to be sent
as a gift to Duke Maximilian I of Bavaria. One of the few works that can be attributed with certainty to the Roman period is the picture of the \i Angels Adoring the Madonna and Child\i0 for San Lorenzo in Damaso. However, his first contact with Cardin
al Ferdinando Gonzaga, his principal client after his move to Mantua, was during the first decade of the century. The painter settled in the Lombard city in 1614, coming into contact with its wealthy collectors and above all its musicians, comics and act
ors, whose portraits he would later paint. In 1619 Andreini dedicated \i La Venetiana\i0 to Fetti. His first works in Mantua, among which the \i Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple\i0 (Ducal Palace, Mantua) is notable, were religious in character
and were painted for churches. Although his first commissions did not come from the court, Fetti had the opportunity to study at length the Gonzaga collection, which has a large number of Venetian paintings. Later on in his career, the court began to emp
loy him on decorative cycles such as portraits of the lords of Mantua and poets and series of fables. The decision to have the painter carry out this work stemmed from the dukeÆs desire to renovate the palace for his marriage to Caterina deÆ Medici. Betw
een 1617 and 1618, at the culminating point of his career, the artist painted numerous works. The pressing demands of his clients and the impossibility of meeting them on his own obliged Fetti to rely on many assistants. In 1621 Fetti went to Venice to a
cquire paintings for the ducal collections, and moved there the following year after he was forced to flee Mantua after a brawl. The final months of his life were ravaged by a painful illness.
