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| Paolo Farinati Figure of Summer flanked by Pomona and Ceres ca. 1590 drawing (study for fresco) Royal Collection, Great Britain |
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| Paolo Farinati Figure of Summer flanked by Pomona and Ceres ca. 1590 fresco Sala Rossa Villa Nichesola-Conforti Ponton di Sant'Ambrogio di Valpolicella |
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| Pierre Brébiette after Paolo Farinati Figure of Summer flanked by Pomona and Ceres ca. 1630 drawing (copy of fresco) Art Institute of Chicago |
"Although he was a painter's son, Paolo Farinati trained under another local painter, according to Giorgio Vasari. His master's eccentric manner encouraged Farinati to emphasize line over color and to restrict his palette to grays, browns, mauve, and rust. Farinati worked mostly in his native Verona, but a 1552 painting commission for the Mantua Cathedral altered his approach. In Mantua, Farinati studied Giulio Romano's complex, energetic frescoes and soon adopted his animated figure types and elaborate, imaginary architecture. He also adopted Paolo Veronese's chiaroscuro and less polished brushwork, and Michelangelo's muscularity, which he had studied in reproductions. Farinati kept a detailed journal from 1573 until his death. In it, he outlined his wide range of projects: painting frames; designing costumes; decorating headboards, doors, horse trappings, and missal covers; and prestigious commissions for altarpieces and frescoes in churches and villas. His chiaroscuro drawings on tinted paper are particularly notable; he often used them to plan his paintings, and more than five hundred survive. Very soon after his death they became collector's items. Sir Peter Lely, an artist and renowned collector in the 1600s, owned many."
– curator's notes from the Getty Museum
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| Paolo Farinati Contest between Athena and Poseidon for Dominion over Athens ca. 1590 drawing (study for fresco) National Galleries of Scotland |
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| Paolo Farinati Contest between Athena and Poseidon for Dominion over Athens ca. 1590 fresco Sala Rossa Villa Nichesola-Conforti Ponton di Sant'Ambrogio di Valpolicella |
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| Paolo Farinati Female Martyr overcoming Satan ca. 1590 drawing Morgan Library, New York |
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| Paolo Farinati Minerva as Virtue defeating Vice ca. 1590 fresco Sala Verde Villa Nichesola-Conforti Ponton di Sant'Ambrogio di Valpolicella |
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| Paolo Farinati Neptune and Medusa ca. 1590 drawing (study for fresco) Royal Collection, Great Britain |
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| Paolo Farinati Neptune and Medusa ca. 1590 fresco Sala Verde Villa Nichesola-Conforti Ponton di Sant'Ambrogio di Valpolicella |
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| Paolo Farinati Design for Sopraporta (overdoor) with Ornamental Figures before 1606 drawing (study for fresco) Harvard Art Museums |
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| Paolo Farinati Design for Sopraporta (overdoor) with Figures of War and Peace before 1606 drawing (study for fresco) Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Paolo Farinati Design for Spandrel Decoration with Satyress, Satyrs and Putti ca. 1588 drawing (study for fresco) Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Paolo Farinati Design for Spandrel with Winged Female Figure holding Tablet and Crown before 1606 drawing (study for fresco) Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Paolo Farinati Design for Spandrel with Bearded Man holding a Banderole before 1606 drawing (study for fresco) Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |