 |
| Giovanni Lanfranco Moses and Messengers from Canaan 1621-24 oil on canvas Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
 |
| Giovanni Lanfranco Elijah receiving Bread 1621-24 oil on canvas Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
 |
| Giovanni Lanfranco Christ and the Woman of Samaria ca. 1625-28 oil on canvas Ashmolean Museum, Oxford |
 |
| Giovanni Lanfranco Study for figure of Christ ca. 1629-32 drawing Royal Collection, Great Britain |
 |
| Giovanni Lanfranco Study for Angel ca. 1629-32 drawing Royal Collection, Great Britain |
 |
| Giovanni Lanfranco Drapery study with Putto ca. 1612-13 drawing on blue paper Royal Collection, Great Britain |
 |
| Giovanni Lanfranco Council of the Gods 1624-25 ceiling fresco Galleria Borghese, Rome |
"From 1597 to 1599 and again from 1600 to 1602 Giovanni Lanfranco was apprenticed to Agostino Carracci (1577-1602), who was then painting in the Palazzo del Giardino, Parma. At Agostino's death, Lanfranco was sent by Ranuccio I Farnese, Duke of Parma and Piacenza, to study with Annibale Carracci (1560-1609) in Rome. There Lanfranco collaborated initially with the other Carracci students on the wall frescoes in the Gallery of the Palazzo Farnese. . . . The 1620s saw the development of what is considered Lanfranco's mature, "baroque" style, with strong chiaroscuro effects and expansive, energetic figures."
– from the artist's biography as published in the Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
 |
| Giovanni Lanfranco Norandino and Lucina discovered by the Ogre (scene from Orlando Furioso by Ariosto) ca. 1624 oil on canvas Galleria Borghese, Rome |
 |
| Giovanni Lanfranco Venus playing the Harp 1630-34 oil on canvas Palazzo Barberini, Rome |
 |
| Giovanni Lanfranco Scene of Sacrifice with Roman Emperor ca. 1635 oil on canvas Museo del Prado, Madrid |
 |
| Giovanni Lanfranco Oration by Roman Emperor 1638 oil on canvas Museo del Prado, Madrid |
 |
| Giovanni Lanfranco Water Battle with Gladiators ca. 1635 oil on canvas Museo del Prado, Madrid |
 |
| Giovanni Lanfranco Gladiators at a Roman Banquet ca. 1638 oil on canvas Museo del Prado, Madrid |
 |
| attributed to Giovanni Lanfranco Study for Dead Christ before 1647 drawing Royal Collection, Great Britain |
 |
| attributed to Giovanni Lanfranco Drapery Study before 1647 drawing Royal Collection, Great Britain |
"His style retains the principles and education of the school of the Carracci, and it is imbued with the idea and composition of Correggio, with a manner, however, that is not so finely finished and sfumato, but resolute from practice. He was successful in painting on a large scale and at a distance, and as he used to say, the air painted for him. In drawing, he captures life with few marks of charcoal or chalk; he conceived his ideas easily, and he would immediately give form to his thought in a sketch . . . he deserved unique acclaim for his style of drapery, done with a few simple folds, without harshness or affectation, just as he fulfilled marvelously the concepts he had of colors and of his inventions."
– Giovan Pietro Bellori, from The Lives of the Modern Painters, Sculptors and Architects (1672), translated by Alice Sedgwick Wohl (Cambridge University Press, 2005)