Francesco Montemezzano

Francesco Montemezzano or Monte Mezzano (Verona, 1555 – after 1602) was an Italian painter of the late-Renaissance or Mannerist period.

Ceiling of San Nicolò dei Mendicoli, Venice

Biography of Francesco Montemezzano by Ridolfi

Life and career

He was born near Verona, and appears to have been a follower, if not a pupil, of Paolo Veronese.^[1] He was active both in Venice and the mainland, painting mainly sacred subjects.^[2]

He completed some of the panels for the church of San Nicolò dei Mendicoli in the Venetian district of Dorsoduro. Ridolfi in a short biography notes that Francesco gave himself excessively to the pleasures of love, fell in love with expensive objects and this led to an early death by poisoning.^[3]

In media

He was featured in an episode of the BBC One television programme Fake or Fortune? that aired on 19 July 2015 (Series 4, Episode 3), in which a large painting of the Lamentation of Christ at an English church (St John the Baptist Church in Tunstall, Lancashire) was investigated and verified as being by the artist.^[4]

Gallery

• 
  The painting featured on Fake or Fortune?
• 
  Pietà con committentia
• 
  Portrait of Bianca Cappello
• 
  Noli me tangere