Denys Calvaert

Denys Calvaert was a Flemish painter who made his career in Bologna. He painted religious scenes with careful composition and bright colour, softly modelled figures influenced by Correggio, and often a Northern-style landscape in the background.

He was born in Antwerp around 1540 and trained there as a landscape painter before moving to Italy, where he studied with Prospero Fontana in Bologna and spent time in Rome. He opened a successful school in Bologna, and his pupils included Guido Reni, Francesco Albani and Domenichino, who all went on to greater fame. His works include a Saint Michael in the Basilica of San Petronio and versions of the Assumption and Noli me tangere. The Louvre, the Prado and the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Bologna hold his paintings. He died in Bologna in 1619.

In The Holy Family with the Infant Saint John, look at the landscape behind the figures, a reminder of his Flemish training.