Giulio Campi

Giulio Campi was the eldest of a family of painters in Cremona and the central figure of its sixteenth-century school. His work mixes Lombard naturalism with the grand Roman manner he learned from Giulio Romano, with strong drawing and vivid colour.

He was born in Cremona in 1502 and was first taught by his father, Galeazzo Campi, whose portrait we offer. He then studied with Giulio Romano in Mantua and visited Rome. His altarpiece of the Virgin and Child with Saints Celsus and Nazarus is considered his best-known work, and he painted frescoes in San Sigismondo in Cremona. His brothers Vincenzo and Antonio trained in his workshop. He died in Cremona in 1572.

The Chess Players is a rare secular scene from him, full of individual faces and lively gestures.