TISI, BENVENUTO Itt_ ( g ,I—I559), commonly called Il Garofalo, one of the most distinguished painters of the Ferrarese school, was born at Ferrara. His father, Pietro Tisi, head of the shoemakers' guild in that city, originally came from Garofalo, a village in the Polesine. According to Vasari, the boy first studied with Domenico Panetti, and then went to an uncle at Cremona, where he frequented the workshops of Boccacio Boccaccino. In 1499 he proceeded to Rome and remained 15 months with Giov. Baldini, a Florentine painter. Family affairs caused his return to Ferrara in 1501. Soon afterwards he may have worked under Lor enzo Costa in Mantua. In 1504 he was again at Ferrara, where he became friendly with the two brothers Dossi. Towards the close of 1509 he returned to Rome and made the acquaintance of Raphael and saw Michelangelo's frescoes on the vault of the Sistine chapel just completed. After 1512 we find him settled at Ferrara, never quitting the city for any length of time until his death in 1559. His earlier works recall the style of Panetti and Boccaccino. In his middle period he was influenced by his association with Dossi. Then Raphael's and Michelangelo's influence made itself felt. He was a prolific artist and almost every church of Ferrara
was supplied with a picture from his brush. Garofalo's earliest dated picture, "The Minerva and Neptune" of 1512, in the Dres den gallery, displays the influence of Lorenzo Costa. His paintings in the Borghese and Doria collections are probably earlier, being in the manner of Dossi and Boccaccino. Other important works are "The Immaculate Conception" (1514) and "The Madonna del Pilastro" in the pinacoteca at Perugia and "The Mater Dolorosa" at Dresden. He did not always confine himself to sacred subjects, and one of his finest works dealing with mythology is "The Sacri fice to Ceres" in the National Gallery (Mond collection). He was also employed in decorating palaces of Ferrarese nobles. His paintings in monochrome in the Seminario at Ferrara are fine and well preserved, and those in the ceiling of one of the rooms recall Mantegna's ceiling in the Camera du Sposi at Mantua. He con tinued constantly at work until, in 155o, blindness overtook him.
See G. Morelli, Italian Painters, The Borghese and Doria Galleries (1892-93) ; J. E. G. Gardner, The Painters of the School of Ferrara (191i).