BENVENUTO TISI called THE GAROFALO (Garofolo, 1476 or 1481 - Ferrara, 1559) Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine Oil on panel, 52X38 cm Provenance: Private collection Bibliography: A. M. Fioravanti Baraldi, Il Garofalo, Faenza 1993, p. 157, no. 93 A pupil of Domenico Panetti and Boccaccio Boccaccino, the artist's earliest works date back to the end of the 15th century, considering that his stay in Rome must have been completed by 1505, when he executed some works for the court. In the following years, we know him to have been active with Ludovico Mazzolino, Michele Coltellini, Niccolò Pisano and Domenico Panetti in decorating the ceiling of the Torre Marchesana. In 1512-1513, we date his second trip to Rome and his meeting with Raphael, which determined his evolution in a classicist key and his considerable professional fortune. In fact, during the second decade, numerous altarpieces and works for private use are now largely conserved in the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Ferrara, the Pinacoteca Capitolina and the Galleria Doria Pamphilj, where they were received after the devolution of Ferrara to the Holy See (see The Museum without Borders. Dipinti Ferraresi del Rinascimento nelle raccolte romane, edited by J. Bentini and Sergio Guarino, Milan 2002, ad vocem). Having said this, there is no doubt that the artist was profoundly influenced by Raphael's manner and Vasari noted this well when he said: When Benvenuto arrived in Rome, he was almost in despair rather than amazed to see the grace and vividness that Raphael's paintings had, and the depth of Michelagnolo's drawing. Hence he cursed the manners of Lombardy, and that which he had learned with so much study and effort in Mantua'. However, during his maturity, Garofalo expressed a dialogue with Giovanni Battista Benvenuti, known as l'Ortolano (Ferrara, c. 1480 ; 1525), while his art shows an evident Mannerist bent, probably dictated by Giulio Romano, with a parallelism with what happened to Dosso Dossi that is particularly evident in the small works, as we observe in the panel depicting the Holy Family and Saints in the National Gallery in London, which, dated to the 1520s, offers a useful comparison with this one, also comparable with the Holy Family with St. Catherine in the Vatican Museums. Reference bibliography: A. Maria Fioravanti Baraldi, The Garofalo, Benvenuto Tisi painter (c. 1476-1559), Rimini 1998, ad vocem G. Mancini, N. Penny, Benvenuto Tisi, called Garofalo, in National Gallery Catalogues. The sixteenth century Italian paintings, III: Bologna and Ferrara, London 2016, pp. 206-274