Bernardino Licinio
1489–1565 · Italian Renaissance painter of Venice and Lombardy, portraitist and religious painter
Bernardino Licinio (born c. 1489 in Poscante, near Bergamo; died after 1549 in Venice) was an Italian Renaissance painter active mainly in Venice. He is best known as a portraitist, although he also painted religious subjects. His significance lies in showing how the innovations of Titian and Giorgione reached Venetian painting late and with some difficulty.
Born into a family from the Bergamo area, he was trained in the tradition begun by Giovanni Bellini, probably in Bellini's own workshop. By 1511 he was registered in the Venetian painters' guild. His brother Arrigo and Arrigo's sons Fabio and Giulio, who were also painters, worked in his workshop.
Licinio excelled at portraiture, reaching a high degree of realism, especially in his careful description of detail. He struggled with group portraits, where the figures tend to stand isolated and are sometimes arranged symmetrically, giving his paintings an archaic air. The same limitation shows in his religious works, with the exception of the Madonna Enthroned with Saints for the Frari, one of his finest achievements in that field.
He was not an innovator, but he followed the new developments of his time closely. His Giorgionesque portraits of the 1520s came after Titian had already moved beyond that phase. In his mature years he moved toward more contemporary painting, though his attention to detail kept him tied to his origins. His main weakness lies in the limited psychological depth of his sitters.
His legacy is uneven: his portraits remain strikingly beautiful and convincingly lifelike, yet his work was little known for centuries, partly because Vasari confused Licinio with Il Pordenone.
Works (4)
This 1550 oil on canvas by Bernardino Licinio is a family portrait showing Arrigo Licinio together with his relatives. It belongs to the portrait genre, so the focus lies on presenting the sitters rather than on a narrative scene. The painting is held in the Galleria Borghese.
The painting shows the Virgin Mary seated on a throne with the Christ Child and several saints gathered around her. It is a religious work kept in the basilica of Santa Maria dei Frari. Without further information about its commission, it is best viewed as a devotional scene with an orderly composition.
Portrait of a noblewoman with her son, oil on canvas, held at Ca' Rezzonico. The available information does not specify the commission or the identity of the sitters, so the work can be described mainly by its genre and by the bond between mother and child as its central theme. The date given, 1600, should be treated with caution.
Portrait of a Lady, an oil on canvas by Bernardino Licinio dated 1550, shows a woman seen from the waist up in a calm, frontal pose. The painter, who worked in northern Italy, focuses attention on the sitter's face and presence rather than on any narrative setting. Without further documentary sources, it is best to describe the work cautiously, noting its restraint and the subtle quality of its tones.
Where to see the work
- Galleria Borghese Rome · 1
- Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari Venice · 1
- Ca' Rezzonico Venice · 1
- Gallerie dell'Accademia Venice · 1