Gian Paolo Lomazzo

Gian Paolo Lomazzo (26 April 1538 – 27 January 1592; his first name is sometimes also given as "Giovan" or "Giovanni") was an Italian artist and writer on art. Praised as a painter, Lomazzo wrote about artistic practice and art theory after blindness compelled him to pursue a different professional path by 1571. Lomazzo's written works were especially influential to second generation Mannerism in Italian art and architecture.

Early life
Gian Paolo Lomazzo was born in Milan to a family who had emigrated from the town of Lomazzo. His early training was with Giovan Battista della Cerva in Milan. He painted a large Allegory of the Lenten Feast for San Agostino in Piacenza (1567). Other works by his hand include an elaborate dome with Glory of Angels for the Capella Foppa in San Marco in Milan, and the Fall of Simon Magus in the wall of the chapel.

Lomazzo was depicted on a ca. 1560 medal by Annibale Fontana which described him as having been introduced by Mercury to Fortune (commercial success).

Writings on art theory and criticism
Lomazzo became blind in 1571 and turned to writing, producing two complex treatises that are milestones in the development of art criticism. His first work, Trattato dell'arte della pittura, scoltura et architettura (1584), is divided into seven books: Proportion, Motion, Color, Light, Perspective, Practice, History, and iconography related to classical and Christian subjects. Lomazzo offered a systematic codification of aesthetics was central to the development of Italian mannerist theories of art. Lomazzo's first treatise was translated into English by British physician Richard Haydocke and published in 1596 as A Tracte Containing the Artes of Curious Paintinge, Carvinge & Buildinge (1596), which included new details about British artists.

Lomazzo's more abstract Idea del tempio della pittura ("The ideal temple of painting", 1590) describes the "four temperaments" theory of human nature and personality and contains explanations about of the role of individuality in judgment and artistic invention.

Lomazzo's writings about art took into account three aspects of art criticism: doctrina, the record of discoveries&mdash; such as perspective&mdash; that artists had made in the course of history; prattica, the personal preferences and maniera of the artist, and iconography, the literary element in arts. Lomazzo's contribution to art criticism was his systematic extraction of abstract concepts from art, not merely a recounting of the marvels of verisimilitude and technique and anecdotes of the works' reception among contemporaries of the type that Giorgio Vasari had reported in the previous generation.

David Piper quotes his influential views on portraiture: "Emperors above all other Kings and Princes should be endowed with majesty, and have a noble and grave air which conforms to their station in life... even though they be not so naturally in life."

Giovanni Ambrogio Figino, Cristoforo Ciocca, Girolamo Ciocca, and Pietro Martire Stresi were his pupils.