Ferrau Fenzoni

Painter: worked in Rome, Umbria and the Marches. Ferraù Fenzoni, b. Faenza 1561/2, if Valgimigli (p. 139) is correct in giving his age as 83 when he died there on 11 Apr. 1645. According to Mancini (i, p. 241), he went to Rome during the pontificate of Gregory XIII (1572-85), for whom he worked. Orlandi ('L'Abecedario', p. 167) says F. "fu scolaro del Cav. Vanni in Roma". According to Kreplin (Thieme-Becker), Vanni was in Rome from 1576/7 to 1580.
F.'s Roman works, all datable c. 1590 (except for frescoes in S. M. in Trastevere for which no date has been found), include:
Scala Santa (building dated 1589, see Forcella, viii, p. 112, no. 308), frescoes (see Scavizzi, 'Bollettino', xlv (1960), pp. 111ff.): 'Moses and the Brazen Serpent' (ibid., fig. 1; engr. by Villamena 1597) and 'Erection of the Cross' (Scavizzi, ibid., fig. 2). Scavizzi also attributes to F. 'Cain and Abel' (ibid., fig. 5) and 'Sacrifice of Abel and Flagellation' ('MD', p. 17, n. 1). 'Passover' also seems to us to be by him. According to Titi (p. 211), F. participated in 'storie' of St Peter and Constantine in Benediction Loggia of Lateran Basilica (see Nebbia biography); Scavizzi attributes to F. 'Feed my Sheep' in Salone dei Patti of the Lateran Palace ('Paragone', 137 (1961), p. 46, pl. 31), said to have been completely finished by Aug. 1589 (see Lilio biography).
Vatican. Library, completed 1590 (Hess, 'Studien', i, p. 164): 'Athenian Library' probably by F. (ibid., ii, p. 116, fig. 13); in 'Constantine burning the Books' the distinction between F. and Lilio becomes harder to determine. Two rooms in Apartment of Pius V, decorated 1591 (see Campos, p. 194). Taja (pp. 272f. and 280) associates F.'s name with the 'Apostles' and 'Evangelists'; Scavizzi adds three of the four 'Doctors of the Church' (the fourth being by Lilio) and 'Fortitude' and 'Justice' in one of the friezes ('Bollettino', fig. 4). That the attribution to F. of 'St Luke' is correct is established by a preparatory drawing (Ruggeri, 'Critica d'arte' (1972), 123, pp. 63ff and fig. 7). S. M. Maggiore. Five of the clerestory frescoes, which according to Mancini (p. 67) were begun under Sixtus V (1585-90) and completed under Clement VIII (1592-1605): 'Immaculate Virgin in Glory with St Joseph and the Virgin below', 'Joseph's Dream', 'Flight into Egypt', 'Rest on the Return from Egypt', 'Christ carrying the Cross'. S.M. in Trastevere. Chapel of St Francis, 3rd on l., attribution to F. (Celio, p. 59) is supported by a drawing (see Scavizzi, 'MD', p. 7 and figs. 2 and 3; idem, 'Bollettino', p. 113, fig. 6; Faldi, 'Bollettino' (1957), p. 288, fig. 11). According to Mancini (i, p. 241), after the death of Sixtus V (d. 1590) F. was invited to Todi by the Bishop and stayed there for some years (see 1946,0713.1312). 1599 recorded in Faenza, where he seems to have been based for the rest of his life (Voss in Thieme-Becker). 1640, through influence of Cardinal Colonna, became 'Cavaliere' of the Golden Spur (ibid.).
Surviving works in Faenza and elsewhere in Umbria and Romagna listed by Valgimigli include: Todi: 'Last Judgment' (Venturi, ix7, fig. 561) on interior of W. wall of Cathedral (frescoes in Bishop's Palace are also extant); Ravenna: S. Apollinare Nuova, 5th chapel on l., 'Birth' and 'Death of Virgin' on side walls, and in 6th chapel on .l., panel of 'St Francis with Angels' (Valgimigli, p. 141; C. Ricci, 'Guida di Ravenna', Bologna, 1923, pp. 123ff); Perugia, Cathedral (sacristy), 'Martyrdom of St Lawrence', after 1606 (cf. Voss in Thieme-Becker).
Faenza, Cathedral: chapels of S. Savino commissioned 26 March 1613, and S. Carlo Borromeo, dated 1614 (Venturi, ix7, figs. 562-4); 'Adoration of Magi' in chapel of Madonna del Popolo (1612, according to Valgimigli, p. 142). Paintings in Pinacoteca include: 'Pool of Bethesda' (Venturi, ix7, fig. 565) begun 1600 (cf. Valgimigli, p. 142, n. 2), and 'Deposition' for his own sepulchral chapel in the (destroyed) church of S. Cecilia, c. 1623 (cf. Valgimigli, p. 144, n. 1; Scavizzi, MD, fig. 8, repr. in reverse). The poet, Giambattista Marino, in his Galleria (1620), praises two drawings by F. of 'Cephalus and Aurora' and 'Danae'.
Hess ('Studien', i, p. 171, n. 5) claims to have discovered the MS of the life of F. by Baglione, who suppressed it on discovering that the artist was still alive.