Marcello Venusti

Marcello Venusti, Holy Family, Oil on wood, 43.2 x 28.6 cm, c. 1565. National Gallery, London

Marcello Venusti (1512/5 - 1579) was an Italian Mannnerist painter active in Rome in mid 16th century.

Native to Mazzo di Valtellina near Como, he was reputed to have been a pupil of Perino del Vaga. He is known for a scaled copy of the Michelangelo's Last Judgement, commissioned by Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, and completed in the master's lifetime and meeting his approval. His painting of Christ in the Garden is in the Galleria Doria Pamphilj. Buonarroti engaged him to paint an Annunciation from his design for the Capella de' Cesi in the church of Santa Maria della Pace. The copy of the Last Judgment is now at Naples. In the Palazzo Borghese there is a Christ bearing His Cross by him, from a design by Michelangelo. A Prayer on the Mount of Olives is in Sant' Ignazio at Viterbo, and a Holy Family and a Christ expelling the Money-Changers in the National Gallery in London. There is also a Christ in Purgatory in Palazzo Colonna in Rome.

References

• Freedberg, Sydney J. (1993). Pelican History of Art. ed. Painting in Italy, 1500-1600. p. 485 Penguin Books Ltd. 
• Bryan, Michael (1889). Walter Armstrong & Robert Edmund Graves. ed. Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, Biographical and Critical (Volume II: L-Z). York St. #4, Covent Garden, London; Original from Fogg Library, Digitized May 18, 2007: George Bell and Sons. p. 652. http://books.google.com/books?id=K2cCAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1&dq=Michael+Bryan+Painters+Engravers#PPP7,M1. 

Persondata
Name	Venusti, Marcello
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth
Place of birth
Date of death	1579
Place of death