Simone Peterzano

Simone Peterzano (c. 1540 - c. 1596) was an Italian painter of the later Mannerism, native of Bergamo. He is mostly known as the master of Caravaggio.

He was a pupil of Titian in Venice, Peterzano debuted in Milan with the counterfaçade frescoes in San Maurizio al Monastero Maggiore (1573), influenced by Veronese and Tintoretto. In the same year he painted two canvasses with "Histories of Sts. Paul and Barnabas" for the church of San Barnaba, also in Milan. Also from the same period are a "Pietà" in the church of San Fedele and a "Pentecost" for San Paolo Converso (now in Sant'Eufemia).

Between 1578 and 1582 Peterzano executed frescoes in the presbytery of the Certosa di Garegnano, considered one of his masterworks. His last works, characterized by a cold monumental style, include a fresco with "Stories of St. Anthony of Padua" for the church of Sant'Angelo, a canvas with "Madonna with Child and Saints" for the parish church of Bioggio (Canton Ticino) and an altarpiece with "St. Ambrose between St. Gervasius and Protasus" in the Duomo of Milan (1592, now in the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana).