Cesare Nebbia
Italian, c. 1536 - 1613
Italian painter and draughtsman. He was a pupil of girolamo Muziano and much influenced by Federico Zuccaro, and Vasari cited him as a promising painter. Between 1562 and 1575 Nebbia was continuously employed in Orvieto, producing altarpieces and frescoes in the cathedral, for example the Marriage at Cana (1569), the Crucifixion (1574) and the Crowning with Thorns (1575; all Orvieto, Mus. Opera Duomo). In Rome, where from 1579 his name appeared in the register of the Accademia di S Luca, he executed an Ecce homo and another Crowning with Thorns (1576; oratory of the Gonfalone), a Noli me tangere (1579; S Maria degli Angeli), decorations in the Sforza Chapel, S Maria Maggiore (1582), Heraclius Taking the Cross (1582–4; Santissimo Crocifisso), the Martyrdom of St Lawrence (1589; S Susanna) and decorations in the Borghese Chapel, Trinità dei Monti (c. 1590). Under Pope Sixtus V he was responsible, with Giovanni Guerra, for the decorations in the Sistine Library, and he also worked on the Scala Santa, in the Vatican Palace and in the Lateran Palace. In 1597 he was principal of the Accademia di S Luca. Two years later he received payment for the cartoons of St Matthew and St Mark for the mosaics in the cupola of St Peter’s. The following year he painted the Dream of Constantine (S Giovanni in Laterano). In 1603–4 he decorated, with Zuccaro, the hall in the Collegio Borromeo, Pavia. He retired to Orvieto in 1609. His works are executed in pale colours, and the Mannerist compositions, complex, but unoriginal and filled with stiff, heavy draperies, show the influence of Muziano and Zuccaro, the former at the beginning and again towards the end of his career. A prolific artist, Nebbia was a typical interpreter of the age of the Counter-Reformation in Rome.
Antonio Vannugli. "Nebbia, Cesare." In Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online, http://www.oxfordartonline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/subscriber/article/grove/art/T061555 (accessed April 11, 2012).
Person TypeIndividual
Italian, 1692 - 1770
