Giovanni Lanfranco, who was born near Parma, was a pupil of Agostino Carracci.  He was documented in the Carracci studio in Rome in 1612.  He took  part of the commission for the decoration of Sant’ Andrea della Valle from Domenichino, and this seems to have caused a feud that persisted throughout the 1620s.  His fresco (1625-7) of the Assumption of the Virgin in the dome there is his masterpiece.  Such was its success that Pope, Urban VIII commissioned him to paint a fresco (1528) of St Peter walking on water in St Peter's.  Urban VIII gave him the honour of “Knight of the Order of Christ".  He became the Principal of the Academy of St Luke (the artists’ guild in Rome) in 1631.

He worked in Naples from 1633, but returned to Rome shortly before his death.

Orvieto

Coronation of the Virgin (1616)

Elena Marescotti commissioned this altarpiece by Giovanni Lanfranco for the altar that she had built in Santa Maria del Carmine in 1615.  It formed the basis of the design (1713) by Lodovico Mazzananti for the new mosaic in the tympanum of the facade of the Duomo.  Both the altarpiece and a fragment of this mosaic derived from it survives in Room V of the Museo dell' Opera del Duomo.

Perugia

Madonna and Child with saints (1647)

The altarpiece depicts the Madonna and Child on a cloud, with SS Dominic and Catherine of Siena.  St Dominic reaches for a rosary proffered by the baby Jesus.

Christ in the garden (17th century)