Paris Bordone Biography
Pàris Paschalinus Bordón, (or also Pàris Bordone; Treviso, 5 July 1500 – Venice, 19 January 1571), was an Italian painter of the Republic of Venice of the Renaissance, who also worked together with Titian, although he was characterized by a more markedly mannerist approach and a vigor that revealed his provincial background. Paris Bordon was born in Treviso, but moved to Venice in his late adolescence. In the Venetian capital he studied briefly and rather unhappily (according to Vasari) with Titian. Vasari may have met Bordon as an old man. From around 1520, we possess works by Bordon, which include the Holy Family in Florence, Holy Conversation with the Donor (in Glasgow), and the Holy Family with St Catherine (Hermitage Museums). The Sant'Ambrogio con Donatore (1523) is now in Brera. In 1525-1526, Bordon created an altarpiece for the church of Sant'Agostino in Crema, a Madonna with Saint Christopher and Saint George (now in the collections of the Tadini Academy in Lovere). A second altarpiece destined for Crema, the Pentecost, is now in the Pinacoteca di Brera. In 1534-1535, he painted on a large scale his greatest masterpiece for the Scuola di San Marco, a canvas depicting Fisherman Giving the Doge the Wedding Ring (Accademia di Firenze). Bordon is, however, better at creating small-scale works, showing half-figures, with half-naked women and men from mythology or religious stories in muscular interaction, despite the crowded space. In the years 1542-1543, after returning from Bavaria, he decorated the walls of the church of San Simone e Giuda Taddeo, in Vallada Agordina, with a magnificent cycle of frescoes. It is supposed that Paris Bordon executed very important mural paintings in Venice, Treviso and Vicenza, but they were destroyed following the bombings in the Second World War. In 1538, he was invited to France by Francis I, at whose court he painted numerous portraits, although no trace of these works is found in French collections; the only two portraits preserved in the Louvre appear to have been purchased later by the museum. During his return trip to Italy, Bordon also worked for the Fugger palace in Augsburg.[2] In the 1650s he approached the French taste of A.Caron as highlighted in the Combat of the Gladiators and in the two Allegories.
