L'Ortolano Giovanni Battista Benvenuti. The notable exception is Ferrara, located northeast of Bologna and close to the border of the Veneto. During the sixteenth century, these citiesβalthough mostly small in populationβwere vibrant and quite distinctive, artistically and culturally.
The three principal centers, Ferrara, Bologna, and Parma, were especially so, and each had a unique trajectory in both politics and the arts. Ferrara was home to one of the most important humanist courts in the Renaissance, that of the Este dukes, while Bologna was renowned for its university. Both Bologna and Parma are crucial in the history of Renaissance and Baroque painting, thanks to the groundbreaking and influential artistry of Correggio and Parmigianino , who were active in the first half of the sixteenth century, and to the innovations of Ludovico, Agostino, and Annibale Carracci in the second half.
Bologna During his long rule as signore , from , Giovanni II Bentivoglio and his family were patrons of the arts on a grand scale. Save for a brief moment in , Bologna remained part of the Papal States until the Napoleonic era. In the early years of papal rule, several works by Raphael arrived in the city and elsewhere in Emilia and had an immediate and far-reaching impact.
A school of Mannerist artists also thrived in Bologna. Francesco di Marco di Giacomo Raibolini ca. His earliest paintings date to about , and in that decade and the next, he was probably the most sought-after artist active in the city.
Around the turn of the century, Francia moved away from the linear and intensely expressive style of his early works to the smoother, blander style for which he became known Francia was justly famous for his devotional paintings of the Madonna and Childβimages that come close to those of Giovanni Bellini in terms of sheer beauty Papal rule in Bologna strengthened artistic links with Florence and Rome.
