BONASONE Giulio

(Bologna c. 1510 – 1576)

Giulio Bonasone was a painter and a burin engraver,  born in Bologna between 1500 and 1510. He was the son of Antonio, originally from Carpi who had settled in Bologna at the end of the XV century, by acquiring citizenship rights in 1492. In Bologna he probably trained at the studio of the painter Lorenzo Sabbatini. Giulio has carried out his artistic activity above all as an engraver, in Bologna and also in Rome where he is remembered as a student of Marcantonio Raimondi without forgetting that in his engravings stylistic assonances can be identified with those of Jacopo Caraglio.

Starting in 1544 Bonasone stayed in Rome, where he met Titian and some of Raphael’s disciples. From the point of view of the themes, the artist is an eclectic who creates compositions based on Raphael, Parmigianino, Francesco Primaticcio, Tiziano and others, which he then reworks based on his own drawings.

He particularly favored erotic depictions, which he provided with supple nudes of both sexes, but also mythological subjects are very important. In addition, Bonasone has made numerous engravings from the works of Michelangelo as well as Raphael, Giulio Romano, Perino del Vaga, Polidoro da Caravaggio, Francesco Primaticcio and the works of antiquity.

Among the most significant creations of the Bolognese artist are the cycles “Amorosi diletti degli dei” with twenty prints depicting scenes from the “Metamorphoses” by Ovid, the “Passion of Christ” (28 prints) and “Amori, Sdegni et Gielosie by Giunone “with 22 tables. His engraved work consists of over 350 works, many of which are reproductions and others of own invention.

He died in Bologna presumably after 1574, the last legible date under his last print (S. Giorgio by Giulio Romano).