Lorenzo Leonbruno

[3] Leonbruno's most significant artistic commission was his decoration of the Camera Grande in the Gonzaga palace in Mantua, which was completed in 1523 for his patron Isabella d'Este.

During the short period from 1504-1506, he was sent to Florence on d'Este's recommendation to work in the workshop of Pietro Perugino, since he was a young man and in the early stages of his artistic career.

[6] Leonbruno also trained under Lorenzo Costa in Mantua during the year 1508, who was a court painter for Lodovico Gonzaga and Isabella d'Este.

He was assigned the task of painting interior rooms in the Palazzo di San Sebastiano; the favorite residence of Francesco II Gonzaga.

In 1521, Leonbruno was sent to Rome by Federico II Gonzaga-the eldest son of Isabella d'Este- to study the works of Raphael and Michelangelo.

Following the tradition of Mantuan rulers, and after his accession to power in 1519, Federico had relocated to the apartments on the ground floor of Castello di San Georgio.

The most prominent of these signed works are the Adoration of the Shepherds c. 1505, and the Judgement of Midas, c. 1512-1514, with the signature located on the ground near the hand of the figure clad in a blue tunic.

According to most sources, from 1531-1532 Benedetta Gonzaga commissioned Leonbruno to paint an altarpiece for an altar of which the location and name remain unknown today.

In 1512, Leonbruno returned to Mantua on commission by Francesco II Gonzaga to decorate the interior of one of his private residences, the Palazzo di San Sebastiano.

[15] The work was a large canvas painting depicting Apollo playing music and the nine Muses singing to Francesco II Gonzaga.

In 1520-1522, Leonbruno was commissioned by Isabella d'Este to decorate the interior vaulted ceiling of her apartment in the Corte Vecchia: the room where she lived as a widow after her husband's death in 1519.