FALCONETTO, GIOVANNI MARIA

born c. 1458, , Verona died c. 1534, , Padua also called Gian Maria Falconetto Italian painter and architect. His father, Giacomo Falconetto, a brother, Giovanni Falconetto, and a great uncle, Stefano de Verona, also were noted painters. Little is known of Falconetto's life. He studied painting in his early years and worked for a time in Rome, where he was associated with the fresco painter Melozzo da Forl. His paintings and frescoes are noted for mastery of perspective; among the best known are the frescoes decorating the chapel of S. Biagio in the church of SS. Nazaro e Celso in Verona (149799). Falconetto later turned to architecture and worked mostly in Padua, in the service of Alvise Cornaro, an architect who is credited with introducing the Roman Renaissance style to northern Italy. Examples of Falconetto's work include the odeon and loggia (1524) in Cornaro's Palazzo Giustiniani and the Porta S. Giovanni (1528) and the Porta Savonarola (1530), two gates to the city of Padua. His style had a major influence on later Paduan architecture.