CESARE NEBBIA

'Cesare Nebbia' (c. 1536 - c. 1614) is an Italian painter from Orvieto who painted in a Mannerist style.
He is also responsible, along with his mentor Girolamo Muziano in a flurry of decoration that was added to the Cathedral of Orvieto in the 1560s. He also worked under Muziano with Giovanni Guerra in decorating the ''Gregorian Chapel'' in the St Peter's Basilica for Gregory XIII. Other Mannerist painters that were involved in this enterprise were Taddeo and Federico Zuccari, Niccolò Circignani, and Hendrick van den Broeck‎(''Arrigo Fiammingo''). Almost all the remaining work in Orvieto is now in the Museo del Duomo. Fresco decorations in ''Palazzo Simonelli'' in Torre San Severo have been attributed to Nebbia.
In 1576, he painted a ''Resurrection of Lazarus'' for the Church of Santa Maria dei Servi in Pieve.
For Pope Sixtus V administration, Nebbia and Guerra directed two major projects, the construction and decoration of the ''Capella Sistina'' at Santa Maria Maggiore, and the parallel refurbishment of the ''Scala Santa'' and its chapel of St. Lawrence found adjacent to the Lateran palace and San Giovanni in Laterano. The former was meant to be a burial chapel, and was constructed over the supposed ''presepe'' relic, and should not to be confused with the more famous Vatican counterpart, the Sistine chapel. The Scala Santa is an amalgam of structures, it comprises five parallel staircases leading to a common corridor, opening up to chapels, the central one of which was the private papal chapel of St. Laurence or ''Sancta Sanctorum'' of the gothic Lateran Palace, and held numeorous relics, including the icon of ''Santissimi Salvatore Acheiropoieton'' (not painted by human hands). The staircases were said to have been from the palace of Pilate in Jerusalem. In the project at Santa Maria Maggiore starting in 1586, Baglione^[1] traditionally lists for ten painters who were active in the fresco decoration as Hendrick van den Broek, Angelo from Orvieto, Ercolino from Bologna, Salvatore Fontana, Lattanzio Mainardi, Ferdinando Sermei, Giacomo Stella, Giovanni Battista Pozzo, and Paris Nogari^[2]. The decoration aptly for the church and a chapel which held the relic of the Nativity (the original ''Presepe'' or ''manger crib'') focused on scenes of the life of the Virgin, For the project at the Scala Santa, an overlapping crew of artists was also employed to decorate frescoes including Giovanni Baglione himself, Stella, G.B. Pozzo, Nogari, as well as Prospero Orsi, Ferraù Fenzoni, Paul Bril, Paulo Guidotti, Giovanni Battista Ricci, Cesaro Torelli, Antonio Vivarini, Andrea Lilio, Cesare & Vicenzo Conti Baldassare Croce, Ventura Salimbeni, and Antonio Scalvati. Numerous preliminary drawings by Nebbia exist for these frescoes.
Nebbia helped paint galleries in Vatican libraries including the ceilings of map gallery. During Clement VIII he designed pendentive mosaics for Matthew and Mark for St. Peter's Basilica. He painted a ''Crucifixion'' for Borghese chapel in Trinita dei Monti. He painted a resurrection for San Giacomo degli Spagnuoli. He painted a ''Coronation of the Virgin'' for Santa Maria dei Monti.
Along with Il Bertoia, Federico Zuccari and others, he helped paint the frescoes on the wall of the Oratorio del Gonfalone in Rome. He also contributed to the decoration of the ''Oratory of Santissimo Crocifisso''.
In 1603-1604, he moved to Milan where he worked for Federico Borromeo painting a series of frescoes on the life of the ''Blessed Carlo Borromeo'' for various sites, including the Collegio Borromeo in Pavia, the collegiata di Arona, and the Palazzo Borromeo on Isola Bella.

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References

References

★ ''Cesare Nebbia's Work for the Palazzo Simoncelli: Drawings and Frescoes''. Rhoda Eitel Porter, Alberto Satolli; 'Burlington Magazine', 136 (1096) (Jul., 1994), pp. 433-438.

★ ''Artistic Co-Operation in Late Sixteenth-Century Rome: The Sistine Chapel in S. Maria Maggiore and the Scala Santa'', by Rhoda Eitel-Porter. The Burlington Magazine (1997); p. 452-462.

★ Painting in Italy, 1500-1600, , Sydney J., Freedberg, , 1993,

★ 'Le Vite de’ Pittori, Scultori, Architetti, ed Intagliatori dal Pontificato di Gregorio XII del 1572. fino a’ tempi de Papa Urbano VIII. nel 1642.' (''Lives of the painters, sculptors, architects, and engravers during the papacies of Gregory XII in 1572 to Urban VIII in 1642''), , Giovanni, Baglione, 1731 edition (Naples); Digitized by Googlebooks, 1641,
1. Baglione, GB. p. 110-111.
2. Rhoda Eitel-Porter P 452