Domenico Riccio

He is remembered under a strange nickname, Brusasorci, which in the local speech of the day meant 'rat-burner.' It was not his own doing. His father earned it, the story goes, after becoming known around the house for burning the rats, and it stuck to the son for good.

That son, Domenico Riccio, born in Verona around 1516, grew into one of the leading painters of that city in the middle of the 16th century. He learned first from his father, then reportedly from local masters, and drew together the currents moving through northern Italy at the time — the grace of Raphael and Parmigianino, the muscular invention of Giulio Romano, and a Venetian love of colour.

He worked mainly in fresco, on large public commissions. In 1551 he was at Trent, painting the rooms of the old town hall, the Palazzo Thun, in the very years the city was hosting the long church council that shaped the Catholic answer to the Reformation.