MAINERI, Gian Francesco

Italian painter. He may have gained his early training from his father who was also a painter. He studied in the workshop of Ercole de’ Roberti, and was closely connected to the Este Court in Ferrara, completing many commissions including religious paintings and court portraits.

His works are on display at several museums: Christ Carrying the Cross in the Uffizi Gallery and another very similar composition by the same title in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. In The Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints in the National Gallery of London was began by Maineri, but completed by another Ferrarese artist, Lorenzo Costa.